Staff Technical Program Manager

Staff Technical Program Manager – Enterprise Technology & Systems Delivery

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI's technology actively supports operations worldwide.

The Staff Technical Program Manager – Enterprise Technology & Systems Delivery is a senior program leader within the PMO who owns complex, multi-project technology programs and enterprise transformation initiatives from strategy through delivery and sustained adoption. This role goes beyond managing schedules. It shapes how programs are structured, governed, and resourced, and it is accountable for program outcomes, not just execution.

The role requires enough technical depth to challenge assumptions, pressure-test architecture and integration approaches, identify delivery risks before technical teams do, and hold engineering, vendors, and systems integrators accountable. While not the solution architect, this person is expected to be a credible technical peer to engineering and IT leaders. Success is defined by predictable delivery of high-impact programs, executive confidence, strong cross-functional alignment, and raising the PMO's overall delivery maturity.

What you'll do:

• Own end-to-end delivery of large, multi-workstream technology programs, including enterprise platform implementations, ERP and business system rollouts, cloud and infrastructure migrations, identity and security programs, and system integrations.
• Define program structure, roadmap, phasing, and delivery strategy in partnership with business and technology leadership, including shaping scope and sequencing before execution begins.
• Lead and coordinate multiple project managers, workstream leads, and vendor teams under a single integrated program plan.
• Drive technical delivery conversations across architecture, integrations, data migration, environments, security, testing, and cutover, and challenge technical plans and estimates when risks aren't adequately addressed.
• Establish and run program governance, including steering committees, executive reporting, decision forums, and escalation paths, and present directly to senior leadership.
• Own program-level risk management and proactively identify systemic risks, cross-program dependencies, and resource conflicts across the portfolio.
• Manage program budgets, forecasts, and resource plans, and own variance explanations and tradeoff recommendations.
• Lead vendor and systems integrator management, including SOW scoping, performance management, milestone acceptance, and escalation of delivery gaps.
• Own go-live readiness decisions, including readiness criteria, cutover strategy, rollback planning, and hypercare exit.
• Partner with OCM to ensure change, communications, training, and adoption are built into program plans from the start.
• Define and improve PMO standards, templates, tooling, and delivery practices, and raise the bar for program management across the organization.
• Mentor and coach IC2/IC3 project managers and act as a senior escalation point for delivery challenges.
• Translate complex technical status into clear, decision-oriented narratives for executives.

Required qualifications:

• 8+ years of project or program management experience, including 5+ years leading complex technology programs with multiple workstreams and cross-functional teams.
• Proven track record of delivering large-scale enterprise technology programs (e.g., ERP, cloud migration, identity/security, platform consolidation, or major system integrations) through go-live and stabilization.
• Strong technical fluency across enterprise architecture, integrations and APIs, data migration, infrastructure and cloud, security controls, and SDLC/testing practices, with enough depth to challenge technical teams and vendors credibly.
• Experience owning program governance and presenting directly to executive stakeholders and steering committees.
• Demonstrated experience managing vendors and systems integrators, including SOW oversight and delivery accountability.
• Experience managing program budgets, forecasts, and resource plans.
• Ability to lead through influence across engineering, IT, business, and vendor organizations without direct authority.
• Exceptional communication and executive presence, with the ability to simplify complexity and drive decisions.
• PMP, PgMP, or equivalent certification is a plus.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience delivering technology programs in defense, aerospace, or other highly regulated environments, including familiarity with compliance and security frameworks such as CMMC, NIST 800-171, ITAR, DFARS, or FedRAMP, and how they affect program scope, timelines, and system design.
• Experience building or maturing PMO practices, standards, or tooling.
• Experience leading programs across IT, Enterprise Operations, and Cybersecurity simultaneously.
• Background as an engineer, solutions architect, systems administrator, or technical lead before moving into program management.
• Familiarity with Agile at scale, hybrid delivery models, and tools such as Jira, Smartsheet, or ServiceNow SPM.
• Experience partnering with OCM functions on enterprise adoption.

$150,000 - $230,000 a year

Full-time regular employee offer package: Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity

Temporary employee offer package: Pay within range listed above + temporary benefits package (applicable after 60 days of employment)

Salary compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, licenses and certifications, and specific work location. All offers are contingent on a cleared background and possible reference check. Military fellows and part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. Please speak to your talent acquisition representative for more information.

Shield AI is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.