Senior Engineering Program Lead: Cross-Functional Impact

Rafay Systems; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

a fun and dynamic work environment

a competitive salary

robust benefits

attractive stock options

Job summary

Rafay Systems in the United States seeks a Senior Engineering Program Manager to lead cross-functional engineering programs from concept to delivery. You will partner with Engineering, Product, Architecture, Operations, Quality, and Security to translate strategy into executable plans and drive high-quality outcomes.

The ideal candidate brings strong technical understanding, program leadership, and the ability to navigate ambiguity while providing clear visibility to senior leadership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of experience in Engineering Program Management, Technical Program Management, Product Development, Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience leading large-scale, cross-functional engineering programs with multiple dependencies and stakeholder organizations.
• Strong understanding of the software and/or hardware product development lifecycle.
• Ability to understand system architecture, engineering designs, technical dependencies, and development trade-offs.
• Proven ability to develop program plans and drive teams against milestones and measurable outcomes.
• Strong risk, dependency, issue, and change-management capabilities.
• Experience working with Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, or hybrid development methodologies.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end execution of large, technically complex engineering programs involving multiple teams and workstreams.
• Develop and maintain integrated program plans, roadmaps, milestones, schedules, dependencies, and critical paths.
• Partner with engineering and product leaders to define program scope, requirements, priorities, deliverables, and success criteria.
• Drive cross-functional alignment across Engineering, Product, Architecture, Operations, Quality, Security, and other stakeholder organizations.
• Identify technical, schedule, resource, and organizational risks early and drive mitigation and contingency plans.
• Facilitate technical reviews, requirements discussions, planning sessions, program reviews, and executive decision-making.
• Track execution against commitments and proactively resolve blockers, dependencies, and conflicting priorities.
• Establish effective program governance, operating rhythms, status reporting, escalation mechanisms, and decision frameworks.
• Translate complex engineering issues into clear business impacts, options, trade-offs, and recommendations.
• Provide concise program updates to directors, VPs, and executive stakeholders.
• Partner with engineering leadership on resource planning, capacity constraints, sequencing, and prioritization.
• Define and monitor program KPIs covering schedule, quality, execution, readiness, risk, and business outcomes.
• Drive launch/readiness activities and ensure appropriate validation, operational readiness, and stakeholder sign-offs.
• Lead retrospectives and implement improvements to engineering planning and execution processes.
• Mentor program managers and contribute to improving program-management standards, tools, and best practices across the organization.
• Influence teams and senior stakeholders effectively without relying on direct reporting authority.

Skills

Engineering PM experience

Cross-functional leadership

Program planning

Risk management

Agile/Scrum/Waterfall

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or related technical field

Tools

none

Job description

Rafay Systems in the United States seeks a Senior Engineering Program Manager to lead cross-functional engineering programs from concept to delivery. You will partner with Engineering, Product, Architecture, Operations, Quality, and Security to translate strategy into executable plans and drive high-quality outcomes.

The ideal candidate brings strong technical understanding, program leadership, and the ability to navigate ambiguity while providing clear visibility to senior leadership.