Principal Technical Program Manager

Role: Principal Technical Program Manager

Location: Vancouver, BC (Hybrid )

Full Time

Role Summary

We are seeking a visionary Principal Technical Program Manager (TPM) to define, shape, and steer the next-generation global technology portfolio across Merch Planning, Forecasting, Sizing, and Allocation systems. Operating at the highest echelon of strategic leadership within Global Product Technology, you will be the primary bridge connecting business vision to enterprise-scale technology architecture.

This role requires a distinguished industry expert who does not just manage programs, but engineers organizational transformation. You will own the architectural sequencing and execution strategies that transform retail planning lifecycles, inventory flow, and allocation algorithms into competitive market advantages. If you are a seasoned leader capable of orchestrating massive, cross-portfolio platform migrations, driving technical standardization, and influencing VP-level business decisions, you will thrive in this role.

Key Responsibilities

1. Portfolio Strategy, Governance & Organizational Vision

• Define the Global Roadmap: Partner with executive leadership to establish the 3-to-5-year global technology vision and execution roadmap for Merch Planning, Forecasting, Sizing, and Allocation.
• Enterprise Portfolio Ownership: Champion end-to-end organizational alignment, capital allocation, and delivery excellence across multi-million dollar program portfolios.
• Synchronize with Business Milestones: Ensure technological evolutions natively support global GTM gates, multi-million dollar buy cycles, and high-impact merchandising decision-making windows.

1. Strategic Thought Partnership & Retail Value Generation

• Executive Co-Pilot: Serve as the definitive strategic advisor to Vice Presidents and senior directors of Merch Planning and Allocation, transforming business hypotheses into resilient, scalable platforms.
• Value-Chain Optimization: Drive systemic, metric-based improvements across global pre-season planning (assortment, sizing curves, buy quantities) and in-season execution (dynamic reforecasting, sell-through optimization, dynamic store/DC routing).
• Macro Tradeoff Engineering: Arbitrate highly complex business-tech tradeoffs (e.g., algorithmic forecast accuracy vs. operational responsiveness; localized automation vs. localized planner override).

1. System Architecture & Technical Decision Leadership

• Drive Platform Modernization: Lead architectural decision-making, sequence global data flows, and steer critical integrations across foundational engines (e.g., SaaS planning tools like Anaplan, massive data warehouses like Snowflake, and proprietary AI/ML microservices).
• Establish Decision Frameworks: Author and champion the technical evaluation frameworks used by engineering and product executives to make high-stakes build-vs-buy and deprecation decisions.
• System-of-Systems Translator: Demystify highly technical, data-science and algorithmic models into tangible product features, and vice-versa, for non-technical stakeholders.

1. Elite Delivery Models & Operating System Design

• Define How We Deliver: Design, deploy, and scale the operational delivery models used by hundreds of engineers and program managers globally.
• Institutionalize Execution Standards: Pioneer cross-portfolio execution standards, ensuring backlog readiness, cross-team coordination, and resource allocation are tied directly to corporate-level business outcomes.
• Pioneer continuous improvement frameworks that guarantee industry-leading delivery predictability and software validation rigor during critical business freeze periods (such as Peak Season).

1. Cross-Functional Orchestration & Downstream Protection

• Single-Threaded Executive Owner: Act as the ultimate orchestrator uniting Merch Planning, Allocation, Core Software Engineering, Data Science, and Product Management.
• Risk & Dependency Mitigator: Proactively map, manage, and mitigate hidden systemic dependencies across forecasting engines, sizing logic, allocation systems, and financial ledger outputs.
• Guard Data Integrity: Champion enterprise-level data quality standards to ensure downstream planning tools receive pristine, high-fidelity inputs.

1. High-Stakes Incident & Operational Leadership

• Executive Incident Commander: Lead the resolution of high-severity production failures impacting global planning or allocation outcomes, orchestrating rapid recovery across disparate engineering groups.
• Root Cause Pioneer: Direct post-mortem processes to identify structural flaws in technology or operational processes, ensuring permanent remediation and platform self-healing.
• SLA & Reliability Standardizer: Set and enforce strict operational SLAs, ensuring 99.9% uptime and reliability for business-critical decision systems.

1. Corporate Influence & Executive Communication

• C-Suite Storyteller: Author and deliver boardroom-ready reports, roadmaps, and business cases that explicitly tie technology infrastructure spend to core financial outcomes (e.g., inventory turn, GMROI, margins).
• Value-Driven Prioritization: Lead high-level prioritization forums, ensuring organizational energy is spent on high-impact initiatives rather than localized optimizations.

1. Talent Incubation & Scalable Mentorship

• Raise the Organizational Bar: Build scalable organizational mechanisms (e.g., automated forecast validation structures, standard transition playbooks, cross-portfolio dependency mapping) to elevate operational matureness.
• Nurture Future Leaders: Formally mentor and coach Staff, Senior, and Mid-level TPMs/PMs on how to think strategically, master technical architectures, and connect delivery output to core business value.

Required Qualifications

• 15+ years of progressive experience in Technical Program Management, Engineering Leadership, or Enterprise Architecture, with at least 5+ years operating at a Principal, Director, or equivalent scale.
• Domain Mastery: Proven track record of architecting and delivering massive enterprise portfolios within Merch Planning, Allocation, Supply Chain, or high-throughput Retail Tech systems.
• Transformational Leadership: Demonstrated experience leading large, matrixed cross-functional engineering and data science teams to deliver complex, multi-year initiatives.
• Algorithmic Insight: Comprehensive grasp of forecasting models, inventory optimization algorithms, size-curve profiling, and data-driven pipeline systems.
• Elite Executive Influence: Masterful written and verbal communication style, with extensive experience presenting directly to VP, SVP, and C-suite executives.

Preferred Qualifications

• System Integration: Direct experience designing/migrating enterprise-scale instances of Anaplan, custom allocation engines, or legacy planning tools.
• Advanced Data Platforms: Deep technical familiarity with Snowflake, AWS/GCP data stacks, end-to-end ETL/ELT pipelines, and streaming data processing.
• Pioneering AI/ML Implementation: Hands-on experience scaling machine-learning forecasting and optimization models from R&D to enterprise production environments.
• Omnichannel Expertise: Deep background in complex, global omnichannel retail, apparel, or high-velocity logistics ecosystems.