Strategic Program Manager

Strategic Program Manager

The Program Manager leads enterprise customer engagements from kickoff through delivery, owning scope, schedule, budget, and quality across multiple concurrent workstreams. This role is the connective tissue between customer stakeholders, SPHERE's implementation and technical teams, sales, and leadership — requiring a rare blend of technical fluency and customer savvy: someone comfortable navigating complex enterprise politics, yet scrappy enough to thrive on a small, fast-moving team. Prior experience with strategic, high-visibility accounts and enterprise software/services delivery is essential; consulting or professional-services vendor experience is a strong plus.

Essential Functions:

Program & Project Leadership

• Own end-to-end delivery of assigned customer programs, from kick off through completed execution.
• Build and maintain integrated project plans and resourcing across multiple concurrent engagements, balancing competing priorities as needed to protect commitments.
• Track program budgets, burn rates, change orders, and scope changes to keep delivery within approved commercial terms.

Customer & Stakeholder Management

• Serve as the primary point of accountability for stakeholders from technical leads to senior sponsors, navigating complex org structures and internal politics to keep programs unblocked.
• Build trusted relationships within strategic accounts and provide status reviews that clearly communicate progress, risk, and value.
• Manage expectations with transparency, proactively communicating changes, risks, and trade-offs.

Cross-Functional & Risk Management

• Partner across Implementation, Support, Sales, and Product to align resources, and facilitate issue resolution so context carries through the full customer lifecycle.
• Identify program risks and issues early, own mitigation plans, and maintain composure and clear communication during high-stakes escalations.

Documentation & Reporting

• Maintain accurate program documentation (plans, status reports, RAID logs) and deliver clear, regular status reporting to internal leadership and customers.

Success Measures

• On-time, on-budget delivery against agreed scope and milestones.
• Customer satisfaction, retention, and expansion within the assigned portfolio.
• Early identification and effective management of risks and escalations.
• Strength of stakeholder relationships.

Requirements: Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience as a Program Manager delivering enterprise software implementations.
• Strong technical acumen across infrastructure and identity concepts, with the ability to follow and contribute to technical conversations and translate technical concepts to business stakeholders.
• Proven experience managing strategic, large-enterprise programs, including navigating complex stakeholder structures and organizational politics.
• Comfortable operating in a lean environment with shifting priorities.
• Background in large enterprise technology programs with a solid grasp of service delivery — scoping, statements of work, change orders, and commercial constraints.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the polish to keep programs focused and moving forward.
• Strong organizational and prioritization skills to manage multiple concurrent programs.
• Must be based onshore in the U.S., in the Eastern or Central time zone; open to FTE or 1099 engagement; able to travel to client sites periodically.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience at a consulting or professional-services vendor delivering client engagements.
• Experience in identity security, identity governance, cybersecurity, or another compliance-driven software category.
• PMP or other relevant certification; familiarity with PM tooling such as Smartsheet, MS Project, or Jira.
• Experience managing both SaaS and self-hosted deployments; Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.

Why Join Us:

• Join a high-growth company shaping the future of identity security.
• Work in a collaborative, dynamic culture alongside talented colleagues and industry partners.
• Enjoy competitive compensation and benefits, with real opportunities for growth.

About SPHERE:

SPHERE is the global leader in Identity Hygiene. We are dedicated to reshaping modern identity programs by embedding this foundational fabric, enabling organizations to quickly reduce risks. We work through an identity lens that protects an organization's accounts, data, and infrastructure. Our solutions deliver immediate time-to-value by leveraging automation to discover, remediate and secure identities, now and forever. Driven by our core values of passion, empathy, and authenticity, our vision drives us to continually innovate, helping our clients to sleep better knowing their attack surface is drastically reduced, thwarting the plans of bad actors every single day.