Senior Manager, Technical Program Management
About The Position
Access Education Services (AES), a separate legal entity and subsidiary supporting the student journey across enrollment, financial aid, student support, technology services, career services, and alumni engagement, is transforming how technology teams deliver value in higher education services. The Senior Manager, Technical Program Management leads a team of Technical Program Managers and Quality Engineers responsible for delivering strategic initiatives with predictability, transparency, and quality. This highly visible leadership role operates at the intersection of product strategy, engineering execution, and business outcomes. The role requires deep program management expertise, technical acumen, familiarity with modern software delivery practices, and the ability to lead through data, influence, and operational excellence. The position executes the delivery organization’s planning and operating rhythm, including quarterly and fiscal-year planning, commitment management, and monthly and quarterly business reviews. The Senior Manager manages to headcount and budget targets while maximizing team capacity and delivery throughput. This is a full-time, in-office position requiring five days per week at the Salt Lake City, Utah office, with occasional travel of up to 20%.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in a related field, or relevant work experience and certification(s).
- At least 7 years managing programs and projects.
- At least 3 years leading and managing people and teams.
- Program Management Professional (PMP) certification or equivalent.
- Proven ability to organize, coordinate, and direct teams while driving accountability and delivering business outcomes.
- Strong understanding of modern product delivery practices, including SDLC, project-to-product principles, value streams, flow management, quality engineering, and program management methodologies.
- Strong analytical and data-driven mindset, including ability to use operational, delivery, and quality metrics to guide decisions and continuous improvement.
- Experience managing organizational resources, including headcount planning, budgeting, capacity planning, and resource allocation.
- Outstanding communication, relationship-building, and stakeholder management skills, with ability to influence across highly matrixed organizations.
- Ability to lead through ambiguity, manage competing priorities, and drive organizational change.
- Experience with delivery and collaboration tools such as Jira, Confluence, and reporting platforms used to measure and improve delivery performance.
- Ability to travel occasionally up to 20%, including attendance at designated company summits, and additional business-related travel as needed.
- Applicants must be able to work in the Salt Lake City, Utah office five days per week; visa sponsorship is not available.
Nice To Haves
- Master’s degree in a related field.
- Experience leading technical program or project delivery within a higher education environment.
- Previous experience in software engineering, software development, or technical delivery leadership roles supporting engineering organizations.
Responsibilities
- Lead and develop a team of Technical Program Managers and Quality Engineers delivering strategic initiatives across the software development lifecycle.
- Manage delivery flow across value streams, identify bottlenecks, mitigate risks, and optimize throughput to improve execution outcomes.
- Drive operating rhythms including quarterly and annual planning, commitment management, capacity planning, and resource allocation.
- Partner with Product, Engineering, and business leaders to translate priorities into executable roadmaps, milestones, and delivery commitments.
- Establish and continuously improve delivery and quality standards, frameworks, metrics, and best practices across the organization.
- Monitor delivery performance using key operational metrics, communicate status and forecasts to leadership, and drive accountability for outcomes.
- Serve as the primary escalation point for delivery challenges, coordinate mitigation plans, and resolve impediments affecting execution.
- Manage to headcount and budget targets while maximizing team capacity and delivery throughput.
Benefits
- Eligible for bonuses.
- Medical, dental, vision, telehealth, and mental healthcare coverage.
- Health savings account and flexible spending account.
- Basic and voluntary life insurance and disability coverage.
- Accident, critical illness, and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages.
- Legal and identity theft coverage.
- Retirement savings plan.
- Wellbeing program.
- Discounted WGU tuition.
- Flexible paid time off with no accrual requirement.
- Flexible paid sick time with no accrual requirement.
- 11 paid holidays.
- Other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
