Staff Technical Program Manager

Sony Interactive Entertainment; San Mateo (CA); Hybrid; USD 207,000 - 310,000; Full time

Job summary

Sony Interactive Entertainment is seeking a Staff Technical Program Manager to lead large, strategic technical programs that span multiple teams and geographies. You will translate business and technical objectives into executable plans and manage risks, decisions, and tradeoffs to ensure successful delivery.

The role requires a strong technical foundation, the ability to influence leaders without direct authority, and the skill to adapt program approaches to fit the problem.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of technical program or project management experience leading complex software or technology initiatives across multiple teams or organizations.
• Fluency across software systems, architectures, integrations, and engineering practices; translate technical complexity into program decisions.
• Proven ability to lead large strategic programs end to end from problem definition to measurable outcomes.
• Strong judgment and problem-solving in ambiguous environments with no predefined path.
• Experience managing cross-team dependencies, risks, roadmaps, milestones, requirements, and tradeoffs across the SDLC.
• Ability to influence senior leaders and align competing priorities without direct authority.
• Experience designing or improving scalable program operating models, governance, and cadence.
• Excellent written and verbal communication for executive audiences with technical depth.
• Proven ability to mentor and elevate TPMs and cross-functional partners.

Responsibilities

• Lead large, strategic technical programs spanning multiple teams, organizations, technologies, or geographies with end-to-end accountability.
• Build integrated plans and roadmaps connecting requirements, architecture, dependencies, milestones, resources, risks, and decisions.
• Develop understanding of system architecture to identify cross-system impacts and improve decision quality.
• Collaborate with engineering leaders, architects, and product partners to translate objectives into execution strategies.
• Anticipate and manage dependencies and tradeoffs to prevent delivery blockers.
• Establish program health metrics and provide visibility into progress, risks, and outcomes for executives.

Skills

Technical PM

Software systems fluency

End-to-end delivery

Ambiguity management

Cross-team dependencies

Executive influence

Program governance

Mentoring TPMs

Technical leadership

Job description

Why Sony Interactive Entertainment?

Sony Interactive Entertainment isn’t just the Best Place to Play — it’s also the Best Place to Work. Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is the company behind the PlayStation brand. As a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation, we’re part of a proud legacy of innovation and excellence. SIE is a dynamic technology company, delivering cutting-edge hardware and network services to more than 100 million people and an entertainment leader, home to some of the most beloved and recognizable intellectual properties (IP) in the world. Our role at SIE is to create and nurture the experiences under the PlayStation brand, a name synonymous with entertainment excellence and creativity.

JOB PURPOSE:

The Technical Program Governance team enables complex technical initiatives across PlayStation engineering organizations by creating clarity, alignment, and disciplined execution across organizational boundaries.

As a Staff Technical Program Manager, you will lead large, strategic technical programs that span multiple teams, technologies, and stakeholders. You will translate business and technical objectives into executable plans, bring structure to ambiguity, and ensure risks, dependencies, decisions, and tradeoffs remain visible and actively managed.

This role requires a strong technical foundation and the judgment to operate as a trusted partner to engineering and architecture leaders. You will influence without relying on positional authority, select and adapt program approaches to fit the problem, and improve the operating systems that help teams deliver effectively at scale.

EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS

Essential

• 8+ years of relevant technical program or project management experience, including ownership of complex software or technology initiatives spanning multiple teams or organizations.
• Demonstrated technical fluency across software systems, platforms, architecture, integrations, and engineering practices; able to understand system interactions, ask informed technical questions, and translate technical complexity into program decisions.
• Proven ability to lead large strategic programs end to end, from problem definition and planning through execution, delivery, and measurable outcomes.
• Strong independent judgment and problem‑solving skills, with experience operating effectively in ambiguous environments where the path forward is not predefined.
• Experience managing cross-team dependencies, technical risks, roadmaps, milestones, requirements, decision points, and delivery tradeoffs across the software development lifecycle.
• Ability to influence senior technical and business leaders, build alignment across competing priorities, and drive decisions without direct authority.
• Experience designing or improving program operating models, governance, planning cadences, metrics, or ways of working that scale beyond a single initiative.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to create concise executive narratives while maintaining sufficient technical depth for engineering audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor, coach, or raise the effectiveness of other TPMs and cross‑functional partners through reusable practices and knowledge sharing.

Desirable

• Prior hands‑on experience in software engineering, systems engineering, QA, architecture, or another technical discipline.
• Experience supporting platform, infrastructure, developer tooling, cloud, distributed systems, or other complex engineering environments.
• Experience leading standardization, transformation, or organizational change initiatives across multiple technical teams.
• Background in the games or interactive entertainment industry.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES & SCOPE FOR DECISION MAKING

Technical Program Management

• Lead large, strategic technical programs spanning multiple engineering teams, organizations, technologies, or geographies, with accountability for end-to-end outcomes.
• Build integrated program plans and roadmaps that connect technical requirements, architecture, dependencies, milestones, resources, risks, and decision points.
• Develop sufficient understanding of system architecture and technical constraints to identify cross‑system impacts, challenge assumptions constructively, and improve planning and decision quality.
• Partner closely with engineering leaders, architects, product partners, and other technical stakeholders to translate objectives into clear execution strategies and drive resolution of complex issues.
• Anticipate and actively manage technical and organizational dependencies, surfacing tradeoffs early and driving decisions before they become delivery blockers.
• Establish clear program health measures and provide decision-quality visibility into progress, risk, scope, and outcomes for senior stakeholders.

Strategy and Decision Support

• Operate as a trusted partner to senior leaders, using technical context, program data, and organizational knowledge to shape recommendations and execution strategy.
• Use independent judgment to determine the right program methodology, governance, and operating model for the work rather than applying process mechanically.
• Analyze complex problems across organizations and technologies, identify patterns and root causes, and drive practical solutions that balance technical, business, schedule, and resource considerations.
• Strengthen requirements and major program decisions by connecting business objectives with technical realities, long‑term implications, and customer or organizational value.
• Create clear narratives and recommendations that enable senior leaders to understand options, tradeoffs, risks, and required decisions.

Organizational Impact and TPM Practice

• Design and improve scalable program practices, governance, planning cadences, OKRs/KPIs, and decision mechanisms that increase clarity and execution effectiveness across multiple teams.
• Identify where existing processes or methodologies create unnecessary friction and adapt or simplify them while preserving appropriate rigor and accountability.
• Lead change and standardization efforts where needed, building adoption through stakeholder engagement, practical implementation, and measurable outcomes.
• Mentor TPMs and cross‑functional partners, share reusable practices, and contribute to stronger technical program management capability across the organization.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

• Successful delivery of large, complex technical programs with clear business and engineering outcomes.
• Quality and timeliness of decisions, risk management, dependency resolution, and executive visibility.
• Effectiveness in creating alignment across technical teams and senior stakeholders without direct authority.
• Measurable improvements to program operating models, governance, and organizational execution capability.
• Demonstrated technical credibility, independent judgment, and ability to raise the effectiveness of others.

Base Pay Range

• $206,800—$310,200 USD

At SIE, we consider several factors when setting each role’s base pay range, including the competitive benchmarking data for the market and geographic location.

Please note that the base pay range may vary in line with our hybrid working policy and individual base pay will be determined based on job‑related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location.

In addition, this role is eligible for SIE’s top‑tier benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, matching 401(k), paid time off, wellness program and coveted employee discounts for Sony products. This role also may be eligible for a bonus package. Click here to learn more.

Please note, Sony Interactive Entertainment conducts background checks at the offer stage for all new employees (which may include criminal background checks for some roles) and will need to process personal information to support these checks.

Please refer to our Candidate Privacy Notice for more information about what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and your data protection rights.

Sony is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All persons will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender (including gender identity, gender expression and gender reassignment), race (including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin), religion or belief, marital or civil partnership status, disability, age, sexual orientation, pregnancy, maternity or parental status, trade union membership or membership in any other legally protected category.

We strive to create an inclusive environment, empower employees and embrace diversity. We encourage everyone to respond.

Sony Interactive Entertainment is a Fair Chance employer and qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records will be considered for employment.