Senior Manager, Technical Program Management

Overview

At Zebra, we are a community of innovators who come together to create new ways of working. United by curiosity and a culture of caring, we develop smart solutions that anticipate our customer’s and partner’s needs and solve their challenges.

Being part of Zebra Nation means you are seen, heard, valued, and respected. Drawing from our unique perspectives, we collaborate to deliver on our purpose. Here you are part of a team pushing boundaries today to redefine the work of tomorrow for organizations, their employees, and those they serve.

You’ll have opportunities to learn and lead in a forward-thinking environment, defining your path to a fulfilling career while channeling your skills toward causes you care about—locally and globally.

Come make an impact every day at Zebra.

What We're Looking For:

We are looking for a seasoned Technical Program Management leader to build and run our Software PMO end to end. This is a high-visibility transformation leadership role that owns the delivery of complex, multi-year software product and cloud solution programs, from concept and development through go-to-market and scale. You will lead a team of program managers, run a portfolio with a sizable budget, and partner with Engineering, Product, DevOps, Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success leaders across the globe. You will be both a strategic leader and a hands-on operator: someone who understands the technology deeply enough to challenge architecture and release trade-offs, and who can drive a transformation program from vision to measurable business outcomes. You will also bring hands-on GenAI program experience, using AI to transform how software is planned, built, delivered, and launched. This is not a reporting-only PMO role. We want a builder who sets the delivery standard, develops people, and is accountable for outcomes.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Transformation Leadership

· Own and lead enterprise-level transformation programs for the software organization, such as Agile/SAFe at scale, cloud migration, platform modernization, and AI-enabled engineering, from vision and business case to measurable outcomes.

· Define the transformation roadmap with executive sponsors, secure funding, and align Engineering, Product, Cloud, and Go-to-Market leaders behind a single plan.

· Lead change management end to end: stakeholder alignment, communication, training, adoption tracking, and resolving resistance across teams and geographies.

· Be the visible change agent who sets the vision, coaches senior leaders, and holds the organization accountable for realized value, not just delivered milestones.

2. PMO Strategy & Leadership

· Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing team of program and technical program managers, including hiring, career development, performance management, and succession planning.

· Establish the Software PMO operating model, governance framework, standards, and playbooks covering planning, execution, risk, and release management.

· Define portfolio-level KPIs (on-time delivery, release quality, predictability, velocity, cost variance, customer adoption) and maintain an executive dashboard for the leadership team and steering committees.

· Act as a trusted advisor to senior leadership on roadmap feasibility, capacity, dependencies, and investment priorities.

3. Technical Program & Portfolio Delivery

· Own end-to-end delivery of multiple large, cross-functional software programs across the full product lifecycle, from requirements and architecture through development, test, release, and sustaining.

· Drive Agile, SAFe, and hybrid delivery models at scale, including program increment planning, release trains, and dependency management across teams.

· Partner with architects and engineering leads on technical trade-offs, build-vs-buy decisions, technical debt, and platform strategy.

· Proactively identify, escalate, and mitigate risks, and make timely, data-driven decisions on scope, schedule, and resourcing.

· Lead programs involving cloud-native architectures, SaaS and PaaS platforms, microservices, APIs, and data platforms on AWS, Azure, or GCP.

· Ensure security, privacy, compliance, and scalability requirements are built into the SDLC (DevSecOps).

4. Financial & Vendor Management

· Own program and portfolio budgets including forecasting, tracking, variance analysis, and business-case/ROI development with Finance.

· Manage vendors, system integrators, and engineering partners, including contracts, SLAs, performance, and commercial negotiations.

· Optimize resource allocation and sourcing across in-house, offshore, and partner teams.

5. Go-to-Market & Solution Delivery

· Partner with Product Management, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success to align product development milestones with go-to-market launches.

· Coordinate launch readiness: pricing and packaging, enablement, documentation, support readiness, and partner/channel preparation.

· Support solution development for strategic customers and pilots, ensuring feedback loops into the roadmap.

· Track post-launch adoption, revenue, and customer satisfaction metrics and drive continuous improvement.

6. Global Team & Stakeholder Leadership

· Lead and collaborate with distributed teams across India, the US, Europe, and other regions, building a unified one-team culture across time zones and cultures.

· Manage executive stakeholders at VP and C-level, communicating progress, risks, and decisions with clarity and credibility.

· Drive alignment across Engineering, Product, QA, Operations, Legal, and Sales on priorities and trade-offs.

7. GenAI Program Leadership & Continuous Improvement

· Lead and manage GenAI-based programs, from use-case identification and prototyping through pilot, scale, and adoption, covering areas such as AI-assisted coding, testing, documentation, program reporting, and customer-facing AI features.

· Partner with AI/ML, Cloud, and Security teams on LLM platforms, RAG, and agentic workflows, including build-vs-buy decisions, cost, and Responsible AI, privacy, and IP guardrails.

· Apply GenAI within the PMO itself to improve the workflow, optimize planning, enhance risk prediction, status reporting, and engineering productivity, and quantify the gains.

Required Qualifications & Experience

· 15+ years of total experience in software engineering and technical program management, with a proven track record of delivering complex software products and solutions.

· Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.

Preferred Qualification: MBA or equivalent preferred.

· Demonstrated experience building, leading, and developing a team of program managers.

· Proven experience leading large-scale, multi-year transformative programs as a program manager, with demonstrated business outcomes and organization-wide change leadership.

· 1-2 years of hands-on experience running or managing GenAI-based programs in an enterprise setting (for example AI-assisted software development, AI-enabled products or workflow automation).

· Strong understanding of the software development lifecycle and software product development.

· Solid working knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP), SaaS, DevOps, and cloud-native architecture.

· Experience managing teams and stakeholders across geographies, including the US and Europe.

· Exposure to go-to-market and product/solution development, including launches and customer engagement.

· Certifications such as PMP, PgMP, SAFe (SPC/RTE) preferred.

People Management Experience

The ideal candidate is expected to have direct people management experience, including building and leading teams of program and technical program managers (ideally 8-15 or more, including managers of managers) across India, the US, and Europe. You have hired and onboarded talent, defined clear career paths, set goals, delivered regular coaching and candid performance feedback, and built succession plans. You can grow first-time program managers into senior leaders, manage underperformance fairly, and keep distributed teams engaged and motivated across time zones and cultures. You lead by example, build a culture of ownership, accountability, and inclusion, and are as invested in developing your people as in delivering programs.

Program & Business

· Exceptional program management, structured problem-solving, and prioritization skills.

· Strong financial acumen: budgeting, forecasting, business cases, and ROI.

· Outstanding executive communication, storytelling, and stakeholder influence.

· Proven transformation and change leadership, with the ability to drive adoption in complex, resistant organizations.

Leadership Attributes

· Visionary, influential transformation leader who inspires senior leaders and large teams.

· Servant leader who builds teams, grows talent, and raises the bar on delivery.

· Hands-on, outcome-oriented, with a high degree of ownership and accountability.

· Collaborative, low-ego, culturally aware, and comfortable with ambiguity.

· Intellectually curious, continuously learning about emerging technologies.

Why This Role:

This is an opportunity to lead the transformation of the software program management function of a global organization and to shape how products and cloud solutions are built, launched, and scaled. You will work directly with senior leadership across geographies, manage significant investments, and build a team that sets the benchmark for delivery excellence.

If you are a seasoned technical program leader who is equally comfortable in the boardroom and in the details of a release plan, this role is built for you.

Benefits

• We understand the importance of work-life balance and wellbeing, which is why we offer flexibility for our teams including: hybrid work, adaptable hours, Summer Flex Fridays, Focus Fridays, and an annual companywide well-being day to promote revitalization and success.

Job Posting Statement:

• To protect candidates from falling victim to online fraudulent activity involving fake job postings and employment offers, please be aware our recruiters will always connect with you via @zebra.com email accounts. Applications are only accepted through our applicant tracking system and only accept personal identifying information through that system. Our Talent Acquisition team will not ask for you to provide personal identifying information via e-mail or outside of the system. If you are a victim of identity theft contact your local police department.

AI Technology Statement:

• Zebra Technologies leverages AI technology to evaluate job applications using objective, job-relevant criteria. This approach enhances efficiency and promotes fairness in the hiring process. However, every decision regarding interviews and hiring is made by our dedicated team, because we believe people make the best decisions about people. For more on how we use technology in hiring and how we process applicant data, see our Zebra Privacy Policy.