Staff Technology Program Manager

CDK Global • Austin, TX

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

CDK Global is seeking an experienced Staff Technical Program Manager to lead strategic, cross-functional technology initiatives supporting its Vehicle Inventory Suite and SimplePay platform. The role drives planning, execution, and delivery across product, engineering, architecture, and business teams, aligning programs with organizational objectives, roadmap commitments, and customer needs. The position focuses on complex software development programs in enterprise SaaS, cloud-based, and integrated technology environments, with valued experience in distributed systems, microservices, AI/ML, APIs, data and event-driven integrations, cloud platforms, fintech or payments platforms, and AI-enabled solutions.

The successful candidate will manage technical and cross-platform dependencies, reliability, scalability, risks, and priorities while ensuring quality delivery, predictability, and measurable business impact. This role works across product lines and remote teams, engages senior stakeholders, drives change management and Agile practices, and represents program teams in organizational forums. The position is hybrid, requiring workdays at CDK's Austin, Texas office and remote work on remaining days. Candidates must live within commuting distance of the office.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related technical discipline, or equivalent experience.
• At least 5 years of relevant technical program or project management experience, partnering with product and engineering leaders and teams in software development.
• Experience with software development involving web, mobile, SaaS, distributed cloud services, databases, and/or data processing systems.
• Demonstrable experience defining and managing multiple projects across cross-functional teams and geographies, building sustainable processes, coordinating release schedules, and delivering on time and with quality.
• Effective organizational, stakeholder management, and project management skills.
• Excellent written, interpersonal communication, and collaboration skills.
• Ability to discuss technical matters with business teams and business matters with technical teams.
• Ability to influence respectfully, collaborate, push back when needed, approach work rationally, and deliver solutions in a changing environment.
• Experience working in an Agile environment with cross-functional teams in multiple locations.
• Strong client service attitude, leadership capabilities, and bias for action.
• Outstanding project management skills to organize a busy workload and deliver projects on time.
• Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States without current or future employment-based visa sponsorship.

Nice To Haves

• Ability to navigate ambiguity and competing priorities and lead large, complex initiatives.
• Strong interpersonal, analytical, problem-solving, negotiation, and conflict-resolution skills, with the ability to motivate teams and deliver results.
• Interpersonal effectiveness and emotionally intelligent communication skills to communicate, persuade, influence, and handle challenging conversations at Director level and above.
• Experience leading multiple technical programs for a technology company across remote cross-functional teams, taking products to market, using success metrics to inform future efforts, and adjusting programs as needed.
• Experience with tools such as Tableau, Jira, Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Project, SharePoint, and Confluence.
• Experience building effective business processes for diverse teams.
• Ability to partner with cross-functional teams in highly matrixed and global environments.
• Impeccable attention to detail and a strong focus on high-quality execution.
• Ability to work with people across the organization, including senior leaders, individual contributors, and support staff.
• Ability to translate ideas into clear, high-impact communications.
• Ability to maintain good judgment in fast-paced, high-stress environments and triage competing priorities in ambiguous settings.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with program sponsors, stakeholders, workstream leaders, product and development managers, and other teams to define program objectives and key results, and develop, communicate, and maintain project plans.
• Manage projects through the full lifecycle, including scope definition, planning, schedules, phase deliverables, milestones, execution, and on-time quality delivery.
• Participate in strategic, operational, and tactical planning and forecasting.
• Routinely lead large-scale initiatives and work cross-functionally across remote teams and stakeholders.
• Coordinate complex business needs with Product and Engineering teams, ensuring commitments are met and risks, blockers, and dependencies are managed and resolved.
• Sort through competing priorities, define processes that improve execution precision, and drive program execution in a complex, fast-paced environment.
• Champion accountability and consistent project management practices to drive business results.
• Proactively solve day-to-day challenges and exercise sound judgment.
• Assess and mitigate program risks, quantitatively and qualitatively, to determine whether implementation plans meet stakeholder requirements and strategic objectives.
• Direct and be accountable for change management within the program domain.
• Collect, analyze, and report status and metrics that accurately reflect progress against planned goals and deliverables.
• Communicate status, dependencies, risks, and change control to senior management, sponsors, and stakeholders at an appropriate cadence and level of detail; provide reports and schedules and lead urgent-issue calls as needed.
• Lead post-project retrospectives and incorporate appropriate improvements into future projects.
• Represent program teams across the organization and liaise across forums.
• Participate in the organizational standards body for product and technology operations and guide program teams through standards.
• Champion Agile practices within the program.

Benefits

• Medical benefits
• Dental benefits
• Vision benefits
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• 401K Matching Program
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Annual performance bonus and/or other applicable incentive compensation plans may be included in the total compensation package.

What This Job Offers

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