Technical Program Manager, Network

AHEAD builds platforms for digital business. By weaving together advances in cloud infrastructure, automation and analytics, and software delivery, we help enterprises deliver on the promise of digital transformation.   At AHEAD, we prioritize creating a culture of belonging, where all perspectives and voices are represented, valued, respected, and heard. We create spaces to empower everyone to speak up, make change, and drive the culture at AHEAD.    We are an equal opportunity employer, and do not discriminate based on an individual's race, national origin, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, marital status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law, whether actual or perceived.    We embrace all candidates that will contribute to the diversification and enrichment of ideas and perspectives at AHEAD. 

The Technical Program Manager leads complex, multi-workstream technology programs that span related projects and teams across the lifecycle of an engagement. This role is accountable for working with cross-functional teams on aligning customer outcomes, solution strategy, commercial commitments, integrated delivery plans, and execution across AHEAD.

The Technical Program Manager operates at the intersection of Pre-Sales, Sales, Delivery, Practices, Resource Management, Finance, partners, and customer leadership. They help shape opportunities, establish the program operating model, coordinate project and workstream leaders, manage cross-project dependencies and financial outcomes, and provide the executive visibility required to make timely decisions and realize value.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Program Strategy, Opportunity Shaping, and Commercial Planning

• Lead program-level shaping of complex lifecycle management programs in partnership with Pre-Sales, Sales, Architects, Technical Leads, Practice leaders, and customer stakeholders.
• Translate a strategic customer objective into an integrated program structure of related projects, workstreams, milestones, outcomes, dependencies, and decision points.
• Develop and validate program assumptions, schedules, delivery approach, staffing strategy and resources forecasting, labor mix, schedule, partner or vendor inputs, and pricing recommendations with the appropriate stakeholders.
• Assess delivery feasibility, challenge solution and schedule assumptions, identify cross-workstream risks, and surface tradeoffs before commitments are made to the customer.
• Support proposals, solution reviews, statements of work, estimates, executive presentations, and internal approvals with practical program-level content.
• Ensure a disciplined transition from opportunity shaping to delivery so that scope, assumptions, commercial commitments, risks, and decisions are understood across the program team.

Program Mobilization and Operating Model

• Collaborate with the PMO to establish the program charter, integrated master plan, and shared governance model, in alignment with established program frameworks. This includes roles and decision rights, stakeholder alignment on priorities and outcomes, mutual accountability, communication plan, escalation paths, reporting dashboards and cadence, and RAID framework.
• Collaborate with resource management and delivery leaders to forecast resources (internal or third party) as well as align project managers, workstream leads, technical teams, partners, and customer stakeholders around shared outcomes, sequencing, interdependencies, and measures of success.
• Confirm readiness across staffing, customer access, environments, procurement, vendor coordination, technical prerequisites, operational requirements, and required approvals.
• Define program-level standards for status reporting, dependency management, risk escalation, change control, quality, acceptance, and decision documentation.
• Establish program KPIs and dashboards that provide an accurate view of progress, health, financial performance, risks, dependencies, and value realization.
• Coach and support project managers and workstream leads in applying effective delivery practices while maintaining accountability for integrated program outcomes.

Multi-Workstream Technical Delivery and Lifecycle Management

• Lead execution of large lifecycle management programs across infrastructure, cloud, network, security, platform, data center, or related technology environments.
• Coordinate multiple projects, technical workstreams, delivery teams, partners, and vendors with complex interdependencies and shared milestones.
• Partner with Architects and Technical Leads to sequence work, resolve cross-workstream constraints, validate technical decisions, and maintain alignment to the approved solution and customer outcomes.
• Manage the integrated schedule and critical path, ensuring that project-level plans roll up to a coherent program plan and that impacts are understood across workstreams.
• Track delivery against scope, schedule, budget, quality, acceptance criteria, and program outcomes; drive corrective action when performance deviates from plan.
• Manage the relationship between program commitments and lifecycle operations, including implementation, knowledge transfer, transition to run or managed services, and post-go-live stabilization.
• Assess the current technical environment and operational processes to define tactical and strategic initiatives that enhance service delivery and continuously improve the overall program approach.
• Maintain visibility into systemic impediments and resolve or escalate issues that cannot be addressed within an individual project or workstream.

Program Governance, Financial Management, and Controls

• Own program governance and provide transparent reporting on overall health, scope, schedule, financial performance, resources, risks, issues, dependencies, decisions, and customer outcomes.
• Manage program financials, including labor burn, forecast, estimate-to-complete, revenue or billing milestones, gross margin drivers, invoicing readiness, and variance across projects and workstreams.
• Control program scope through documented change management, evaluating impacts to schedule, resources, pricing, commercial terms, interdependencies, and value realization before changes are approved.
• Coordinate vendor and partner performance, commercial obligations, dependencies, and escalations across the program.
• Ensure program execution follows applicable contractual, security, quality, compliance, and operational requirements.
• Use dashboards, KPIs, and data-driven insights to identify trends, improve predictability, and focus leadership attention on the most important decisions.
• Identify patterns that may affect profitability, utilization, customer satisfaction, delivery quality, or future lifecycle opportunities and engage the right leaders early.

Executive Stakeholder Leadership and Communication

• Build trusted relationships with customer sponsors, executive stakeholders, Sales, Pre-Sales, Delivery, Practice leaders, technical teams, vendors, and shared services.
• Translate complex technical and commercial information into concise, audience-appropriate communication that supports alignment, decision-making, and executive action.
• Provide regular executive reporting that clearly communicates progress, outcomes, upcoming milestones, decisions required, risks, emerging issues, dependencies, business impacts, recommended actions, and recovery plans. Manage the communication of difficult news and delivery challenges promptly and transparently.
• Lead program business reviews, both internal and with clients, to highlight accomplishments, evaluate performance, review key metrics, demonstrate value and ROI, identify risks and gaps, and align on goals for the upcoming quarter.
• Facilitate program steering committees, executive checkpoints, cross-workstream decisions, and escalation forums with clear objectives and documented outcomes. Lead complex program decisions by evaluating trade-offs, aligning stakeholders, and driving timely resolution of issues within established decision authority.
• Set expectations, manage tradeoffs, and influence without formal authority while protecting the customer relationship and AHEAD commitments.
• Represent AHEAD with professionalism, sound judgment, customer focus, and a commitment to delivering measurable business and technical value.

Program Risk, Issue, Dependency, and Change Leadership

• Operate effectively in high-ambiguity environments, navigating shifting priorities with flexibility and making timely decisions with incomplete information. Adapt program strategies to maintain resilience, delivery continuity, and alignment with business objectives while escalating material risks appropriately.
• Maintain an active program-level risk, issue, and problem management process, assigning owners, due dates, mitigation actions, escalation paths, and resolution criteria. Partner with incident, change, and problem management experts to drive proactive resolution and reduce risk.
• Identify risks created by interdependencies, sequencing, resource constraints, technical complexity, vendor performance, commercial terms, or organizational change.
• Lead integrated recovery planning when programs are off track, aligning stakeholders on options, tradeoffs, corrective actions, and revised commitments.
• Coordinate program-level changes and ensure impacts are communicated consistently across projects, workstreams, customer stakeholders, and internal leadership.
• Surface systemic delivery gaps and recommend improvements to program methods, handoffs, tools, governance, and organizational practices.

Transition, Value Realization, and Continuous Improvement

• Lead program closeout and value-realization activities, including acceptance, financial reconciliation, benefits tracking, documentation, customer feedback, lessons learned, and administrative completion.
• Ensure the customer and operational teams are prepared for transition, support, lifecycle operations, warranty, managed services, or ongoing improvement activities as applicable.
• Capture and apply lessons learned across projects and workstreams to improve estimating, scoping, handoffs, and delivery practices. Develop repeatable processes, templates, and governance artifacts to standardize execution, institutionalize improvements, and support scalable program delivery.
• Partner with Sales, Pre-Sales, and Delivery to identify follow-on needs, expansion opportunities, and lifecycle considerations without compromising program integrity.
• Contribute to the maturity of AHEAD program management standards, technical delivery practices, tools, playbooks, and quality controls.

Education & Experience:

Minimum Required

• Bachelor’s degree in project management, business, engineering, information technology, or a related field; equivalent experience considered.
• 8+ years of experience leading complex technology projects, programs, or multi-workstream initiatives in professional services, consulting, systems integration, managed services, or a related technology environment.
• Demonstrated experience in directly leading large, complex programs from opportunity shaping and solution definition through execution, transition, and value realization.
• Experience directly coordinating multiple related projects, technical workstreams, delivery teams, vendors, and stakeholders with complex interdependencies.
• Experience partnering with Pre-Sales and Sales to develop program scope, estimates, staffing models, pricing inputs, statements of work, and delivery assumptions.
• Strong understanding of program financial management, including budget, forecast, labor utilization, margin drivers, change control, revenue or billing milestones, and estimate-to-complete.
• Technical fluency across enterprise infrastructure, cloud, networking, security, platforms, data center, or related lifecycle management services, with the ability to lead technical discussions without needing to be the solution architect or hands-on engineer.
• Proven ability to establish program governance, integrated plans, executive reporting, risk and issue management, dependency management, and decision processes.
• Experience coaching or guiding project managers, workstream leads, technical leads, or cross-functional delivery teams.
• Excellent written, verbal, presentation, facilitation, and executive communication skills.
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, matrixed environment, balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution, and influence outcomes without direct authority.

Preferred

• 10+ years of experience leading large, multi-million-dollar technology programs, ideally in a professional services, systems integration, consulting, or managed services environment.
• PMP, PgMP, PMI-ACP, PRINCE2, or comparable project or program management certification.
• ITIL certification or practical experience with service transition, operational readiness, and IT service management practices.
• Experience with commercial contracts, statements of work, change orders, vendor management, and customer negotiations.
• Experience using professional services automation, financial, resource management, project portfolio, and reporting tools.
• Cloud, infrastructure, networking, security, or other relevant technical certifications.
• Experience leading multi-year transformation, modernization, migration, or lifecycle management programs across multiple practices or delivery organizations.
• Experience applying Agile, hybrid, or other scaled delivery approaches across multiple teams or workstreams.

Competencies:

• Strategic and systems thinking across interconnected projects, workstreams, stakeholders, and outcomes
• Program leadership, integrated planning, and execution discipline
• Technical fluency and the ability to connect architecture, delivery, operations, and business value
• Commercial and financial acumen
• Executive presence, concise communication, and effective facilitation
• Risk-based thinking, decision-making, and recovery leadership
• Cross-functional collaboration and influence without formal authority
• Coaching mindset and ability to develop project and workstream leaders
• Customer focus and commitment to measurable outcomes
• Adaptability, comfort with ambiguity, and a bias to action
• Continuous improvement mindset with a focus on quality, predictability, profitability, and scalable delivery

The compensation range indicated in this posting reflects the On-Target Earnings (“OTE”) for this role, which includes a base salary and any applicable target bonus amount. This OTE range may vary based on the candidate’s relevant experience, qualifications, and geographic location.      Why AHEAD:   Through our daily work and internal groups like Moving Women AHEAD and RISE AHEAD, we value and benefit from diversity of people, ideas, experience, and everything in between.   We fuel growth by stacking our office with top-notch technologies in a multi-million-dollar lab, by encouraging cross department training and development, sponsoring certifications and credentials for continued learning.   USA Employment Benefits include:  - Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance  - 401(k)  - Paid company holidays  - Paid time off  - Paid parental and caregiver leave  - Plus more! See benefits https://www.aheadbenefits.com/ for additional details.    Use of AI: We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, assessing responses, or to capture recordings and create transcriptions or summaries during interviews. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans.   If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please refer to the Candidate Privacy Notice or contact us at  privacy@ahead.com.    You may opt-out of the review or analysis of your application and resume by AI tools by using the General Application. Please include the role you wish to apply for in the Additional Information field. You may also choose to opt-out of recording and transcription at any time, including after joining an interview.  Candidates will not be penalized for choosing to opt-out.