Lead / Principal Program Manager / Onsite / Glendale

We are seeking an experienced Lead / Principal Program Manager to establish and lead the operational execution framework across a growing digital product portfolio. This is a highly visible opportunity for a strategic operator who excels in scaling organizations, creating structure in ambiguous environments, and enabling teams to deliver with predictability and focus. The successful candidate will define and mature the program management function, ensuring product, engineering, design, and business teams remain aligned while minimizing execution overhead. Key Responsibilities

• Drive execution across product, engineering, design, and business teams by proactively identifying and resolving risks, dependencies, and delivery bottlenecks.
• Create clarity and accountability in complex, cross-functional environments where ownership and decision-making processes may still be evolving.
• Partner closely with engineering leadership to ensure plans are realistic, sustainable, and aligned with delivery capacity.
• Facilitate alignment across multiple teams and stakeholders, ensuring commitments are understood, tracked, and fulfilled.
• Maintain a trusted, up-to-date view of product priorities, roadmaps, dependencies, and progress.
• Establish and manage planning and operating rhythms, including quarterly planning, roadmap reviews, status reporting, and stakeholder communications.
• Improve organizational transparency, collaboration, and communication across both team and leadership levels.
• Continuously optimize program management practices to support organizational growth without introducing unnecessary process or bureaucracy.
• Build and scale the program management function over time, including the potential development of a small supporting team.

Required Qualifications

• 7-10+ years of experience managing complex, cross-functional programs within digital product, technology, e-commerce, or related environments.
• Demonstrated success bringing structure, accountability, and operational excellence to organizations undergoing growth or transformation.
• Strong ability to thrive in ambiguous situations and drive momentum while balancing process with agility.
• Deep understanding of software development and engineering delivery practices.
• Proven experience identifying technical and operational risks early and facilitating effective mitigation strategies.
• Exceptional stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to influence across matrixed organizations and senior leadership teams.
• Experience designing operating models, processes, and governance structures rather than simply executing established methods.
• Hands-on expertise with program and project management tools such as Jira, Confluence, or similar platforms.

Preferred Qualifications Candidates with experience in one or more of the following areas are highly valued:

• Digital commerce or e-commerce platforms
• Consumer-facing digital products
• Media, entertainment, retail, or large-scale digital ecosystems
• Experience working within globally recognized consumer brands
• Prior experience building or maturing program management capabilities within a scaling organization

What Success Looks Like

• Product and engineering teams spend more time solving customer and business problems and less time managing coordination challenges.
• Stakeholders rely on a single source of truth for priorities, delivery progress, and cross-team dependencies.
• Decisions are made efficiently because ownership and accountability are clearly defined.
• Risks and delivery challenges are surfaced early, reducing surprises and improving predictability.
• Planning processes support sustainable execution rather than chronic overcommitment.
• Program management becomes a trusted and scalable organizational capability that enables long-term growth.