Program Manager, Release Management

Ford Motor • Dearborn, MI

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

Ford’s Electric Vehicles, Digital and Design (EVDD) team is charged with delivering the company’s vision of a fully electric transportation future. EVDD is customer-obsessed, entrepreneurial, and data-driven and is dedicated to delivering industry-leading customer experience for electric vehicle buyers and owners. You’ll join an agile team of doers pioneering our EV future by working collaboratively, staying focused on only what matters, and delivering excellence day in and day out. Join us to make positive change by helping build a better world where every person is free to move and pursue their dreams. We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced Technical Program Manager with a strong focus on Release Management to join our dynamic team. In this role, you will be instrumental in coordinating the end-to-end software delivery lifecycle for complex projects, ensuring timely and high-quality releases for internal and external customers. You will leverage your expertise in program management, Agile methodologies, and cross-functional collaboration to drive successful software deployments from development to mass production and beyond.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field or equivalent foreign equivalency Degree or equivalent combination of relevant education and experience.
• 10+ years of experience in technical program management, with a strong focus on software release management.
• 10+ Years of Software Delivery Lifecycle: Demonstrated strong understanding and practical experience with the full Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), modern software deployment practices (e.g., CI/CD, OTA updates), and release governance.
• 10+ years in Agile Methodologies: Proven ability to manage complex software projects using Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) and tools such as JIRA, including developing detailed project schedules and managing intricate interdependencies.
• Strategic Leadership & Risk Management: 10+ years Experience leading cross-functional engineering and global teams, with a track record of identifying and mitigating program risks, resolving technical issues, and defining and monitoring quality metrics for data-driven decision-making.

Nice To Haves

• Master's Degree in Electrical or Computer Engineering
• Exceptional Communication & Stakeholder Engagement: Superior communication, executive reporting, and interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to influence, engage, and manage diverse stakeholders across all organizational levels
• Experience in the automotive industry or with embedded systems software

Responsibilities

• Develop and manage detailed schedules for major or complex software projects, outlining all activities required for successful completion and release.
• Drive on-time, high quality software delivery and readiness for mass production within the software development lifecycle.
• Collaborate closely with development, quality assurance (QA), testing teams to deliver software on time to internal and external customers, including test releases, program milestones for new model launches, and future over-the-air (OTA) update releases.
• Manage the delivery of various gateway module software projects, utilizing JIRA dashboards and Agile methodologies (e.g., story/defect burndown) to track and report program progress.
• Lead status reporting for all assigned programs, providing clear and concise updates to stakeholders through various channels, including release notes, Confluence/Jira status reports, and executive-level summaries
• Track technical issues and proactively find solutions for program problems as they arise, ensuring minimal disruption to release schedules.
• Facilitate and drive cross-functional collaboration and execution with key partners, including Engineering Teams, DevOps CI/CD, Verification & Validation (V&V), and OTA leads.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to define project scope, establish priorities, identify technical interdependencies, and ensure alignment with overall organizational objectives.
• Manage stakeholder expectations throughout the release lifecycle, proactively communicating changes and potential impacts
• Identify potential risks, develop comprehensive mitigation plans, and track them to closure, ensuring the timely completion of strategic projects and programs.
• Define and monitor key quality metrics and KPIs to ensure software releases meet established standards.
• Analyze defined data sets and frame decisions that have a significant impact on feature areas and release quality.
• Champion continuous improvement, gathering feedback and refining release processes to boost efficiency and reduce cycle times .
• Lead post-release retrospectives and root cause analyses to identify process bottlenecks, systemic issues, and implement corrective actions.
• Establish and document best practices for software release management, ensuring consistency and scalability across multiple projects and teams.
• Identify, evaluate, and advocate for new tools, technologies, or automation opportunities to streamline the release pipeline and enhance overall efficiency.
• Analyze release performance data and metrics to pinpoint areas for optimization and drive data-informed process enhancements.
• Develop and implement strategies to reduce manual effort, improve transparency, and accelerate time-to-market for software releases.
• Coach and mentor development and release teams on effective process adherence and continuous improvement methodologies.

Benefits

• Immediate medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up child care and more
• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments, and more
• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members and management leases
• Tuition assistance
• Established and active employee resource groups
• Paid time off for individual and team community service
• A generous schedule of paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day
• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time.

What This Job Offers

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