Technical Program Manager

Kelly Services; Foster City (CA); On-site; USD 117,000 - 121,000; Full time

Job summary

Kelly Services is seeking a hands-on Technical Program Manager to lead strategic, large-scale engineering programs onsite in Foster City, CA. The role requires coordinating across multiple teams, shaping roadmaps, and managing complex dependencies with executive visibility.

You will drive standardization of processes, implement AI-assisted planning, and ensure on-time delivery of high-impact initiatives while aligning with business priorities and technical feasibility.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of technical program management experience delivering complex, multi-team projects.
• Experience leading large-scale platform, infrastructure, networking, or product engineering programs.
• Strong technical foundation with ability to engage in architectural discussions.
• Proven ability to influence executives and manage ambiguity.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end program management for large-scale, multi-team engineering initiatives.
• Partner with senior engineering and product leaders to shape roadmaps and priorities.
• Define and improve program management frameworks, processes, and tooling.
• Manage risks, escalations, and delivery constraints at portfolio level.
• Communicate with executive audiences and translate technical goals into business value.
• Contribute to architectural scoping and assess feasibility and dependencies.
• Establish operating rhythms, milestones, and governance for predictable execution.
• Leverage AI tools to evaluate designs, changes, and decision-making.
• Incorporate agentic AI models into planning and delivery workflows.

Skills

Strategic program management

Cross-team leadership

Communication

Stakeholder influence

AI in programs

Risk management

Architectural awareness

Ambiguity resolution

Tools

Apache Kafka

Protobuf

AWS Cloud

API gateways

Kafkajs

mTLS

Networking basics

Job description

Technical Program Manager

About the Role

We are seeking a highly experienced Technical Program Manager to lead strategic, large-scale engineering initiatives across multiple teams, systems, and business lines. In this role, you will operate with a high degree of autonomy and set the standard for program execution across the organization.

You will serve as a trusted partner to senior engineering and product leaders, helping shape roadmaps, guide resourcing decisions, manage complex dependencies, and deliver programs with significant business impact. The ideal candidate combines strong technical intuition, organizational influence, executive presence, and a proven ability to deliver complex initiatives at scale.

Location: Onsite in Foster City, CA

Shift: 1st, Monday - Friday

Pay Rate: $85.00 - $88.00/hour

Type: Contract

What You’ll Do

• Lead end-to-end program management for large-scale, multi-team engineering initiatives, from strategy and planning through execution and delivery.
• Partner with VP- and Director-level engineering and product leaders to influence roadmaps, resourcing decisions, priorities, and execution strategies.
• Define, implement, and continuously improve program management frameworks, processes, tooling, and best practices across the engineering organization.
• Drive alignment across complex dependency landscapes involving multiple teams, systems, external partners, and competing priorities.
• Identify, assess, and proactively manage risks, escalations, trade-offs, and delivery constraints at the program and portfolio levels.
• Communicate clearly and confidently with executive audiences, translating technical complexity into business impact and business priorities into actionable technical objectives.
• Participate in architectural and technical scoping discussions, providing informed guidance on feasibility, sequencing, dependencies, and delivery risk.
• Establish operating rhythms, milestones, success metrics, and governance models that support predictable program execution.
• Bring clarity to ambiguous, fast-moving situations and help teams make sound, timely decisions.
• Use AI tools to evaluate technical designs, assess code changes, support decision-making, and improve program execution.
• Incorporate AI chatbots and agentic AI models into program planning, analysis, communication, and delivery workflows.

What You’ll Bring

• 7+ years of experience in technical program management, with a demonstrated record of delivering complex, organization-wide engineering programs.
• Deep experience managing multi-team software programs across the full software development lifecycle.
• Experience leading large-scale platform, infrastructure, networking, wireless, or product engineering initiatives.
• A strong technical foundation and the ability to engage credibly in architectural discussions, understand system design trade-offs, and evaluate technical risk.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to influence without authority and communicate effectively with executive stakeholders.
• Experience building or improving program management processes, operating models, and tooling at an organizational level.
• Demonstrated ability to manage ambiguity, create clarity, prioritize effectively, and make sound decisions under pressure.
• Practical experience using AI tools to support technical analysis, design evaluation, code-change assessment, and informed decision-making.
• Understanding of agentic AI models and experience executing programs with AI chatbots or similar AI‑assisted tools.

Technical Expertise

Experience or strong working knowledge in the following areas is required:

Wireless Technologies

• 4G and 5G technologies
• Multi‑WAN load balancing

Networking Technologies

• UDP and TCP
• NAT traversal
• Network security, including mutual TLS (mTLS)

Data Pipelines and Cloud Infrastructure

• Apache Kafka, including kafkajs
• Protocol Buffers (Protobuf) serialization
• AWS cloud infrastructure
• API gateways and related distributed systems components

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience working at a software company on infrastructure, platform, or product engineering programs.
• Familiarity with AWS, GCP, Azure, or other cloud service platforms.
• Understanding of distributed systems concepts and architectures.
• PMP, PgMP, Agile, or Scrum certification.
• Previous experience as a software engineer or in another technical role.
• Strong problem‑solving, troubleshooting, and debugging skills.

Success in This Role

Success in this role means delivering complex, high‑impact engineering programs with clarity, predictability, and strong cross‑functional alignment. You will help teams navigate technical and organizational complexity while establishing scalable program management practices that improve execution across the engineering organization.

Benefits

• Kelly offers eligible employees voluntary benefit plans including medical, dental, vision, telemedicine, term life, whole life, accident insurance, critical illness, a legal plan, and short‑term disability.
• As a Kelly employee, you will have access to a retirement savings plan, service bonus and holiday pay plans (earn up to eight paid holidays per benefit year), and a transit spending account.
• In addition, employees are entitled to earn paid sick leave under the applicable state or local plan.

As part of our promise to talent, Kelly supports those who work with us through a variety of benefits, perks, and work‑related resources. Please note: The following benefits reflect Kelly's general offerings. Eligibility may vary by assignment, location, and job type. Kelly offers eligible employees voluntary benefit plans including medical, dental, vision, telemedicine, term life, whole life, accident insurance, critical illness, a legal plan, and short‑term disability. As a Kelly employee, you will have access to a retirement savings plan, service bonus and holiday pay plans (earn up to eight paid holidays per benefit year), and a transit spending account. In addition, employees are entitled to earn paid sick leave under the applicable state or local plan. Click here (https://www.mykelly.com/help-support-working-with-kelly-us/#Benefits) for more information on benefits and perks that may be available to you as a member of the Kelly Talent Community.

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About Kelly

Work changes everything. And at Kelly, we’re obsessed with where it can take you. To us, it’s about more than simply accepting your next job opportunity. It’s the fuel that powers every next step of your life. It’s the ripple effect that changes and improves everything for your family, your community, and the world. Which is why, here at Kelly, we are dedicated to providing you with limitless opportunities to enrich your life—just ask the 300,000 people we employ each year.

Kelly is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all qualified employees and applicants regardless of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, age, marital status, pregnancy, genetic information, or any other legally protected status, and we take affirmative action to recruit, employ, and advance qualified individuals with disabilities and protected veterans in the workforce. Requests for accommodation related to our application process can be directed to the Kelly Human Resource Knowledge Center. Kelly complies with the requirements of California’s state and local Fair Chance laws. A conviction does not automatically bar individuals from employment. Kelly participates in E‑Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I‑9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S.

Kelly may use AI-powered tools during the recruitment and hiring process. For full details, including how Kelly uses AI, your rights, and how to request a reasonable accommodation, visit the Recruitment Artificial Intelligence Notice (https://www.kellyservices.com/hubfs/myKelly/Resources/Employment_Policies/Recruitment-Artificial-Intelligence-Notice.pdf?hsLang=en) .

Kelly Services is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affictive Action employer. We welcome, value, and embrace diversity at all levels and are committed to building a team that is inclusive of a variety of backgrounds, communities, perspectives, and abilities. At Kelly, we believe that the more inclusive we are, the better services we can provide. Requests for accommodation related to our application process can be directed to Kelly’s Human Resource Knowledge Center. Kelly complies with the requirements of California’s state and local Fair Chance laws. A conviction does not automatically bar individuals from employment.