Group Program Director, Product (US)

Code and Theory; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 220,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Code and Theory is seeking a Group Program Director to lead the Delivery capability for a portfolio of clients or a major account, setting strategic direction and ensuring health, growth, and performance. You will mentor all levels within Delivery and champion continuous learning across the team while partnering with Resource Management, Recruiting, and Finance.

You will oversee staffing, budgets, and scope, drive growth initiatives, and serve as a senior escalation point for clients and

Qualifications

• 15+ years of program/delivery management experience.
• Ability to cultivate expertise across a team with a culture of learning.
• Change-agent mindset with history of process/tooling improvements, leveraging AI.
• Proven ownership of scope, estimation, and budget integrity for complex engagements.
• Trusted escalation point for clients and senior internal stakeholders.
• Strong financial acumen and revenue planning experience.
• Experience mentoring associates to senior directors.
• Humility, accountability, and morale-building leadership.
• Knowledge of various project methodologies and adaptable approaches.
• Technical acumen to translate complexity into delivery plans.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and stakeholder influence.
• Experience contributing to new business pitches in oversight capacity.

Responsibilities

• Oversee health and performance of delivery portfolios across clients and major accounts.
• Lead estimation and scope development; review budgets and contracts as delivery reviewer.
• Act as escalation point for accounts and projects; drive resolution paths.
• Partner with Client Engagement to steer and grow client relationships.
• Staff projects with Resource Management and Recruiting.
• Support organic and new business needs; help meet growth targets.
• Provide recommendations on growth and investment opportunities.
• Evaluate project health weekly with portfolio leadership.
• Foster commitment, collaboration, and positivity across teams and clients.
• Mentor team members at all levels; lead performance reviews and growth plans.
• Participate in new business pitches with staffing and budget plans.
• Identify and drive change-related processes and tooling improvements.
• Lead as a champion of the Delivery discipline and drive improvements.

Skills

Delivery leadership

Program/delivery management

Product & digital transformation

Budget management

Staff development

Estimation & scope

Cross-functional collaboration

Change management

AI-enabled delivery

Client escalation handling

Stakeholder influence

Job description

As a Group Program Director, you will lead the Delivery capability for a portfolio of clients and/or a major account at Code and Theory, setting the strategic direction for delivery and ensuring the overall health, growth, and performance of your assigned delivery portfolio. You will manage and mentor all levels within Delivery (Associates up to Senior Directors), cultivate deep product and digital transformation expertise across your team, and serve as a senior escalation point for clients and internal leadership alike. A great Group Program Director operates at both the strategic and operational altitude: you drive department-wide excellence in delivery, own scope and budget integrity across your group, and represent Delivery as part of your portfolio leadership team. You champion the discipline internally and externally, push a culture of continuous learning, and partner closely with Resource Management, Recruiting, Finance, and discipline leads to ensure your group is staffed, thriving, and ready to take on emerging business challenges. Ultimately, you balance strategic ambition, team development, and fiscal accountability, ensuring Code and Theory delivers innovative, high-quality work efficiently and profitably at scale.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Oversee the overall health and performance of delivery portfolios, driving the team to excellence in delivery across a portfolio of clients and/or a major account
• Serve as an expert in estimation and scope development, leading and delegating business reviews of scopes; serve as the delivery reviewer of budgets and contracts
• Act as an escalation point for accounts and projects, both internally and externally; work with the team to define and drive resolution paths, mitigating issues and collaborating with discipline leads on solutions
• In partnership with Client Engagement, connect with clients in a steering and escalation capacity, acting as a senior point of contact for both issue resolution and account growth
• Partner with Resource Management and Recruiting to staff projects, ensure all account needs are covered, and support plans for future staffing needs
• Partner with Client Engagement and Business Development on organic and new business needs, ensuring account and portfolio growth targets are met or exceeded
• Provide recommendations on approaches to growth and investment opportunities
• Evaluate project health on a weekly basis, collaborating on project health concerns with your portfolio leadership peers and with account/project leads
• Foster a spirit of commitment, collaboration, and positivity that builds trust with internal teams and clients
• Manage, mentor, and cultivate team members at all levels within Delivery (Associates up to Senior Directors) for growth; develop and lead training for teams in partnership with Delivery leadership, including review and sign-off on performance reviews and growth plans
• Actively participate in new business pitches, ensuring staffing, delegation, and budget/scope/staffing plans are rationalized against client needs and evolving delivery methodologies
• Identify and drive change-related processes and tools that enable the greater team to work more effectively, efficiently, and in the most modern way possible
• Act as a lead champion and advocate for the Delivery discipline, driving change based on business, client, and discipline needs, and consistently assessing areas for improvement, leading process improvements directly or delegating to Senior Directors and Directors as appropriate

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

• 15+ years of program/delivery management experience, with deep expertise in product and digital transformation delivery
• A demonstrated ability to cultivate and grow that expertise across a team, pushing a culture of continuous learning, innovation, and professional development
• A change-agent mindset, with a history of identifying and driving process and tooling improvements at a department or agency level, leveraging AI to accelerate work and drive innovation
• Proven experience owning scope, estimation, and budget integrity for complex, high-value engagements
• A track record of serving as a trusted escalation point for clients and senior internal stakeholders, with the judgment to know when to resolve directly versus when to mobilize others
• Strong financial acumen, including comfort partnering with Finance on revenue planning, investment decisions, and account health
• Experience managing, mentoring, and developing team members at all levels within Delivery (Associates up to Senior Directors), including ownership of performance reviews and growth planning
• Humility in leadership and a genuine commitment to fostering accountability, trust, and morale across teams
• An understanding of different project management methodologies, with the ability to adapt approach to meet client, account, and agency needs
• Strong technical acumen to drive work forward in partnership with cross-discipline leads, translating technical complexity into clear, actionable delivery plans
• Exceptional interpersonal skills, including clear communication, emotional intelligence, and the ability to influence and align diverse stakeholders: clients, internal teams, and agency leadership alike
• Experience contributing to new business pitches in a senior oversight capacity or as a hands-on contributor

ABOUT US

Born in 2001, Code and Theory is a digital-first creative agency that sits at the center of creativity and technology. We pride ourselves on not only solving consumer and business problems, but also helping to establish new capabilities for our clients. With a global client roster of Fortune 100s and start-ups alike, we crave the hardest problems to solve. We have teams distributed across North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. The Code and Theory global network of agencies is growing and includes Kettle, Instrument, Left Field Labs, Create Group, Current, and TrueLogic. Striving never to be pigeonholed, we work across every major category: from tech to CPG, financial services to travel & hospitality, government and education to media and publishing. We value the collaboration with our client partners, including but not limited to Adidas, Amazon, Con Edison, Diageo, EY, J.P. Morgan Chase, Lenovo, Marriott, Mars, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, and TikTok. The Code and Theory network is comprised of nearly 2,000 people with 50% engineers and 50% creative talent. We’re always on the lookout for smart, driven, and forward-thinking people to join our team.

The compensation range for this role is $220,000 – $280,000 and spans multiple levels. We're open to hiring at the level that best matches the right candidate's experience. Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, budget, and location.