Senior Customer Project / Program Manager

Role Description

The Sr Strategic Customer Project / Program Manager is a seasoned project management professional and trusted partner to Cox Automotive’s OEM, enterprise client, and internal business stakeholders. This role manages end-to-end delivery of complex, cross-functional initiatives across Dealer Marketing and the broader Consumer organization from business case development through operational handoff.

The Sr Strategic Customer Project / Program Manager operates at the intersection of program strategy, client-facing delivery, and measurable business outcomes. Engagements are selected based on business value (revenue, retention, cost reduction, regulatory/contractual requirement) and complexity (cross-organizational, multi-stream, or requiring new capabilities). This is not a coordination-only role: the Sr Strategic Customer Project / Program Manager is expected to lead, influence, and drive accountability across teams that do not report to them.

Key Responsibilities

• Independently manage moderately to highly complex projects requiring collaboration across multiple Cox Automotive functions and/or external client organizations.
• Apply consistent project management methodology (scope, charter, risk management, change control, close-out) across all engagements.
• Engage directly with OEM and dealer client stakeholders to understand business needs, define scope, and align delivery to client expectations and contractual commitments.
• Develop and maintain detailed project plans and schedules covering all workstreams; manage scope, schedule, risks, dependencies, and change control throughout the project lifecycle.
• Facilitate cross-functional project teams comprising business, technical, and operational team members; drive accountability without direct management authority.
• Lead regular workstream meetings, document decisions and action items, and maintain a central project repository (charter, requirements and designs, status reports, meeting summaries, risk/issue/action logs, deliverables).
• Prepare and distribute project status communications to sponsors, stakeholders, and executive leadership; escalate risks and issues with recommended mitigations.
• Support the development of client-facing materials and value narratives in partnership with Account Management, Marketing, Product Management, Sales, Readiness and Operations teams.
• Partner with Product Readiness and Business Readiness teams to ensure internal readiness, training, and handoff at project close.
• Track and report on project KPIs; guide projects and programs based on business impact (revenue, retention, adoption, cost savings), and support post-project measurement of KPIs and measures of success.
• Identify and recommend process improvement opportunities; contribute to the continuous improvement of project and program management methodology, tools, and documentation standards.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in related discipline and 4 years’ experience in a related field. The right candidate could also have a different combination, such as a master’s degree and 2 years’ experience; a Ph.D. and up to 1 year of experience; or 8 years’ experience in a related field.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple concurrent projects with competing priorities and deadlines.
• Experience managing client-facing projects or programs, including executive-level stakeholder communication.
• Proficiency in project management tools and methodologies (Agile, Waterfall, or hybrid). Experience with Smartsheet and the Scaled Agile Framework are particularly applicable to this role.
• Experience with the product development lifecycle.
• Strong organizational, analytical, and communication skills; able to translate complex program status into clear executive narratives.
• Proven ability to drive alignment and accountability across teams without direct authority.

Requirements

• 5+ years of project or program management experience in complex, cross-functional environments.
• Experience in automotive, digital marketing, or OEM/dealer ecosystems.
• Familiarity with OEM and Enterprise/Large Dealer Group clients, contractual requirements, and compliance-driven delivery.
• Experience with continuous improvement and process improvement methodologies and tools.
• Demonstrated experience using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to improve the value and quality of project and program management services and deliverables.

Benefits

• Eligible employees can take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company’s needs, and its obligations.
• Seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year.
• Up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members.
• Additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave.