Senior R&D Program Manager

SAS•Cary HQ, NC

8d•Hybrid

About The Position

The SaaS team is looking for a R&D Sr. Program Manager to lead the overall Customer Intelligence program, driving clarity, alignment, and predictable delivery across a complex, cross-functional SaaS environment. Our team is sitting at the cutting edge of Software at SAS. We are shaping how SAS products grow and evolve into cloud native CI/CD delivered products ready for the future. This role exists to help the Customer Intelligence organization operate more effectively at scale, bringing visibility to priorities, surfacing risks early, and enabling leadership to make informed, timely decisions. You will partner closely with Engineering, Product Management, and Project Management teams to strengthen program execution while improving the experience for both internal teams and customers. You will operate at both strategic and execution levels to help shape priorities, guide program direction, and ensure delivery outcomes align with business objectives. While primarily focused on program leadership, you may also directly manage select initiatives where appropriate.

Requirements

8 years of experience in software program or project management, preferably in agile environments.
Bachelor's degree in a quantitative field, preferably in Computer Science or a related discipline
Proven experience delivering projects end-to-end across planning, execution, and delivery
Strong experience working in SaaS or continuous delivery environments
Strong stakeholder management skills, including negotiation, communication, and conflict resolution
Equivalent combination of related education, training and experience may be considered in place of the above qualifications.
Communication - Conveying information and ideas clearly and concisely to individuals or groups in an engaging manner that helps them understand and retain the message; listening actively to others.
Driving for Results - Setting high goals for personal and group accomplishment; using measurement methods to monitor progress toward goals; tenaciously working to meet or exceed goals while deriving satisfaction from that achievement and continuous improvement.
Building Trusting Relationships - Using appropriate interpersonal styles to establish effective relationships with customers and internal partners; interacting with others in a way that promotes openness and trust and gives them confidence in one’s intentions.
Strategic Planning - Obtaining information and identifying key issues and relationships relevant to achieving a long-range goal; committing to a course of action to accomplish a long-range goal after developing alternatives based on logical assumptions, facts, available resources, constraints, and organizational values.
Ability to influence without authority
Ability to manage pressure, deadlines, and competing priorities

Nice To Haves

PMP, CSM or equivalent certifications

Responsibilities

Lead end-to-end execution of the Customer Intelligence program, ensuring alignment across scope, priorities, dependencies, and delivery timelines.
Serve as the central point of coordination across globally distributed engineering, product, and project teams, driving clarity and alignment in a dynamic SaaS environment.
Proactively identify, manage, and communicate risks, dependencies, and tradeoffs to maintain the program momentum.
Shape and maintain a clear program roadmap aligned to strategic business objectives.
Own select features or technical initiatives end-to-end, coordinating across engineering, product, and project management teams to drive definition, delivery, and customer outcomes.
Drive program transparency through structured reporting, dashboards, and communication that enable confident decision-making by leadership.
Establish a consistent view of program health, including status, risks, dependency impacts, and delivery confidence.
Translate complex program information into clear, actionable insights for both technical and executive audiences.
Monitor overall program effectiveness and identify opportunities to improve processes, coordination, and delivery outcomes.
Lead or recommend operational reviews and process improvements that increase predictability and reduce friction across teams.
Build and communicate business cases for improvements, including cost/benefit analysis and expected impact.
Influence decision-making at multiple levels of the organization, including senior leadership.
Provide guidance and mentorship to project managers, helping improve consistency and execution quality across the program.
Support program-level financial planning, including budget tracking, forecasting, and identifying trends and optimization opportunities.
Ensure alignment between program execution, business objectives, and customer outcomes.
Leverage Jira Cloud and advanced reporting capabilities to provide cross-program visibility and actionable insights.
Continuously improve data quality and reporting practices to enable better program decisions.
Identify and apply AI-driven capabilities to improve planning, risk detection, and overall program management effectiveness.