SR Manager, RTE/Program Management

Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine•Somerville, NJ

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

The IT Senior Manager, Development Systems, RTE/Program Management, is a strong leader who combines modern Information Technology expertise, agile methodology, and program/process leadership to drive and transform major initiatives within Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine. This role acts as a strategic partner to Development Systems teams, working closely with business leaders (VPs/Sr. Directors/Directors), Platform Leaders, and Product Group Owners to manage the overall portfolio within the respective domains. The IT Senior Manager will oversee all Program/Portfolio management and Release Train Engineer (RTE) activities, ensuring the Agile Release Train (ART) stays on course by facilitating events and processes, assisting the teams in delivering value, and driving continuous improvement. This position maintains close relationships with all key stakeholders, including platform technical leaders, business leaders, procurement/finance stakeholders, and TS/AS/vendors partners. The role also serves as a key participant in developing the overall strategy and approach for the respective domain.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required.
8 years of IT experience is required.
Knowledge of Agile Methodology and Scrum Master certification or PMP certification preferred.
Minimum 8 years of program management is required with experience in standards and best practices design.
Experience with Procurement processes, including contract types, multiple vendor engagements, and PO/invoice management is required.
Experience with financial management including knowledge of enterprise financial cycles, annual business planning, business case submission, infrastructure cost optimization or rationalization is required.
Experience with IT SDLC/Agile is required.
Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to communicate and present across all management, functional domains, and organizational levels.
Strong decision-making/problem solving skills required.
Ability to work in a highly matrix environment.
Skilled in building relationships and navigating through organizations.
Able to build a sense of trust and rapport that creates a comfortable and effective workplace.
Excellent problem-solving, organizational, and analytical skills, with the ability to influence and coach team members of all roles on a Scrum team.
Proven experience of managing a team (people management).
Ability to build relationships with and influence a very broad set of global and cross-functional stakeholders and indirect reports.
Experience synthesizing stakeholder inputs into product decisions is required.
Partners with Product Group Leaders to anticipate and communicate the need for change and innovation in an empathetic and influential manner to ensure that the business & IT partners respond to demands in an agile, positive, proactive way.
Demonstrated ability to rapidly learn, evaluate, and adopt new AI tools and platforms to meet evolving project needs.
Understanding AI concepts and frameworks, including agentic AI, with the ability to translate technical capabilities into product strategies.
Experience leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to enhance product capabilities, improve user experience, and drive business outcomes.
Experience integrating AI-driven features into digital products or platforms, ensuring alignment with customer needs and organizational goals.
Ability to collaborate with data science and engineering teams to define AI requirements, evaluate feasibility, and prioritize AI-enabled functionality.

Nice To Haves

Advanced Degree (MS, MBA) is a plus/preferred.
Familiarity with Release Train Engineer roles (ART product vision and experience) is a plus.
Knowledge about various Release Methodologies, Product Management, Portfolio Management, and/or expertise in software delivery, program management, and stakeholder management is a plus.
Understands how to effectively scale Agile.
Pharma experience is preferred.
A comprehensive understanding of R&D domain (e.g. Regulatory Affairs, Global Development, Global Medical Safety) processes, applications and solutions is a plus.
Strong broad-based IT background, both hands-on and management is preferred.
Experience creating process mapping and/or process re-engineering is preferred.
Possess knowledge of continuous improvement methodologies.
Experience with gXP Validation processes & testing methodologies is a plus.
Ability to align complex IT solutions to business strategies and initiatives.
Process and Change Management/Business Change Management experience is a plus.
Experience in analytics and the ability to create dashboards for presentation of data is preferred.
Experience with domain-specific technical product tools (e.g., Regulatory tools, Pharmacovigilance tools, automated testing tools, application development tools, SharePoint Portal development, collaboration tools, reporting tools such as Power BI or Tableau, Amazon BYOD Virtual workplaces) is a plus.

Responsibilities

Program Management of overall IT portfolio within a Development Systems domain ($20+ Million, complex, multi-year, enterprise-wide programs).
Collaborate with Platform Leaders and Product Group Owners to manage release priorities, execution of capabilities, and product roadmaps.
Ensure the successful delivery of releases/capabilities to their final program objectives.
Work with IT Platform Leaders, Product Owners, Tech Leads, and other stakeholders to communicate objectives, risks, dependencies, and ensure alignment.
Partner with key stakeholders to facilitate the creation and optimization of domain strategy and technology roadmaps.
Manage domain budget of $20+ Million.
Monitor committed spend, actuals reconciliation, variance reporting, and facilitate budget reviews and close activities in partnership with Finance.
Provide oversight of investment planning schedules, deadlines, and ensure cross-partner engagement and contribution.
Leadership and facilitation of cross-domain governance councils and communities of practice (e.g., GMS Technology Governance Council, IM R&D HPT Community of Practice).
Monitor the progress of release/program components to ensure overall goals, schedule, budget, and benefits of the program are achieved.
Perform overall risk assessments, develop contingency plans, and recommend mitigations as needed.
Manage relevant team communications, governance, and engagement forums.
Own program updates to executive leadership.
Ensure implementation of governance processes: RAID logs, demand management, value realization, resource planning/allocation, metrics, monitoring, and reporting.
Lead review meetings with key stakeholders and hold sufficient reviews to create appropriate exposure and engagement.
Lead Executive Management status reviews.
Coordinate contract/vendor management with Procurement and domain stakeholders.
Encourage collaboration across teams, systems, solution architects, and UX designers.
Aggregate team objectives into program objectives and publish them for visibility and transparency.
Help manage risks and dependencies.
Drive continuous improvement.
Identify process improvement opportunities including project team engagement, project delivery, reporting, and communications.

Benefits

medical, dental, vision, life insurance, short- and long-term disability, business accident insurance, and group legal insurance.
Company’s consolidated retirement plan (pension) and savings plan (401(k)).
Vacation –120 hours per calendar year
Sick time - 40 hours per calendar year; for employees who reside in the State of Washington –56 hours per calendar year
Holiday pay, including Floating Holidays –13 days per calendar year
Work, Personal and Family Time - up to 40 hours per calendar year
Parental Leave – 480 hours within one year of the birth/adoption/foster care of a child
Condolence Leave – 30 days for an immediate family member: 5 days for an extended family member
Caregiver Leave – 10 days
Volunteer Leave – 4 days
Military Spouse Time-Off – 80 hours