Director, Technical Program Management

Grant Thornton (US); Dallas (TX); Hybrid; USD 184,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Grant Thornton in Dallas seeks a Director of Technical Program Management to align roadmaps with delivered product increments. You will own program planning, sequencing, risk management, and the engineering cadence across squads, ensuring successful launches for internal users and customers.

You will lead a distributed team of TPMs and Scrum Masters, fostering robust delivery practices, AI-enabled planning, and a measurable emphasis on quality and user outcomes.

Qualifications

• Twelve or more years in product engineering, with leadership of multiple TPM/engineering delivery teams.
• Track record of shipping software products adopted by real users.
• Fluency in modern agile practice and flow metrics.
• Experience managing program managers or scrum masters across distributed locations.
• Experience with AI products evaluation and deployment.
• Knowledge of continuous delivery and feature flags.
• Experience with platform-plus-solutions models.

Responsibilities

• Turn roadmap commitments into sequenced, resourced program plans with named owners, real dates and user outcomes.
• Lead cross-squad programs from concept through build to product increment for internal or external users.
• Map dependencies across teams early to design around them rather than escalate later.
• Drive scope and sequencing trade-offs with product management and engineering leaders as needed.
• Plan AI-enabled product work with discovery and evaluation loops and ensure quality against real user scenarios.

Skills

Technical program management

Cross-functional leadership

Agile methodologies

AI tooling in delivery

Risk management

Program management

Job description

Job Description

Grant Thornton is seeking a Director of Technical Program Management to join the team. Approved office locations can be found below.

We build products, not tickets. The Director of Technical Program Management makes sure that what we decide to build actually reaches users, in the shape we intended and on a timeline people can plan around. The portfolio spans products our own teams depend on to do their work and products our customers buy and use, and both deserve the same standard of engineering execution.

What This Pillar Owns

The Technical Program Management pillar owns cross-team program execution and the engineering operating cadence that carries an idea from validated concept to a product increment in front of users. It covers program planning and sequencing, dependency and risk management across the pillars, the ship cadence and flow health of the squads, and launch readiness for each audience we serve. It does not decide the roadmap, own platform architecture, configure market instances or run production; it makes the teams that do those things move together.

Key Responsibilities

Program Ownership for Product Outcomes

• Turn roadmap commitments into sequenced, resourced program plans with named owners, real dates and an explicit definition of the user outcome being delivered.
• Run the programs that span multiple squads and pillars, from validated concept through build to a product increment in front of internal or external users.
• Map dependencies across Innovation, Platform, Delivery and Operations early enough to be designed around rather than escalated late.
• Drive scope and sequencing trade-offs with product management and engineering leaders when reality moves, and make the consequences of each option clear.
• Plan AI-enabled product work with the discovery and evaluation loops it genuinely requires, and hold the line on shipping only when quality has been measured against real user scenarios.

Execution Cadence and Engineering Flow

• Lead the scrum masters and set a consistent standard for planning, backlog health, estimation and demo cadence across squads, without turning agility into ceremony.
• Improve how work flows: shorten cycle time, limit work in progress, and reduce the handoffs and wait states that quietly cost more than any individual delay.
• Instrument delivery with a small set of trusted metrics, and use them to spot systemic problems rather than to grade teams.
• Clear the impediments that a squad genuinely cannot clear on its own, and fix the recurring ones at their source.
• Put AI to work inside the delivery function itself, using it for planning support, status synthesis, risk detection and reporting, so the team spends its time on judgment rather than on assembling slides.

Ship Readiness for Internal and External Users

• Own ship readiness for each product increment: what is in it, who it affects, how it is enabled, and what happens if it needs to be pulled back.
• Coordinate the non-engineering half of a launch, working with product management, design, support and market teams on enablement, documentation and communications so users are not surprised by their own product.
• Tune the bar to the audience: an internal tool can iterate in the open, while an externally used product carries commitments to customers that shape sequencing and timing.
• Partner with Delivery and Operations on the first weeks after launch, then close out heightened support once the product is genuinely stable.

Technical Judgment and Risk

• Engage with the architecture and the trade-offs directly: this role is expected to understand why a design choice creates a schedule risk, not merely to record that engineering said so.
• Keep a live view of program risk with quantified impact on outcome, scope or date, and bring options to leadership rather than status.
• Protect engineering focus by keeping reporting light, decisions fast and meetings few, and by absorbing coordination overhead so squads do not have to.
• Program-manage AI work honestly: build and evaluation cycles that are inherently iterative, quality that is measured statistically rather than passed or failed, dependencies on models, data and evaluation sets, and cost and latency characteristics that shift after launch.

Key Relationships

This role works most closely with product management, who set the outcomes it plans around; with the Director of Product Engineering in the Delivery vertical, whose teams build and roll out what is planned; with Platform engineering leadership, whose shared capability determines what is possible and when; and with Operations leadership, who inherit every product the moment it goes live. Beyond the org, it partners with design, support, and the internal business teams and customer‑facing functions who represent the two audiences we build for.

Team Leadership

Build and lead a distributed team of technical program managers and scrum masters: hire, coach, set expectations and develop the next generation of program leaders. Establish the minimum viable standards and templates the function needs to scale as the portfolio grows, and be the person leadership asks for a straight answer on how a program is really going.

Qualifications

Required

• Twelve or more years in product engineering, with at least five leading technical program management or engineering delivery teams in a product organization.
• A record of shipping software products that real users adopted, ideally including both internal‑facing tools and externally used products.
• Genuine technical depth: comfortable in architecture and design discussions, able to challenge an estimate or a dependency on the substance rather than the process.
• Experience running large cross‑functional programs spanning several engineering teams, product management and design.
• Fluency in modern agile practice and flow metrics, used to improve delivery rather than to report activity.
• Experience managing and developing program managers or scrum masters across distributed locations and time zones.
• Working fluency with AI tooling in the delivery workflow, and judgment about where it helps and where it produces confident noise.
• Experience program‑managing AI or machine learning work, where quality is measured statistically, iteration is expected and a fixed‑scope plan is the wrong instrument.

Preferred

• Experience with a platform‑plus‑solutions model, where shared capability is built once and deployed to many audiences, tenants or markets.
• Working knowledge of continuous delivery, feature flags, experimentation and progressive rollout as everyday product engineering tools.
• Exposure to product analytics and adoption measurement, and comfort using them to judge whether a launch actually worked.
• Familiarity with how AI products are evaluated in practice, including evaluation sets, quality baselines, and the cost and latency trade‑offs that shape what can be shipped.

The base salary range for this position is between $184,000 and $260,000. Placement within the pay range is at Grant Thornton’s discretion, and it is based on multiple factors, including but not limited to, job‑related knowledge/skills, experience, business needs, progression within the role, geographic location, and internal equity. At Grant Thornton, compensation decisions are dependent upon the facts and circumstances of each position and candidate.

About Us

At Grant Thornton, we believe in making business more personal and building trust into every result – for our clients and you. Here, we go beyond your expectations of a career in professional services by offering a career path with more: more opportunity, more flexibility, and more support. It’s what makes us different, and we think being different makes us better.

In the U.S., Grant Thornton delivers professional services through two specialized entities: Grant Thornton LLP, a licensed, certified public accounting (CPA) firm that provides audit and assurance services ― and Grant Thornton Advisors LLC (not a licensed CPA firm), which exclusively provides non‑attest offerings, including tax and advisory services.

In 2025, Grant Thornton formed a multinational, multidisciplinary platform with Grant Thornton Ireland. The platform offers a premier Trans‑Atlantic advisory and tax practice, as well as independent American and Irish audit practices. With $2.7 billion in revenues and more than 50 offices spanning the U.S., Ireland and other territories, the platform delivers a singular client experience that includes enhanced solutions and capabilities, backed by powerful technologies and a roster of 12,000 quality‑driven professionals enjoying exceptional career‑growth opportunities and a distinctive cross‑border culture.

Grant Thornton is part of the Grant Thornton International Limited network, which provides access to its member firms in more than 150 global markets.

About The Team

The team you’re about to join is ready to help you thrive. Here’s how:

• Whether it's your work location, weekly schedule, or flex time off, we empower you with the options to work the way that it best serves your clients and your life. Consistent with the firm's hybrid work model, this position will require in-person attendance at least three days per week, either at a GT office or client site.
• Here, you are supported to prioritize your overall well‑being through work‑life integration options that work best for you and those in your household.
• We understand that your needs, responsibilities and experiences are different — and we think that’s a good thing. That’s why we support you with personalized and comprehensive benefits that recognize and empower all the identities, roles and aspirations that make you, well, you. See how at www.gt.com/careers
• When it comes to inclusion, we are committed to doing more than checking boxes. Explore all the ways we’re taking action for diversity, equity & inclusion at www.gt.com/careers

Here’s what you can expect next:

If you apply and are selected to interview, a Grant Thornton team member will reach out to you to schedule a time to connect. We encourage you to also check out other roles that may be a good fit for you or get to know us a little bit better at www.gt.com/careers.

Benefits:

We understand that your needs, responsibilities and experiences are different, and we think that’s a good thing. That’s why we support you with personalized and comprehensive benefits that recognize and empower all the identities, roles and aspirations that make you, well, you. For an overview of our benefit offerings, please visit: https://www.grantthornton.com/careers/rewards‑and‑benefits

• Benefits for internship positions: Grant Thornton interns are eligible to participate in the firm’s medical, dental and vision insurance programs and the firm’s employee assistance program. Interns also receive a minimum of 72 hours of paid sick leave and are paid for firm holidays that fall within their internship period.
• Benefits for seasonal employee positions: Grant Thornton seasonal employees are eligible to participate in the firm’s medical, dental and vision insurance programs and the firm’s employee assistance program. Seasonal employees may also be eligible to participate in the firm’s 401(k) savings plan and employee retirement plan in accordance with applicable plan terms and eligibility requirements. Seasonal employees receive a minimum of 72 hours of paid sick leave.

Grant Thornton employees may be eligible for a discretionary, annual bonus based on individual and firm performance, subject to the terms, conditions and eligibility criteria of the applicable bonus plan or program. Interns and seasonal employees are not eligible for bonus compensation.

Additional Details:

It is the policy of Grant Thornton to promote equal employment opportunities. All personnel decisions (including, but not limited to, recruiting, hiring, training, working conditions, promotion, transfer, compensation, benefits, evaluations, and termination) are made without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital or civil union status, pregnancy or pregnancy‑related condition, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, citizenship status, veteran status, disability, handicap, genetic predisposition or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and applicable state and local laws, it is the policy of Grant Thornton to provide reasonable accommodation when requested by a qualified applicant or employee with a disability, unless such accommodation would cause an undue hardship. The policy regarding requests for reasonable accommodation applies to all aspects of employment, including the application process. To make an accommodation request, please contact [e-mail].

For Los Angeles Applicants only: We will consider for employment all qualified Applicants, including those with Criminal Histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance.

For Massachusetts Applicants only: It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability. Grant Thornton does not require or administer lie detector tests as a condition of employment or continued employment.