Program Manager

Team (Project) Introduction 

9th Way Insignia is looking for a Program Manager to lead a team for programmatic execution, performance, and customer coordination for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information & Technology (OIT), Software Product Management (SPM), and Corporate (CORP) Service Line Technical Management Support Services. The program provides enterprise-level program, product, and technical management support across the CORP Service Line. The work supports approximately 170 products spanning Acquisition and Property Management, Financial Management, Human Capital Management, and Secretary of Veterans Affairs/Congressional/Legal Affairs product lines. The contract includes program and product management, schedule and risk management, strategic analysis, financial and acquisition support, communications, change management, architecture, security, integration, software quality assurance, release management, and advanced technology support, including artificial intelligence. 

Professional Level Information: 

A Program Manager is a Manager 4 within 9th Way Insignia.  A Manager 4 plans, directs, integrates, and controls complex federal IT program activities.  

Responsibilities: 

• Lead overall task order execution and provide integrated management across program, product, technical, financial, resource, communications, risk, schedule, and quality activities supporting the CORP Service Line.
• Serve as the primary contractor point of contact for programmatic issues, concerns, status, and performance, coordinating routinely with the Contracting Officer, COR, VA Program Manager, CORP leadership, product line leadership, and other Government stakeholders.
• Develop, maintain, and execute the Contractor Project Management Plan (CPMP), including the contractor approach, timeline, tools, staffing plan, milestones, risks, resource support, reporting processes, and management disciplines for schedule, financial, quality, resource, communications, risk, and internal controls.
• Direct preparation and presentation of the biweekly Work Plan, ensuring accurate visibility into work in progress, backlog, accomplishments, planned work, schedule status, budget and expenditure status, staffing changes, deliverables, onboarding, risks, issues, and strategic planning activities.
• Continuously monitor performance and promptly communicate deviations, emerging issues, and potential impacts to cost, schedule, quality, or performance; develop mitigation strategies and ensure timely escalation to Government stakeholders when required.
• Oversee development and maintenance of program schedules, milestones, dependencies, deliverable dates, and integrated planning information; ensure critical path concerns and schedule variances are identified and acted upon promptly.
• Lead program risk and issue management, including risk identification, analysis, mitigation planning, escalation, weekly risk register updates, issue tracking, and preparation of risk and issue analysis products.
• Manage staffing and resource allocation across the contract, including onboarding, access, training, assignment, utilization, resource intake, performance coordination, and offboarding; maintain visibility into personnel status and Government-furnished equipment.
• Coordinate with CORP leadership to scope new and evolving support requirements, determine appropriate team composition and level of effort, and develop Contractor Execution Plans for optional or emerging work.
• Provide daily management feedback and decision support regarding goals, scope, requirements, costs, schedules, risks, resource allocation, and operational performance.
• Oversee contract deliverable planning, review, quality control, submission, version management, and repository maintenance to ensure products are complete, accurate, timely, accessible, and compliant with VA requirements and Section 508 where applicable.
• Ensure effective meeting governance, including agendas, facilitation, minutes, decisions, action-item tracking, and follow-through for program reviews, planning sessions, technical reviews, IPTs, management status reviews, and other CORP forums.
• Coordinate financial management and reporting activities, including invoice status, budget execution visibility, contractual obligation tracking, spending plans, budget risks, and related program management inputs while preserving Government fiscal decision authority.
• Oversee stakeholder communications, executive reporting, data calls, high-visibility inquiries, and management briefings; ensure messaging is accurate, consistent, timely, and appropriately coordinated.
• Champion continuous process improvement and innovation, including identification and implementation of automation, intelligent workflows, and advanced technology opportunities that improve efficiency, quality, resource utilization, and decision support.
• Ensure the team follows VA-approved methodologies and governance processes, including applicable VIP, Product Line Management, SAFe Agile, DevSecOps, Process Asset Library, security, privacy, records management, and technical reference requirements.
• Coordinate cross-functional support across product management, engineering, architecture, security, integration, software quality assurance, release management, configuration management, change management, training, and other technical disciplines as required by the task order.
• Manage contractor performance against the PWS performance objectives for technical quality, milestones and schedule, cost and staffing, and integration/coordination of activities; implement corrective actions when performance is at risk.
• Ensure timely response to Government requests, data calls, reporting requirements, and document retrieval needs within contractual timeframes.
• Plan and execute transition activities, knowledge transfer, documentation handoff, personnel offboarding, and continuity of operations at contract transition or closeout, when required. 

Requirements: 

• Bachelor's degree or Associates + 4 additional years of experience or 8 additional years of experience with no degree
• 8 years of experience
• Demonstrated experience managing contract performance across scope, schedule, cost, quality, staffing, risk, communications, deliverables, and customer satisfaction.
• Demonstrated ability to lead multidisciplinary teams spanning program management, product management, financial management, engineering, cybersecurity, architecture, DevSecOps, quality assurance, change management, and communications functions.
• Experience developing and maintaining project/program management plans, work plans, integrated schedules, staffing plans, risk registers, issue logs, status reports, executive briefings, and contract deliverables.
• Strong working knowledge of Agile and hybrid delivery environments and the ability to coordinate product-centric delivery, backlog priorities, dependencies, milestones, risks, and release activities across multiple teams.
• Experience with federal IT governance, performance reporting, contract deliverable management, resource management, and customer-facing program reviews.
• Ability to communicate effectively with senior Government executives, contracting officials, program managers, technical leaders, product owners, subcontractors, and cross-functional delivery teams.
• Ability to synthesize complex program, technical, financial, and operational information into concise decision-ready recommendations and executive-level status reporting.
• Demonstrated leadership in identifying performance issues, developing corrective actions, resolving cross-team dependencies, and managing organizational change in a complex environment.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft 365 and program collaboration/reporting tools such as Microsoft Project, Teams, SharePoint, Jira, Confluence, and ServiceNow, or comparable Government-approved tools.
• Ability to satisfy VA personnel security, background investigation, mandatory training, access, privacy, and information security requirements applicable to assigned contract tasks. 

Preferred/Desired: 

• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification or equivalent recognized program/project management credential.
• Progressively responsible program/project management experience, including leadership of complex IT programs with multiple concurrent workstreams, stakeholders, and delivery teams.
• Experience managing federal Government IT programs or task orders of comparable complexity, preferably supporting a large civilian agency or Department-level enterprise
• Experience supporting Department of Veterans Affairs OIT, Software Product Management, product line management, or a similarly large federal IT portfolio.
• Experience managing Firm-Fixed-Price, Time-and-Materials, and Cost-Reimbursable work within the same federal task order environment.
• Familiarity with VA VIP, Product Line Management, SAFe Agile, DevSecOps, CPIC/budget execution, and VA program management governance processes.