Program Manager, PDLC

Role Description

Vasion is adopting a Product Development Life Cycle, a cross-company operating model designed to bring just enough structure to how we build and ship software. As a Program Manager on the PDLC team, you will be one of the people who makes it real.

This is not a coordination role. You will not be tracking status and scheduling syncs. You will be embedded across engineering and product management teams as a practitioner, coach, and change agent helping teams not just follow the PDLC, but understand it, trust it, and work inside it naturally.

You will split your time between two things: operating the PDLC across active programs day-to-day, and helping build and improve the framework itself. Your perspective from inside the teams will actively shape how the system evolves. Vasion's engineering organization is also moving toward agent-native development, which means genuine curiosity about AI is part of the job.

What You Will Do

• PDLC Adoption and Change Enablement
  • Operate as an embedded PDLC practitioner, modeling the framework and helping cross-functional partners understand why it exists and how to use it.
  • Coach engineering and product management team members on PDLC practices by meeting them where they are, not where the playbook says they should be.
  • Build trust through consistency, follow-through, and genuine partnership, not process authority.
  • Communicate the value of the PDLC to engineering clearly and often: reduced context-switching, clearer scope handoffs, fewer rebuilds, better predictability.
• PDLC Framework Contribution and Development
  • Partner with the VP of PgM to build, document, and refine processes, templates, stage gate criteria, and governance standards.
  • Develop and maintain playbooks and documentation that make the PDLC accessible across Product Management and Engineering.
  • Translate on-the-ground experience into framework improvements.
• End-to-End Program Management
  • Own the full lifecycle of assigned programs from Discovery through Grow: scope, timelines, milestones, dependencies, and deliverables at every stage.
  • Build program plans that give Product Management, Engineering, Design, QA, and Go-to-Market a shared view of what is happening, what is next, and who owns what.
  • Stay ahead of risks and blockers; bring well-reasoned options to the VP before problems compound.
  • Facilitate kick-offs, stage gate reviews, cross-functional syncs, and retrospectives to drive clear outcomes and documented next steps every time.
• Cross-Functional Alignment and Communication
  • Serve as the day-to-day coordination point between Product Management, Engineering, Design, QA, and Go-to-Market for programs in your portfolio.
  • Surface and resolve cross-team misalignments and dependency conflicts before they impact delivery.
• Reporting and Documentation
  • Maintain accurate, up-to-date program documentation throughout the full lifecycle.
  • Treat documentation as a core part of program quality in order to make programs reproducible, learnable, and increasingly agent-ready.

Qualifications

• 5-8 years of program management experience in software, at the program level across multiple teams.
• Cross-functional programs through multiple phases of a product or software development lifecycle.
• Embedded directly within engineering and/or product management teams, not a centralized PMO.
• Participated in or drove a process or operating model change.
• Fluency with Atlassian (Jira/Confluence), Notion, and/or Adobe Workfront.
• B2B SaaS or enterprise software experience strongly preferred.

Preferred Experience

• Dual-track agile, Shape Up, OKR-based planning, or similar lean frameworks.
• Product management discovery concepts: opportunity mapping, user story mapping, hypothesis-driven development.
• Supported both product management and engineering within the same organization.
• High-growth or PE-backed software environment.

Skills and Attributes

• Drives alignment through credibility and partnership, not role authority.
• Understands why a process step exists and can explain it plainly to skeptical teams.
• Decomposes complex initiatives into legible phases without over-engineering.
• Genuinely curious about AI and already using it.
• Treats friction as information, not failure.
• Cares about the outcome more than the credit.

Education

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience required.
• PMP, CSM, PMI-ACP, or equivalent a plus.

Bonus

• Helped a skeptical engineering or product management team adopt a new way of working and can describe specifically what it took.
• Contributed to building a PDLC or SDLC framework from scratch.
• Has a working mental model of what makes cross-functional alignment hard and specific tactics used to address it.

Benefits

• Flexible work environment.
• Discretionary Vacation Bonus.
• Flexible paid time off.
• Paid parental leave.
• Competitive pay.
• A full suite of traditional benefits.
• Training/Advancement opportunities.
• 401k with company match and immediate vesting.
• Financial wellness education.
• Mental Wellness Support.
• Company-contributed HSA.
• Onsite perks include gym, pickleball, snacks & drinks, arcade, theater room, etc.

Our Core Values

• Disruptive Visionaries: Our customers are the heroes, and our role is to be a guide on their journey, truly listening and identifying the needs and wants of our customers.
• Relationship Builders: We treat people as people, building strong relationships through empathy, compassion, and honest communication.
• Candor Seekers: Candid conversations are critical to achieving objectives, and we nurture a culture of caring personally and challenging directly.
• Action Owners: Every employee takes ownership of any failures and develops a plan to win, no matter their tenure or circumstance.

Additional Information

Vasion is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, age, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation and other legally protected characteristics.