Senior Technical Program Manager

Western Governors University; United States; On-site; USD 144,000 - 223,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision coverage

Retirement savings plan

Tuition discounts for employees

Flexible paid time off

Parental leave

Job summary

Western Governors University seeks a Senior Program Manager - Technical to lead highly complex, multi-team technology programs from concept to delivery.

You will align engineering, architecture, product, security, and business stakeholders to deliver measurable value at scale, guiding teams through ambiguity with strong cross-functional communication.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Business, MIS, CS or related field.
• 8+ years of progressive project management experience.
• Experience leading technical projects or programs in an Agile environment.
• Proven ability to work with engineering teams and understand technical architecture concepts.
• Strong experience with Jira, Confluence, or other Agile lifecycle tools.
• Experience influencing without authority in matrixed organizations.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end planning and delivery of complex, multi-team technology programs.
• Collaborate with engineering, architecture, product, and business teams to define requirements.
• Coordinate cross-team workstreams and manage dependencies for milestones.
• Facilitate Agile and SAFe program activities, including PI planning and retrospectives.
• Identify and mitigate risks and blockers; drive resolution with leadership.
• Communicate program status, risks, decisions, and impacts to stakeholders.

Skills

Software lifecycle

Cross-functional leadership

Agile/SAFe

Communication

Risk management

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business, MIS, CS

Experience substituting education with work

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Job description

About Western Governors University (WGU)

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career. Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

Grade: Technical 410 Pay Range: $143,700.00 - $222,700.00

Job Description

The Senior Program Manager - Technical leads very complex, multi-team technology programs from concept through delivery, ensuring alignment across engineering, architecture, product, security, and business stakeholders. This role drives and delivers on program strategy, manages technical dependencies at scale, and ensures delivery of high quality, secure, resilient solutions that meet business objectives. This role blends profound technical understanding with program leadership, Agile methodology expertise, and strong cross functional communication. They anticipate risks, tactfully remove impediments, guide teams through ambiguity, and connect long term program roadmaps to organizational goals. This is a role that operates with complete autonomy and influence, serving as a bridge between large, stratified technical teams and business leaders to ensure technology investments deliver measurable value at scale.

Duties

• Lead the end-to-end planning and delivery of complex, multiteam technology programs, ensuring clear scope, objectives, and success criteria.
• Partner and collaborate with engineering, architecture, product, and business teams to define program requirements, technical direction, and integrated delivery plans.
• Coordinate cross team workstreams, manage dependencies, and drive alignment on technical milestones, sequencing, and key decisions.
• Facilitate Agile and SAFe program activities, including PI planning, backlog refinement, dependency management, and program level retrospectives.
• Identify and mitigate risks, blockers, and technical challenges early; escalation issues early, appropriately, and drive resolution.
• Deliver clear, consistent communication of program status, risks, decisions, and impacts to stakeholders and high-level leadership.
• Responsible for ensuring solutions comply with enterprise security standards, technical design patterns, and operational readiness requirements.
• Lead and coordinate change management activities, including training, readiness planning, and adoption support for impacted teams.
• Maintain accurate program documentation, including roadmaps, decision logs, requirements, risks, and performance metrics.
• Conduct post-implementation validation with all parties and help measure program outcomes against expected business value.
• Performs other job-related duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities

• Strong understanding of software development lifecycle, systems architecture, integrations, cloud concepts, and technical design patterns.
• Great at engaging with engineering teams, understand technical tradeoffs, and translate complex concepts for diverse audiences.
• Ability to manage multiteam technical programs using Agile/SAFe frameworks.
• Profoundly skilled in planning, dependency management, risk management, and cross team coordination.
• Proficient with Jira, Confluence, and other delivery lifecycle and visualization tools.
• Strong presence, collaboration, and facilitation skills with the ability to lead through influence rather than authority.
• Effective at navigating ambiguity, driving alignment, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• Excellent verbal and written communication, including the ability to create clear executive summaries.
• Advanced analytical and problem-solving abilities, with a data informed approach to decision making.

Qualifications

• Education Bachelors Degree in Business, Management Information Systems, Computer Science, or a related field.
• Equivalent relevant experience performing the essential functions of this job may substitute for education degree requirements. Generally, equivalent relevant experience is defined as 1 year of experience for 1 year of education and is the discretion of the hiring manager.
• Experience 8+ years of progressive project management experience.
• Proven experience leading technical projects or programs in an Agile environment.
• Proven ability to work closely with engineering teams and understand technical architecture concepts.
• Strong experience with Jira, Confluence, or other Agile lifecycle tools.
• Strong experience influencing without authority in highly matrixed organizations.
• Experience managing large-scale, multi-team technical programs and initiatives.

Preferred Qualifications

• SAFe, PMP, ACP, CSM, or equivalent Agile/PM certifications.
• Experience with cloud technologies (Azure, AWS, GCP), APIs, microservices, or enterprise integrations.

Travel

This position requires occasional travel of up to 20%, including required attendance at designated company summits (typically one to two per year).

Position & Application Details

Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time, regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for bonuses;

• medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare
• health savings account and flexible spending account
• basic and voluntary life insurance
• disability coverage
• accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages
• legal and identity theft coverage
• retirement savings plan
• wellbeing program
• discounted WGU tuition
• flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual
• flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual
• 11 paid holidays
• other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave

Accommodations

Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at [e-mail].

Equal Employment Opportunity

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.

Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It’s not all-inclusive.

In 1997, a coalition of 19 U.S. governors founded Western Governors University with a singular vision: to make higher education more accessible by offering full degree programs online. Starting small, we quickly expanded. Today, we’re one of the largest accredited online universities in the U.S.