Product Lifestyle Team Lead

Sprezzatura Management Consulting • Arlington, VA

2d • $150,000 - $175,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The VA Product Lifecycle Lead is a senior leadership role responsible for driving enterprise-wide governance, transformation, and alignment of SaaS and PaaS product lifecycle operations across the Department of Veterans Affairs' Digital Transformation Center (DTC) environment. This leader serves as the connective point between senior government stakeholders, product owners, cybersecurity leaders, system integrators, and internal delivery teams to unify product strategy, compliance, delivery execution, modernization, and customer success across the VA portfolio.
The role requires a leader who can translate VA priorities, security and privacy commitments, and executive expectations into actionable roadmaps, engineering milestones, governance routines, acceptance criteria, and measurable delivery outcomes. The Product Lifecycle Lead will also advance operational transparency through KPI-driven dashboards, lifecycle scorecards, risk reporting, and continuous improvement practices that support secure, scalable, and mission-aligned product delivery.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience leading federal IT, cybersecurity, product lifecycle, enterprise modernization, or large-scale digital transformation programs; 10+ years preferred for senior program leadership roles.
• Direct experience supporting VA, DTC, or comparable federal health/mission IT environments, with the ability to operate effectively with senior government stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience managing large, matrixed technical delivery organizations across infrastructure, security, privacy, data, product, and engineering workstreams.
• Strong knowledge of SaaS, PaaS, cloud transformation, enterprise data platforms, workflow automation, product onboarding, and lifecycle governance models.
• Deep understanding of federal cybersecurity and compliance requirements including FISMA, FedRAMP, NIST 800-53, ATO readiness, FIPS 199, NIST 800-60, and secure system implementation practices.
• Experience translating policy, security, privacy, and compliance commitments into program roadmaps, engineering milestones, acceptance criteria, delivery controls, and executive-ready reporting.
• Proven ability to design KPI-driven dashboards, scorecards, risk reporting, lifecycle metrics, and executive briefings that support decision-making and operational transparency.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to simplify complex technical, cybersecurity, and delivery issues for executive and non-technical audiences.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with AI governance, secure generative AI adoption, or development of AI security/control baselines within a federal environment.
• Experience leading enterprise modernization initiatives involving cloud migration, AI-enabled analytics, RPA, Oracle or enterprise database optimization, or large-scale platform consolidation.
• Experience improving executive reporting cycles, operational transparency, or delivery performance through dashboards, lifecycle scorecards, and metrics-based governance.
• Experience securing contract growth, expanding mission support, or identifying scalable solutions that address security, modernization, or AI enablement gaps.
• Experience mentoring and developing technical program leaders, cybersecurity staff, engineers, consultants, or delivery managers.
• Certifications such as PMP, CSPO, CSM, SAFe, CISSP, CISM, or comparable program, product, Agile, or cybersecurity credentials.

Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise product lifecycle governance across SaaS, PaaS, cybersecurity, modernization, and customer success initiatives, ensuring alignment with strategic business objectives.
• Establish and maintain governance standards for product intake, prioritization, delivery, implementation, sustainment, and continuous improvement.
• Drive cross-functional collaboration across product teams, Centers of Excellence (COEs), system integrators, cybersecurity, and executive stakeholders to ensure successful delivery.
• Represent the product lifecycle organization in executive governance forums, providing strategic leadership, resolving escalations, and translating leadership priorities into actionable roadmaps.
• Lead modernization initiatives by advancing cloud adoption, workflow automation, AI-enabled capabilities, and digital transformation while balancing innovation with security and operational readiness.
• Ensure compliance with federal cybersecurity, privacy, and governance requirements, supporting ATO readiness and alignment with applicable regulations and standards.
• Develop executive dashboards, KPIs, scorecards, and reporting that provide visibility into program performance, risks, delivery progress, and business value.
• Identify and mitigate program risks, dependencies, and stakeholder challenges to ensure successful lifecycle execution and informed decision-making.
• Standardize lifecycle processes, governance frameworks, and operational best practices to improve efficiency, scalability, and delivery consistency.
• Mentor and lead cross-functional teams by fostering accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and excellence in product lifecycle management.
• Embed cybersecurity, privacy, data protection, and access control requirements into lifecycle planning and product delivery execution.
• Ensure lifecycle activities align with federal IT and cybersecurity frameworks including FISMA, FedRAMP, NIST 800-53, NIST AI RMF, FIPS 199, NIST 800-60, and VA policy requirements.
• Coordinate with security engineering, infrastructure, privacy, governance, and vendor teams to reduce time-to-ATO and improve audit evidence collection.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision
• Health Saving Account (when enrolled in eligible plan) with Company contribution
• Company paid Life, Accidental Death, Short-term & Long-term Disability
• Voluntary Accident, Hospital Indemnity, & Critical Care Insurance
• Voluntary Medical & Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
• Accrued Paid Time Off & Company Paid Holidays
• 401(k) Retirement Plan with Company match

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed