Program Manager

Our client is seeking a highly skilled Program Delivery & Product Operations Lead Consultant to drive delivery excellence, strengthen cross-functional alignment, and elevate the operating rhythm of our engineering and product organization. This position is hybrid onsite in Northern NJ 3 days a week. Local candidates only/no relocation. This role is not eligible for employer-sponsored work authorization (e.g., H-1B, OPT, CPT, etc.) or transfer. Candidates must have valid U.S. work authorization This role partners directly with VPs, Directors, and Development Managers to shape delivery plans, manage risk and dependencies, embed AI-enabled ways of working, and raise the bar for Product and Engineering Operations. If you thrive at the intersection of delivery governance, product strategy, engineering operations, and organizational alignment , this is a high-impact opportunity. Key Responsibilities Program Delivery & Planning Partner with senior leadership to design delivery plans, define critical paths, and support capacity management across distributed teams. Facilitate structured RAID processes, ensuring risks and issues are surfaced, owned, and resolved. Support change governance, release frameworks, and dependency-coordination models. Define program-level KPIs and connect delivery metrics to product and business outcomes. Continuously refine delivery processes, introducing improved tooling, methods, and ways of working. Own the end-to-end program-level risk & dependency management process. Maintain a live risk/dependency register and lead regular VP/Director reviews. Identify emerging risks across delivery, technical, resourcing, and third-party domains. Drive mitigation planning and facilitate dependency-resolution forums to protect the critical path. Stakeholder Management Partner closely with VP/Director-level stakeholders and Development Managers to maintain alignment across organizational boundaries. Produce executive-level narratives, portfolio health reporting, and delivery insights. Champion transparent communication practices for globally distributed teams. AI Integration & Governance Integrate AI tools and agentic workflows into delivery processes. Evaluate tool fitness and safety, run pilots/POVs, and establish AI adoption standards for the PMO. Drive responsible, value-aligned AI enablement across delivery functions. Technical Excellence & Engineering Operations Support Technical Excellence reviews covering code coverage, vulnerabilities, DR readiness, cost metrics, and delivery KPIs. Own and improve Engineering Operations practices including incident management, on-call, change/release controls, environment management, and operational readiness. Product Operations Champion Product Operations across the delivery function. Partner with Product & Project Managers to maintain accurate, prioritized, outcome-aligned roadmaps. Uphold roadmap hygiene: clear definitions, sequencing, deduplication, and linkage to strategic objectives. Embed Product Ops practices including intake governance, feature lifecycle management, backlog health reviews, and cross?team prioritization. Improve the quality of product artefacts — epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, and release plans. PMO Community & Continuous Improvement Contribute to the PMO community of practice through playbooks, templates, and shared learnings. Champion new tooling, refined standards, and modern delivery approaches. Participate in PMO retrospectives, knowledge-sharing forums, and capability-building initiatives. People & Capability Development Coach junior and mid-level PMs on planning, facilitation, risk thinking, dependency awareness, and product mindset. Lead complex workshops, design thinking sessions, hackathons, and AI use-case discovery. Drive cross-functional ideation and translate outcomes into actionable delivery initiatives. #J-18808-Ljbffr