Pega Programme Manager

Cognizant; Stratford-upon-Avon; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognizant is seeking a Pega Program Manager to own end-to-end delivery of a Pega workbench program on the customer side for ~8 months. You will govern with sponsors, manage budgets, and ensure on-time delivery aligned with business outcomes, while driving adoption by end users.

This governance and delivery-assurance role emphasizes strong Pega literacy to credibly challenge vendors and ensure a high-quality solution without hands-on development.

Qualifications

• 15+ years in IT program or project management with 5+ years delivering Pega programs.
• Two end-to-end Pega implementations in case management or operations workbench.
• Strong Pega platform knowledge: case mgmt, data model, UI, integrations, guardrails.
• Experience managing SI/vendor partners from the customer side, incl. governance.
• Hands-on Agile at scale (Scrum/SAFe/hybrid) with Pega Express.

Responsibilities

• Define program charter, scope, objectives, and success metrics with sponsors.
• Maintain integrated program plan covering discovery to hypercare.
• Establish governance: steering committee, sprint reviews, design authority.
• Own RAID log and drive escalation and resolution.
• Coordinate environment strategy and deployment pipelines for Pega.
• Act as single point of accountability between business, IT, SI/vendor, and Pega.
• Oversee Agile delivery and ensure adherence to Pega Express and Guardrails.
• Manage program budget, forecasts, and vendor contracts.
• Track adoption, benefits realization, and transition to BAU.

Skills

Stakeholder management

Agile at scale

Pega literacy

Leadership without direct authority

Clear communication

Risk-based decision making

Negotiation and conflict resolution

Resilience under delivery pressure

Education

PMP/PRINCE2/PgMP/SAFe Program Consultant

Tools

Pega Express

Pega Guardrails

CI/CD

DevOps

Pega Cloud

Constellation architecture

Job description

The Pega Program Manager owns end-to-end delivery of the customer’s Pega workbench program over 8 months. Sitting on the customer side, this person represents the business’s interests to the implementation partner or SI, Pega Professional Services, and internal IT teams. They ensure the solution is delivered on time, within budget, and in line with business outcomes, and that it is adopted by end users.

This is a governance, stakeholder, and delivery-assurance role, not a hands‑on development role. Strong Pega literacy is needed to challenge vendors credibly.

2. Key Responsibilities

Program Planning and Governance

• Define the program charter, scope, objectives, success metrics, and benefits case with sponsors.
• Build and maintain the integrated program plan, covering discovery, design, build sprints, SIT/UAT, performance testing, go-live, and hypercare.
• Establish governance: steering committee, weekly program board, sprint reviews, and a design authority.
• Own the RAID log (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies) and drive timely escalation and resolution.
• Maintain the program roadmap, release plan, and change calendar.

Stakeholder and Relationship Management

• Act as the single point of accountability between business, IT, the SI/vendor, and Pega.
• Run regular engagement with executive sponsors, process owners, operations leaders, and frontline user representatives.
• Translate business priorities into delivery priorities and manage competing demands.
• Manage expectations and communicate progress, risks, and decisions clearly at all levels.

Delivery Oversight (Pega-Specific)

• Oversee Agile/Scrum delivery using Pega’s Agile Studio or Jira, including backlog health, sprint planning, and velocity.
• Ensure delivery follows Pega Express methodology and Pega Guardrails (target compliance score, no guardrail violations left unjustified).
• Ensure the Center of Excellence (CoE) standards for reusability, naming, rule-set structure, and application layering are followed.
• Coordinate environment strategy (Dev, QA, UAT, Pre-Prod, Prod), deployment pipelines, and Pega Deployment Manager/CI-CD.

Commercial and Financial Management

• Own the program budget, forecast, and variance reporting.
• Manage vendor contracts, SOWs, change requests, and milestone-based payments.
• Validate vendor invoices against delivered work and acceptance criteria.
• Track Pega licensing, cloud subscription, and infrastructure costs.

Integration, Data, and Security

• Coordinate with enterprise architecture, security, infrastructure, and data teams on integrations with core systems (CRM, ERP, core platforms, document management, identity providers).
• Ensure compliance with security, privacy, and regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR, SOC 2, industry-specific standards).
• Oversee data migration planning, where applicable.

Change Management and Adoption

• Partner with the change/training lead on communications, training plans, super-user networks, and readiness assessments.
• Track adoption and benefits realisation post go-live (handle time, SLA adherence, error reduction, user satisfaction).
• Support transition to BAU, including knowledge transfer and support model handover to the customer’s Pega CoE.
• Program charter, business case, and benefits tracking plan
• Integrated program plan and roadmap
• Governance framework and RACI
• Monthly steering committee reports
• RAID log and escalation records
• Budget forecast and financial reports
• Test strategy and go-live readiness assessment
• Training and adoption plan
• Hypercare and BAU transition plan
• Close-out report with lessons learned

4. Required Qualifications and Experience

• 15+ years in IT program or project management, with 5+ years delivering Pega low-code platform programs
• Proven track record delivering at least two end-to-end Pega implementations (case management, customer service, or operations workbench)
• Strong working knowledge of Pega Platform concepts: case management, data model, UI, integrations, guardrails, and deployment
• Experience managing SI/vendor partners from the customer side, including commercial and performance management
• Hands-on experience with Agile at scale (Scrum, SAFe, or hybrid) and Pega Express
• Excellent stakeholder management at executive and operational levels
• Strong financial management and contract/SOW governance skills
• PMP, PRINCE2, PgMP, SAFe Program Consultant, or equivalent
• Experience in an insurance industry
• Familiarity with Pega Cloud, Constellation architecture, and Pega GenAI capabilities
• Experience with CI/CD, DevOps, and automated testing in Pega

5. Core Competencies

• Strategic thinking with disciplined execution
• Credible technical challenge without being a developer
• Clear, concise communication, written and verbal
• Negotiation and conflict resolution
• Risk-based decision making
• Leadership without direct authority across matrixed teams
• Resilience and calm under delivery pressure

6. Working Relationships

Internal:

Executive sponsor, business process owners, operations and contact-centre leaders, enterprise architecture, IT infrastructure, security, data, procurement, legal, finance, HR/training, internal Pega CoE

External:

System integrator, Pega Professional Services, Pega account team, third‑party integration vendors