Senior Principal, Technical Program Management (Research & Development)

Twilio; United States; On-site; USD 188,240 - 276,700; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive pay

Generous time off

Healthcare benefits

401(k) retirement account

Parental leave

Wellness leave

Job summary

A leading communication platform is seeking a Senior Principal Technical Program Manager to lead a portfolio of strategic programs. You will be responsible for orchestrating complex technical strategies, influencing high-level architectural decisions, and mentoring team members. The ideal candidate will have 12+ years of experience, including managing large-scale programs, and will thrive in a dynamic environment that requires balancing strategic insight with execution excellence.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience leading massive-scale technical programs in a high-growth environment.
• Expert mastery in defining execution strategies for programs involving hundreds of engineers.
• Proven ability to influence technical direction and architectural decisions.

Responsibilities

• Orchestrate the strategy and roadmap for multi‑year technical programs.
• Architect the execution framework ensuring long-term platform health.
• Define systems of accountability for high-stakes programs.

Skills

Strategic Technical Leadership

Systemic Execution Expertise

Executive Influence

Architectural Fluency

Operational Rigor

Mastery of Ambiguity

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Engineering

Job description

About the job

Twilio is the world’s leading customer engagement platform empowering developers to build modern communication applications and experiences designed to be trusted, simple and smart. Twilio is looking for a Senior Principal Technical Program Manager to help direct a portfolio of strategic, complex, and multidisciplinary programs that significantly accelerate R&D's business impact. You'll set program strategy and lead program teams to successfully deliver business, operational, and technical improvements across Engineering & Product organizations.

As a trusted strategic advisor, you will play a critical role in driving alignment, setting priorities, and delivering high-impact programs that advance strategic initiatives. The Senior Principal, Technical Program Management is highly visible and requires a strong balance of strategic insight, execution excellence, and cross‑functional leadership. You will navigate seamlessly between big‑picture planning and hands‑on delivery to ensure key initiatives move forward in a dynamic, scaled agile environment. You'll also be expected to adapt your program portfolio proactively in response to evolving business needs and organizational complexity. Your expertise in your domain areas is regarded as expert level and authoritative, both within R&D and across the company.

Responsibilities

• Orchestrate the technical strategy and multi‑year roadmap for high‑impact, cross‑organizational technical programs that define the future of Twilio’s platforms. You manage systemic complexity and high‑stakes risk while serving as the primary technical point of contact for SVPs and executive leadership on mission‑critical programs.
• Architect the end‑to‑end execution framework, including global sequencing logic, multi‑tier governance, architectural integration patterns, and enterprise‑grade operational success metrics. You ensure the strategy accounts for technical debt retirement and long‑term platform health, moving beyond a project plan to build a sustainable delivery engine.
• Orchestrate Cross‑Portfolio Alignment: Own the master execution roadmap for complex, interdependent product suites. You identify and resolve structural misalignment between engineering roadmaps, surfacing high‑stakes tradeoffs and resource reallocations to executive leadership.
• Partner deeply with lead engineers/architects to evaluate technical approaches, integration patterns, and operational risks; ensure plans reflect real system constraints, failure modes, and readiness requirements.
• Define Systems of Accountability: Establish the organizational “operating system” for high‑stakes programs. Beyond RACI, you define the standards for how cross‑functional teams interact, ensuring clear ownership across siloed domains when technical priorities conflict.
• Anticipate Ecosystem‑Wide Impacts: Proactively identify “hidden” technical requirements across the platform (e.g., global security / compliance shifts, complex billing migrations, or observability gaps) and ensure they are integrated into the core technical design, not treated as afterthoughts.
• Scale R&D Excellence: Design and institutionalize durable program frameworks and technical readiness standards that elevate the execution maturity of the entire global R&D organization. You build the playbooks that become the Twilio standard for large‑scale engineering delivery.
• Force Multiplier & Mentor: Mentor to Principal TPMs and Engineering Leads. You raise the collective bar for technical risk management, executive storytelling, and high‑velocity decision‑making.

Qualifications

Twilio values diverse experiences from all kinds of industries, and we encourage everyone who meets the required qualifications to apply. If your career is just starting or hasn't followed a traditional path, don't let that stop you from considering Twilio. We are always looking for people who will bring something new to the table!

Required Qualifications

• Experience: 12+ years of experience leading massive‑scale technical programs in a high‑growth, distributed systems and software engineering domain.
• Strategic Technical Leadership: Proven ability to influence technical direction and architectural decisions at the VP/SVP level, with a track record of steering programs through complex technical pivots.
• Systemic Execution Expertise: Expert‑level mastery in defining execution strategies for programs with hundreds of engineers; you have a “spidey sense” for identifying integration risks and failure modes before they manifest.
• Executive Influence: Exceptional ability to frame highly technical challenges into strategic business narratives, driving consensus among senior executives with competing priorities.
• Architectural Fluency: Deep technical depth in cloud‑scale infrastructure, API‑first design, and distributed systems. Proven experience influencing Staff/Principal/Distinguished Engineers and challenging assumptions when necessary.
• Operational Rigor: Demonstrated success in building and scaling operational readiness frameworks using self‑service tools to surface status, actions, and KPIs across a multi‑thousand‑person R&D organization.
• Mastery of Ambiguity: A proven track record of bringing order to chaos, creating high‑functioning execution structures in environments where specifications, technologies, and market demands are in constant flux.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, a related field or equivalent practical experience.

Desired Qualifications

• Master’s in computer science or engineering or a related field
• 5+ years of technical program management at hyperscaler or Fortune 100 cloud software/infrastructure companies.
• Domain expertise in global‑scale communications (Telephony, SMS, CPaaS) or high‑throughput distributed platforms.
• Experience leading “company‑bet” transformations, such as major cloud migrations or foundational platform re‑architectures.

Location

This role will be remote and based in the United States.

What We Offer

Working at Twilio offers many benefits, including competitive pay, generous time off, ample parental and wellness leave, healthcare, a retirement savings program, and much more. Offerings vary by location.

Compensation

*Please note this role is open to candidates outside of California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Washington D.C., and Washington State. The information below is provided for candidates hired in those locations only.

The estimated pay ranges for this role are as follows:

• Based in Colorado, Hawaii, Minnesota or Vermont: $188,240.00 - $235,00.00
• Based in Washington D.C., Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts or California (outside of the San Francisco Bay Area): $199,280.00 - $249,100.00
• Based in New York, New Jersey, Washington State, or the San Francisco Bay area, California: $221,360.00 - $276,700.00
• This role may be eligible to participate in Twilio’s equity plan. All roles are generally eligible for the following benefits: health care insurance, 401(k) retirement account, paid sick time, paid personal time off, paid parental leave.

The successful candidate’s starting salary will be determined based on permissible, non‑discriminatory factors such as skills, experience, and geographic location.

Twilio is proud to be an equal opportunity employer

We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, political views or activity, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. Additionally, Twilio participates in the E‑Verify program in certain locations, as required by law.