Senior Technical Program Manager, Release & Security Operations

SAS•Cary, NC

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Global Engineering Operations team is looking for a Senior Technical Program Manager to provide program level orchestration and decision support for secure and predictable delivery of the Viya 4 portfolio. This position ensures that security and release information, such as vulnerability and bug remediation, incident response coordination, certification posture, policy adherence, and customer escalations, are consistently surfaced and integrated into release planning and prioritization across the divisions in Global Engineering. The role owns the operating model, playbooks, and data needed to assess readiness, navigate inflection points, and enable timely, well-informed decisions when release plans require adjustment. The role is highly visible and includes collaboration and communication within Global Engineering for release execution, product security, and product management, as well as communication with other divisions in R&D and organizations across SAS to meet policy and compliance expectations.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree, preferably in Engineering, Computer Science, Business, Data Analysis or related field.
Eight years of experience in technical program or project management roles, preferably in software release or security engineering and at enterprise level, demonstrating success managing complex initiatives that span multiple teams, products or release cycles.
Prior experience coordinating programs involving product security, vulnerability management, compliance, or regulated delivery environments.
Demonstrated strategy execution and problem-solving skills with pragmatic, systems-oriented, and design-thinking solutions.
Demonstrated ability to build rapport and lead by influencing teams across a variety of methodologies, processes, and stages of maturity.
Prior experience with data gathering, organization and presentation for efficient decision-making by executives.
Excellent written and verbal communication, as well as negotiation, conflict-resolution, and organizational skills, conveying expertise, clarity and confidence.
Excellent risk identification and mitigation capabilities.
Ability to work with high levels of ambiguity and drive clarity to senior leadership, demonstrating initiative, anticipating responses, and preparing for alternative solutions.
Ability to balance attention to detail with urgency to meet security deadlines, a relentless improvement mindset, and striving for craftsmanship.
Equivalent combination of related education, training and experience may be considered in place of the above qualifications.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience working with Jira, Confluence, and SAS data visualization and decisioning products.
Understanding of Agile or scaled‑Agile delivery models as well as flexibility adapting them for success.
Project Management Professional (PMP) certification or equivalent professional training demonstrating application of best practices in project and program management.

Responsibilities

Provide program-level orchestration and release delivery governance with emphasis on readiness, risk visibility and decision support by facilitating a recurring Operational Retrospective for Global Engineering, highlighting any emerging risks to release confidence, security posture, and operational readiness, including coordinating the data collection, dashboards and updates across divisions to drive the action items for this retrospective.
Own and maintain Global Engineering’s release readiness/delay playbook, which includes defined criteria, escalation paths, decision stages, and communication plans when a planned release is at risk due to security, quality, or operational concerns.
Facilitate release-related leadership decisions (ensuring that risks, tradeoffs, and downstream impacts are clearly articulated and understood) and coordinate stage‑based communication of those decisions, ensuring clarity, consistency, and appropriate audience targeting across stakeholders and leadership.
Actively build rapport with project and program management professionals in the R&D organization, including but not limited to participating in the Project and Program Management Community of Practice.
Provide consolidated visibility and decision support by gathering, organizing, and presenting security related execution data (e.g., readiness indicators, remediation progress, exceptions, dependencies, pen test results, security design review (SDR) results, attestation artifacts) to inform Product Management prioritization and Global Engineering leaders’ release-related decisions.
Partner with the Product Security Lead to ensure that security findings, risk assessments, and remediation expectations are translated into clear execution plans, sequencing, and readiness signals without assuming security risk ownership or decision authority.
Coordinate security and response activities across Global Engineering and ensure they align with broader R&D release, delivery, patching, security incident remediation and compliance playbooks, processes and expectations.
Operate as an enabler and cross‑organizational coordinator while relying on the Product Security Lead, Security Product Manager, and other security professionals for security response strategy, R&D incident playbook ownership, technical investigation, severity determination, and risk acceptance.
Actively build rapport with security professionals in the R&D organization, including but not limited to participating in the R&D Security Community of Practice.
Organize effective post‑incident and post‑release retrospectives to identify systemic improvements in security integration, delivery practices, and release readiness.
Synthesize feedback from retrospectives, communities of practice, security events, customer signals, and operational data into actionable insights.
Champion, track, and communicate about the implementation of the resulting pragmatic, data‑driven improvements that balance innovation velocity, security posture, operational sustainability, and customer expectations.

Benefits

Comprehensive medical, prescription, dental and vision plans.
Medical plan options include: PPO with low annual deductible and copays.
HDHP combined with a health savings account with a contribution from SAS (no access to on-site health care center).
Onsite Health Care Center (HQ) that’s free to employees and family members enrolled in the PPO plan.
Pharmacy available and can ship prescriptions for no additional charge.
An industry-leading 401k plan.
Tuition Assistance Program and programs and resources to support your development.
Generous time away including vacation time, a variety of paid holidays, and our much-loved U.S. Winter Wellness Break between December 25 and January 1.
Volunteer Time Off, parental leave and unlimited paid sick days.
Generous childcare benefits for all full-time employees.