Program Manager

Program ManagerLocation: Orange County, CA – Onsite (Locals Only) Duration: Long termJob Description:Lead end-to-end IT project delivery, including initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closure.Develop and maintain project plans, schedules, budgets, milestones, RAID logs, and project documentation.Manage project scope, requirements, timelines, dependencies, risks, issues, and change requests.Coordinate cross-functional teams including IT, business stakeholders, vendors, developers, infrastructure teams, and third-party partners.Facilitate project meetings, status reviews, steering committee meetings, and stakeholder communications.Track project progress and provide regular status reports to leadership and stakeholders.Identify project risks and develop mitigation and contingency strategies.Manage vendor relationships, deliverables, contracts, and performance against project objectives.Ensure projects follow organizational governance, PMO standards, methodologies, and quality processes.Coordinate testing, deployment, implementation, and transition-to-support activities.Ensure effective communication between technical and non-technical stakeholders.Monitor project financials, resource allocation, and overall project performance.Drive issue resolution and escalate critical risks or decisions when necessary.Ensure project deliverables meet business requirements, technical standards, and compliance expectations.Support continuous improvement of project management processes and best practices.Required Skills:Experience in Operations and Customer Service.5+ years of experience in IT project management, preferably managing medium to large-scale technology initiativesStrong knowledge of project management methodologies, including Agile, Waterfall, or hybrid approaches.Demonstrated experience managing project scope, schedule, budget, resources, risks, and dependencies.Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.Experience working with cross-functional and geographically distributed teams.Proficiency with project management and collaboration tools such as Microsoft Project, Jira, Azure DevOps, Smartsheet, or equivalent.Strong analytical, problem-solving, organizational, and leadership skills.Preferred Qualifications:PMP (Project Management Professional) Certification – Preferred/Strongly Preferred.Tolling industry experience – Preferred.Experience with Electronic Toll Collection (ETC), All-Electronic Tolling (AET), Open Road Tolling (ORT), or Cashless Tolling projects.Experience with transportation technology, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), roadway systems, or transportation infrastructure projects.Familiarity with tolling technologies such as RFID/transponders, Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR/ANPR), toll transaction processing, vehicle classification, roadside systems, and back-office systems.Experience integrating tolling systems with payment processing, customer service, violation/enforcement, or transportation management systems.Experience working with government agencies, transportation authorities, system integrators, and technology vendors.Knowledge of SDLC, system integration, cloud technologies, APIs, cybersecurity, and enterprise IT environments.