Principal Technical Program Manager

UKG • Lowell, MA

11h • $169,400 - $241,400 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Principal Technical Program Manager will lead strategically significant, technically complex programs that span organizational and functional boundaries, supporting UKG Ready. The role translates new product and business opportunities into coordinated execution, including initiatives involving new software offerings, business capabilities, and third-party ecosystems.

Working closely with Product, Engineering, other Technical Program Managers, and business teams, the role creates forward motion when requirements, solutions, or operating models are not fully defined. It develops recommendations, frames tradeoffs, advocates for scalable solutions, and drives integrated execution after decisions are made. The position balances near-term delivery with the technical and operational capabilities needed for rapid, sustained growth.

The role also helps establish scalable operating practices, measures adoption and business and operational outcomes, aligns senior stakeholders, coaches other TPMs, and helps evolve software delivery practices through Kanban, flow-based delivery, automation, AI-enabled approaches, and continuous improvement. This is a hybrid-office role requiring three or more days per week in the office.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field.
• 8+ years of Program Management or similar program leadership experience, with a track record of leading complex software initiatives in a SaaS environment.
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives from definition and discovery through delivery, launch, and operationalization.
• Strong technical and product literacy, with the ability to engage credibly on architecture, integrations, scale, performance, resiliency, and operational implications.
• Demonstrated strategic thinking and problem solving, including developing recommendations, navigating ambiguity, and driving decisions.
• Strong business acumen and ability to connect technical execution to customer value and business outcomes.
• Excellent leadership, influence, and communication skills, with the ability to create alignment and accountability across teams and senior stakeholders without direct authority.
• Experience adapting and improving modern software delivery practices, including Kanban, flow-based delivery, automation, and continuous improvement.
• AI-forward mindset with the technical curiosity and adaptability to adopt and help shape AI-enabled and increasingly agentic ways of working.
• Able to perform in a hybrid-office role requiring three or more days per week in the office.

Nice To Haves

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or a related field.
• Experience launching and operationalizing new software products, business capabilities, or lines of business, including establishing scalable operating mechanisms beyond initial launch.
• Experience with third-party ecosystems, commercial partnerships, or partner integrations in a SaaS or software product environment.
• Experience leading initiatives where product, technical, commercial, and operational requirements emerge through discovery across multiple business functions.
• Experience with large-scale system architecture and complex integration environments.
• Demonstrated experience applying AI or automation to software delivery, Program Management, operational processes, or decision support.
• Customer-centric, systems-oriented problem solver comfortable challenging assumptions, identifying second-order implications, and leading through uncertainty.
• Experience with JIRA, Confluence, and Power BI.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategically significant programs across Product, Engineering, and business functions, creating clarity and momentum through ambiguity while maintaining alignment to customer and business outcomes.
• Develop informed recommendations using data, technical and business context, and systems thinking; identify gaps, frame tradeoffs, challenge assumptions, and drive unresolved questions toward decisions.
• Translate strategic objectives into integrated execution across product, technology, operations, and business workstreams; proactively manage dependencies, risks, decisions, and readiness.
• Apply technical breadth and depth to account for architecture, integrations, data, security, performance, scalability, resiliency and disaster recovery, observability, and operational support.
• Lead discovery when new requirements, product capabilities, or technical solutions emerge, bringing stakeholders together to define and drive the path forward.
• Establish scalable operating practices for new products and business capabilities, emphasizing automation, resiliency, repeatability, and clear ownership; prove and transition these practices to durable functional owners.
• Ensure mechanisms are established to measure adoption, usage, revenue, operational health, and intended outcomes, with clear ownership and feedback loops.
• Influence and align senior stakeholders without direct authority, drive accountability, and constructively challenge approaches that create unnecessary complexity or barriers to scale.
• Coach other TPMs, share effective practices, and improve how complex work is planned and executed.
• Help evolve software delivery through Kanban and flow-based practices, automation, AI-enabled and increasingly agentic ways of working, and continuous improvement.

Benefits

• Employees may be eligible to participate in a performance-based bonus plan.
• Employees may be eligible to receive restricted stock unit awards as part of total compensation.
• UKG states that it offers benefits and rewards; details are referenced at its benefits webpage.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal