Principal Program Manager

Job Description

POSITION SUMMARY:
The Principal Program Manager role is responsible for the leadership and delivery of Enterprise programs that include multiple projects spanning across business verticals and impact significant organizational Strategic Initiatives. This position operates at an expert level to ensure strategic program deliverables and goals are clearly defined and successfully achieved. Programs include a collection of projects or complex multiple workstreams to achieve a strategic goal. This role will use the organization's defined project delivery lifecycle and company/industry standard project management methodologies and tools. The Principal Program Manager is accountable for ensuring program scope, budget and timelines are managed within defined tolerance. This includes ensuring the optimization of budget and resources utilization across projects and workstreams within the program. The Principal Program Manager will provide stakeholder management and communications at the executive and board level, ensure risks are identified and have a mitigation plan. This role will be responsible for providing insights and recommendations to sponsors and executives on how to successfully deliver the maximum value against program goals. The Principal Program Manager will lead the team in innovative ways to solve unique and complex problems and manage risk.

ACCOUNTABILITIES:
• Defines the overall objectives and key deliverables at the program level; proactively manages and tracks key measures of success using leading indicators. Ensures the development of a comprehensive plan that incorporates deliverables, accountabilities, and timelines across the program. Ensures there is clarity on how the metrics are achieved and governs the process. Appropriate escalates issues to ensure success of the program. Provides regular status reporting on plan progress as defined by the enterprise project management office (EPMO) standards.
• Recommends and manages delivery approach at a program level, ensuring alignment across all teams to deliver the expected value.
• Ensures program level and project alignment/adhere to NMDP EPMO guidelines.
• Proactively manages and leads risk management and mitigation. Appropriately escalates risks and champions recommendations to sponsors and steering team members to enable effective decision making.
• Provides leadership to program and project resources in a manner that ensures timely delivery on commitments/tasks in support of broader program deliverables. Aligns cross-organizational resources to ensure successful delivery of program goals. Effectively identifies program resource requirements and works with plan sponsors and project managers to ensure adequately skilled resources are available to deliver on program commitments. Ensures most efficient use of resources across workstreams/projects within a program.
• Partners with business sponsors, subject matter experts, vendors and other key stakeholders to drive and define value and ensure the overall program objectives and agreement/adoption of program and project objectives/deliverables are achieved. Accountable for effective cross MSC program communication collaborating with Program and project managers as well as key stakeholders providing transparency and driving decisions where needed. Ensures cross-organizational and program interdependencies are understood and manages risks to ensure appropriate integration to Modernize Supply Chain (MSC) deliverables and plans across programs.
• Manages interdependencies and shared risks across Modernize Supply Chain (MSC) programs; assesses upstream/downstream impacts to scope, timelines, resources, and value; and escalates as appropriate.
• Facilitates decision-making across Modernize Supply Chain (MSC) programs to align sequencing and priorities, enabling timely resolution of tradeoffs and readiness for key milestones.
• Leads the Modernize Supply Chain (MSC) cross-program Steering Committees at the Sponsor and Executive levels, enabling timely decisions, alignment on priorities, and resolution of cross-program risks and dependencies.
• Manages integrated scope and change control across Modernize Supply Chain (MSC) programs, ensuring cross-program impacts are assessed, communicated, and incorporated into plans, funding, and delivery commitments.
• Aligns cross-program resource capacity and key skill needs across Modernize Supply Chain (MSC) programs; identifies constraints early and recommends tradeoffs to protect critical milestones and value delivery.
• Tracks benefits and value realization across Modernize Supply Chain (MSC) programs, connecting deliverables to intended outcomes and driving actions when delivery or value is at risk.
• Ensures vendor and implementation partner activities are coordinated across Modernize Supply Chain (MSC) programs (as applicable), including deliverables, dependencies, governance, and performance expectations.
• Key partner in leading and ensuring there is effective change management across MSC programs. Ensuring consistency across programs and contributing to the overall program goals.
• Collaborates with multiple stakeholders including program, product and project managers supporting the program.
• Leads and recommends best practice for managing dependencies and risks across multiple programs.
• Other duties as assigned.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:
Knowledge of:
• Proven experience managing cross-program dependencies and risks and driving decision-making across large, complex programs to optimize sequencing, delivery, and value.
• Demonstrated extensive experience with project management principles, project management and software development methods and tools in a complex environment.
• Experienced with industry-standard project management methodologies and tools.
• Demonstrated capability in standard office and project management applications - i.e. Microsoft Office, Microsoft Project.
• Demonstrated success in building trusted working relationships; exceptional communication skills that include ability to effectively articulate information to others at multiple levels of the organization across multiple stakeholder groups.
• Demonstrated experience identifying, documenting, and actively managing cross-program dependencies, including upstream/downstream impacts to scope, timelines, resources, and benefits realization.
• Ability to establish and maintain an integrated program roadmap (including dependency mapping and critical path) across multiple programs and portfolios, aligning milestones and decision points.
• Experience driving governance for interdependencies (e.g., dependency reviews, RAID integration, and milestone readiness), including clear ownership, action tracking, and timely escalation to sponsors/steering teams.
• Proven ability to negotiate sequencing, priority, and resource conflicts across programs, balancing local workstream needs with enterprise outcomes and constraints.
• Demonstrated experience leading integrated change control across interdependent programs, ensuring impacts are assessed, communicated, and incorporated into plans, funding, and delivery commitments.
• Demonstrated ability to manage risk at a program level and drive decisions/tradeoffs to achieve program value in a timely manner.
• Experience with assisting with IT capability maturity including User Center Design and Product Operating model
• Experience working with Implementation Partners.

Ability to:
• Leads others in a complex, high speed environment with the ability to remain focused on organizational goals under conditions of uncertainty and change.
• Demonstrate organizational agility and courage to ensure program value is achieved, including stopping non-value work and changing course if value will not be delivered.
• Understand and communicate broader objectives at the program level.
• Align multiple workstreams/projects and dependencies to achieve overall program goals.
• Manage complexity and drive overall value at the program level.
• Accountable for the overall program communication including executive and board level communications.
• Effectively manage and maximize value through others including employees, vendors/implementation partners, contractors, and external business partners.
• Effectively communicate and influence at all levels including executive level sponsors, middle management, peers and individual contributors.
• Courageously influence, lead change and inspire engagement.
• Demonstrate advanced written and oral communication and presentation skills at the appropriate level of detail for the audience.
• Advanced proven ability to use diplomacy in working relationships to address conflict and arbitrate solutions successfully
• Demonstrate high degree of business acumen and ability to lead through influence at all levels.

Education and/or Experience:
• Bachelor's degree, preferably in business, science or computer science. However, upon evaluation, equivalent related experience and/or education may be substituted for the degree.
• 12+ years of experience in program/project management.
• 5 or more years of supervisory/people management experience.
• 3-5 years of experience with User Center Design (UCD)
• Six or more years of project management experience in multiple software development, lifecycle (SDLC) methodologies and project management including Waterfall, Scrum/Agile and hybrid.
• Six or more years of experience leading operational and technology initiatives with demonstrated success in cross functional initiatives and implementation of large-scale complex projects within a healthcare environment.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS: (Additional qualifications that may make a person even more effective in the role, but are not required for consideration)
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.
• Experience working with off-shore teams.

About the Team

NMDP offers regular, full-time employees medical, dental, vision, life and disability, accident/critical illness/hospital, well-being, legal, identity theft and pet benefits. Retirement, paid time off/holidays, leave and incentive plans are also offered to eligible employees. Please reference this link for more information: NMDP Benefit Information