Director, Technical Program Management

SmartRecruiters, Inc.; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 3,500,000 - 6,500,000; Full time

Job summary

Nielsen in Bangalore-based teams is seeking a Technical Project Manager to align product strategy with cross-functional execution. This principal role owns the delivery of high-revenue initiatives, setting plans, removing blockers, and ensuring timely launches.

You will design and operate the PDLC, define ready/done criteria, and provide executive dashboards showing product health and delivery velocity. Expect leadership across Product, Engineering, and Data Science with direct-impact

Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience in Product Operations, Technical Program Management, or Product Management at senior levels.
• Proven track record designing and implementing a Product Development Life Cycle (PDLC).
• Strong ability to unblock cross-functional teams and meet launch dates.
• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or advanced degree preferred.

Responsibilities

• Update and maintain a scalable PDLC bridging roadmaps to delivery.
• Establish stage-gates and Definition of Ready/Done criteria for high-quality requirements.
• Audit delivery pipelines quarterly to identify friction and reduce lead time.
• Own end-to-end delivery of Top-20 initiatives across multiple teams.
• Escalate with recommended recovery plans to executives when needed.
• Lead greenfield programs from scope to launch with clear cadence and accountability.
• Engage with Engineering and Data Science on architecture, data pipelines, and integration risks.

Skills

Product Operations

Technical Program Management

Leadership

Cross-functional leadership

PDLC design

Jira

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business/CS/Engineering

MBA

PMP PgMP

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Job description

At Nielsen, we are passionate about our work to power a better media future for all people by providing powerful insights that drive client decisions and deliver extraordinary results. Our talented, global workforce is dedicated to capturing audience engagement with content - wherever and whenever it’s consumed. Together, we are proudly rooted in our deep legacy as we stand at the forefront of the media revolution. When you join Nielsen, you will join a dynamic team committed to excellence, perseverance, and the ambition to make an impact together. We champion you, because when you succeed, we do too. We enable your best to power our future.

Job Description

As a Technical Project Manager, you will serve as the strategic connective tissue between product strategy and cross-functional execution. This is a principal-level, hands‑on leadership role. You are accountable for the delivery of the organization’s most complex, high‑revenue initiatives – not for reporting on them – and you carry the dates yourself.

You will guide a team responsible for architecting the Product Development Life Cycle (PDLC) framework and providing the operational infrastructure required to scale. You will be responsible for the integrity of the delivery process – managing the interdependencies between Product, Engineering, Data Science, and Commercial teams. You ensure that the company’s most significant investments are delivered with transparency, alignment, and high impact.

Greenfield initiatives are where this role earns its keep. New programs receive dedicated senior ownership rather than shared program management capacity borrowed across unrelated engineering projects. On these builds you set the plan, hold the commitments, remove blockers directly where you can, and escalation with a recommendation and a recovery path where you cannot.

Your success in this role will be measured by the increased velocity, predictability, and transparency of our most critical product investments.

Significant increase in the percentage of top initiatives delivered on time and within scope.

Reduction in the "administrative tax" on Product Managers, as measured by time reclaimed from manual reporting and tool maintenance.

Improved internal satisfaction scores from Engineering, Data Science, and Commercial leaders regarding the clarity and reliability of the delivery pipeline.

Greenfield initiatives hitting their committed launch dates, with this role personally accountable for those commitments.

Level, Location, and Scope

Level. Principal-level. This is a senior individual leadership role, comparable in scope to an L7 Principal Technical Program Manager at a large technology company.

Location. Bangalore-based, most of the engineering, product and data science team are also based in India.

Dedication. Fully dedicated to Product Operations and the greenfield portfolio. This is not a shared resource split across multiple engineering projects.

Key Responsibilities

Update and maintain a scalable Product Development Life Cycle (PDLC) that bridges the gap between high‑level roadmaps and delivery.

Establish standardized stage‑gates and "Definition of Ready/Done" criteria to ensure Engineering and Data Science receive high‑quality, actionable requirements.

Conduct quarterly audits of the delivery pipeline to identify friction points, automate manual handoffs, and reduce lead time without over‑engineering the process.

Own end‑to‑end delivery of the "Top 20" initiatives – those involving 3+ functional teams or multi‑million revenue impact – from post‑PRD alignment through launch. You hold the timeline and are answerable when it moves.

Actively unblock the work. Identify and resolve cross‑team resource conflicts and technical dependencies between Product, Tech, Data Science, and Operations, driving each issue to a decision rather than routing it onward.

Stand up greenfield programs from zero: scope, sequencing, staffing needs, operating cadence, and launch criteria, with no existing process to inherit.

Engage directly with Engineering and Data Science on architecture, data pipeline, and integration tradeoffs at enough depth to pressure‑test estimates and challenge plans credibly.

Escalate to executive leadership with a recommendation and a recovery plan attached, not a status color.

Serve as the primary operational point of contact for high‑value client steering committees and strategic data vendors (e.g., Netflix, Amazon) to ensure technical integrations stay on schedule.

Design and own the executive dashboarding strategy, providing a "single source of truth" for product health (adoption, retention) and delivery health (predictability, throughput).

Ensure Jira and Confluence are configured to provide clean, automated reporting, eliminating the need for Product Managers to manually aggregate status updates.

Provide quarterly insights to the C‑suite on execution trends, highlighting areas where resource reallocation may be necessary to meet Op Plan goals.

Oversee the administration and configuration of Jira, Confluence, and associated add‑ons to support a unified workflow across the department.

Evaluate and implement emerging tools (AI‑assisted productivity, roadmap visualization) that enhance the productivity of the Product and Tech teams.

Maintain the centralized repository of best practices, templates, and guidelines that standardize how the organization builds and launches products.

Lead quarterly training sessions to ensure new hires and existing team members are proficient in the PDLC and operational tools, ensuring a consistent culture of execution.

Qualifications

15+ years of experience in Product Operations, Technical Program Management, or Product Management, with at least 5 years operating at a principal or director level. For calibration: comparable in scope and seniority to an L7 Principal TPM at a company such as Amazon.

Proven track record of managing "Top‑Tier" strategic initiatives that require the synchronization of cross‑functional areas (e.g., Engineering, Data Science, Operations, and Sales).

Demonstrated experience designing and implementing a Product Development Life Cycle (PDLC) in a growth‑stage or enterprise technology environment.

Demonstrated ownership of greenfield, 0‑to‑1 programs where the plan, process, and cadence did not yet exist and had to be built.

A track record of unblocking rather than tracking. Be ready to describe specific technical and organizational blockers you personally cleared, and launch dates you were held to.

Technical fluency sufficient to hold a credible conversation with Engineering and Data Science leaders about architecture, data pipelines, and integration risk.

Strong ability to translate raw delivery data into executive‑level insights. Experience building automated dashboards that track both business health (KPIs) and delivery health (velocity, lead time).

Exceptional ability to build consensus and maintain high‑trust partnerships across Product, Engineering, Data Science, Customer Success and Commercial leadership.

A passion for process as an enabler, not a hurdle. You should have a reputation for making the teams around you faster and more effective.

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field; MBA or advanced degree is a plus.

Professional certifications in Program Management (PMP, PgMP) are welcomed but secondary to proven real‑world results.