Program Director

Role Summary
The Technology Projects Portfolio Leader is a senior leadership role responsible for owning, governing, and assuring delivery of a portfolio of high-impact network and infrastructure initiatives across BAU, transformation, and growth programs.
This role combines technical authority, portfolio/program leadership, and executive-level stakeholder management to ensure predictable outcomes aligned to fixed business milestones (e.g., acquisitions, manufacturing go-lives, site transitions, and major cutovers).


The leader acts as the single accountable owner for technical direction, delivery assurance, governance rigor, and customer confidence across complex, multi-workstream initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

1. Portfolio Leadership & Governance

• Build and operate portfolio-level governance for network and infrastructure programs, including demand intake, prioritization, dependency management, capacity planning, and executive review cadence.
• Translate non-negotiable business milestones (M&A close, factory go-live, cutovers, refresh deadlines) into executable delivery plans with clear ownership and sequencing.
• Ensure consistent application of delivery discipline across multiple concurrent programs (scope, RAID, change control, schedule integrity).
• Establish repeatable playbooks (templates, checklists, lessons learned) for acquisitions, site builds, and transformations to improve predictability and operational handoff.

2. Technical Leadership

• Partner with client technical architects and internal SMEs to validate readiness for complex network initiatives.
• Ensure all solutions align with enterprise standards, security policies, and best practices across data center, manufacturing IT/OT, and corporate environments.
• Identify repeatable technical work and drive automation strategies, including adoption of internal automation platforms to enable scalable Network Build Automation.

3. Program & Delivery Assurance

• Lead multiple concurrent programs and complex workstreams, defining scope, success criteria, integrated schedules, RAID, and milestone controls.
• Proactively identify delivery risks and early warning indicators; drive corrective actions with clear escalation paths, options, and impact analysis.
• Ensure clean execution and transition from project delivery to BAU/operations with well-defined handover criteria.
• Represent Client and the customer environment during critical/major incidents, especially those impacting manufacturing, data centers, or business continuity, acting as the senior spokesperson.

4. Cross-Functional & Vendor Orchestration

• Coordinate closely with client-side program managers, business leaders, and dependent teams (real estate, EUC, servers, applications, security) to align infrastructure delivery to the overall master plan and critical path.
• Manage complex multi-vendor ecosystems, including telecom providers, cabling partners, hardware vendors, and system integrators.
• Navigate and resolve cross-team conflicts through structured governance, transparency, and outcome-focused decision-making.

5. Customer & Executive Stakeholder Management

• Engage senior business and IT leaders with crisp, fact-based updates on status, risks, trade-offs, and recommendations.
• Maintain customer confidence through visible leadership, decisive action, and disciplined execution.
• Develop proactive roadmaps and innovation ideas to strengthen strategic relationships and support future growth.
• Support commercial and financial governance, including budget tracking, forecasting, and identification of incremental scope or growth opportunities in partnership with sales and account leadership.

6. People Leadership & Continuous Improvement

• Mentor project managers, technical leads, and engineers; drive skill development and leadership maturity across the portfolio.
• Foster a culture of ownership, proactive risk management, and continuous improvement.
• Ensure sustainable support and delivery models for manufacturing and mission-critical environments, continuously reviewing and improving turnaround and quality.

Required Skills & Competencies

Technical & Domain Knowledg e

• Understanding of enterprise network technologies:
  • Cisco SD-WAN, LAN, Wireless, Juniper Mist Wireless, Cisco DNAC / Catalyst Center
  • Palo Alto Firewalls, DDI solutions (Infoblox preferred), Audiocodes
• Broad understanding of Data Center, Manufacturing IT/OT, and Corporate Networks.
• Familiarity with network observability and troubleshooting tools (e.g., NetBrain, ThousandEyes, LiveAction).

Program & Portfolio Leadership

• Proven capability in portfolio and program management, including schedule control, dependency management, RAID, and governance cadence.
• Ability to translate technical complexity into business-aligned delivery plans.
• Strong financial and commercial acumen to support margin, cost, and growth objectives.

Automation & Transformation Mindset

• Ability to identify automation opportunities and drive adoption of template-driven and automated delivery models.
• Experience improving scalability and consistency through standardization.

Communication & Leadership

• Exceptional executive communication and presentation skills.
• Strong stakeholder management and conflict-resolution capability in matrixed environments.
• Proven people leadership, coaching, and talent-development experience.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent practical experience.
• 15+ years of experience in network infrastructure and/or IT program leadership roles.
• Demonstrated success leading business-critical programs (M&A integrations, site builds, migrations, transformations).
• PMP / PgMP / PRINCE2 or equivalent program delivery credentials preferred.