Principal Technical Program Manager

Adobe•San Jose, CA

23h•$146,300 - $277,400

About The Position

The Firefly team is building a new AI-native creative product at the intersection of generative AI and collaborative design. We’re looking for a Principal Program Manager to be the operational backbone of a fast-moving, multidisciplinary team—someone who thrives in zero-to-one environments and knows how to keep a diverse group of builders aligned, informed, and moving fast. This role sits at the center of everything: the roadmap, the rituals, and the cross-functional relationships that make it possible for a team like this to ship ambitious work on tight timelines. You will work closely with engineering, design, data science, research, and go-to-market partners. Your work will have a direct impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of Firefly. You will improve teamwork, communication, execution, and alignment with core teams and partners across the Adobe product portfolio. The ideal candidate is someone who is experienced in working in complex technical space, has experience with AI, and is passionate about solving problems. If you are looking to be part of a team that is building the future of creative tools, welcome to Firefly!

Requirements

10+ years experience in Technical Program Management or related field.
Deep fluency with Jira (or equivalent) and a track record of building automations and workflows that meaningfully reduce team overhead.
Experience coordinating across technical teams; not just tracking tasks, but genuinely understanding the work.
Proven ability to manage complex cross-team dependencies across multiple product lines or platform teams.
Excellent communication skills with the judgment to tailor updates for different audiences—leadership summaries, team-level detail, cross-functional briefs.
Comfort operating in ambiguity. You don’t need a playbook handed to you—you build the playbook.

Nice To Haves

Experience with AI/ML product development or creative tools.
Familiarity with generative AI workflows and the unique cadence of shipping AI-native products (model updates, evaluation cycles, prompt iteration).
Background in design or creative software—you understand the users and the domain.
Experience running inclusive team rituals that go beyond status updates to genuinely build culture and shared ownership.

Responsibilities

Own and maintain the source-of-truth roadmap, ensuring leadership always has a clear, current view of what the team is building and when.
Manage day-to-day execution (eg. dependency tracking, and release coordination)
Design and implement automations (Jira workflows, Slack integrations, reporting scripts) to eliminate repetitive overhead and let the team focus on building.
Surface risks and blockers early. Proactively raise issues with proposed solutions rather than waiting for them to become problems.
Drive key rituals (eg. retrospectives, planning sessions) with a bias toward efficiency and clear outcomes.
Serve as the primary coordination point between collaborators
Ensure cross-team dependencies are documented, communicated, and tracked—so that everyone knows what the priorities are, what’s happening, and when.
Build strong relationships with program management peers across the organization to keep information flowing and reduce friction.
Represent the team’s needs in broader planning cycles, ensuring our roadmap is reflected in platform and infrastructure priorities.