King & Spalding is a leading global law firm with a commitment to excellence, innovation, and the seamless delivery of legal services. We harness innovative technology and exceptional talent to meet the complex needs of our clients in a fast-paced and dynamic legal landscape.
The Program Manager is a delivery partner and governance steward accountable for the end-to-end delivery of strategic initiatives from intake through execution to steady-state ownership. The Program Manager leads individual high-impact projects or coordinates a program of related projects that must move together to achieve a shared business outcome.
This role operates at the intersection of delivery discipline and strategic advisory - managing complexity and ambiguity while enforcing accountability and governance across every phase of the project lifecycle. The Program Manager partners with project sponsors, functional leaders, and senior leadership to translate approved initiatives into executable plans, proactively manage risk and change, and ensure outcomes align with firm objectives. As a trusted advisor to the business, this role provides consistent governance, transparency, and execution discipline across all assigned projects, contributing to overall portfolio health, leadership confidence, and predictable outcomes.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES: Portfolio Intake & Initiation - Lead assigned initiatives from formal intake through project closure, ensuring alignment with firm priorities and governance expectations.
- Partner with sponsors and functional leaders to define project goals, success measures, scope boundaries, assumptions, and high-level risks prior to execution.
- Lead cross-functional teams delivering initiatives that may include business process change, software implementations or upgrades, technology deployment, vendor engagement, or organizational transformation.
- Develop and maintain integrated project plans covering scope, schedule, resources, dependencies, risks, budget, and change impacts.
- Ensure disciplined execution across all project phases, including kickoff, planning, execution, stabilization, and transition to operational ownership.
Delivery & Governance - Demonstrate strong financial acumen, effectively managing project budgets, forecasts, and financial controls to ensure initiatives are delivered within approved funding.
- Maintain accurate, current project data to support portfolio-level visibility and leadership decision-making.
- Prepare and present concise, decision-oriented updates for executive readouts, steering committees, and portfolio reviews - with the ability to engage and advise at the C-suite level.
- Identify, monitor, and manage project risks, interdependencies, and constraints across business and technology teams.
- Proactively escalate risks, issues, and decisions requiring leadership attention, providing clear recommendations and options rather than problems alone.
- Lead scope, timeline, and budget changes in alignment with PMO governance expectations, ensuring impacts are assessed, documented, approved, and communicated.
- Influence, negotiate, and build alignment across teams and functions to drive decisions and keep initiatives on track.
- Model PMO expectations by maintaining projects that are transparent, well-governed, and portfolio-ready at all times.
Stakeholder Partnership & Organizational Change - Serve as a strategic partner and advisor to the business, ensuring initiatives align with firm growth objectives and governance frameworks.
- Collaborate to ensure requirements, outcomes, and success measures are clearly defined and validated.
- Work closely with Practice Enablement team to develop and implement strategies that promote stakeholder engagement and adoption, reducing delivery risk and supporting successful outcomes.
- Facilitate steering committee updates, executive briefings, and cross-functional working sessions.
- Proactively identify and resolve project roadblocks, interdependencies, and resource gaps.
Stabilization & Continuous Improvement - Lead stabilization and transition-to-operations activities, ensuring ownership, documentation, and readiness criteria are met before project closure.
- Conduct project post-mortems, capture lessons learned, and implement improvements to PMO practices, tools, and delivery approaches.
- Identify and evaluate opportunities for process improvement and contribute to the ongoing development of PMO methodologies and standards.
QUALIFICATIONS: - Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Systems, or equivalent business experience required.
- PMP or equivalent project management certification preferred.
- Minimum of 5 years of project management experience delivering cross-functional initiatives in a structured governance environment.
- Experience managing both business-led and technology-enabled projects.
- Comfortable with Agile methodologies with the ability to adapt approach based on the needs of a particular project.
- Proven ability to partner effectively with senior leaders, sponsors, and C-suite stakeholders.
- Experience operating within portfolio review, executive reporting, and decision-making cadences.
- Background in a law firm, professional services firm, or similarly complex global organization preferred.
- Strategic, analytical, and systems thinker who connects project execution to business outcomes.
- Thrives in ambiguity - able to bring structure and accountability to complex, fast-moving environments while exercising sound independent judgment.
- Excellent communication and facilitation skills, including the ability to craft and deliver executive-level messaging that is clear, concise, and decision-oriented.
- Demonstrated ability to influence and negotiate across teams, functions, and seniority levels without direct authority.
- Proactive risk management orientation - surfaces issues early, brings options, and drives toward resolution.
- Intellectually curious, with the critical thinking to ask the right questions, challenge assumptions, and keep initiatives aligned and on track.
- Scrupulous approach to documentation, project data integrity, and tool discipline - understands that strong governance infrastructure is what makes portfolio visibility and leadership confidence possible.
- Proficiency with project management and collaboration tools; experience with platforms such as MS Project or equivalent required.
The firm offers a generous total compensation package with bonuses and raises awarded in recognition of individual merit-based performance. All full-time Business Services employees may participate in King & Spalding's comprehensive benefit program including health and wellness plan, life and disability insurance, flexible spending accounts and a health savings account, a 401(k) plan, profit sharing plan, and a substantial Paid Time Off (PTO) program.
King & Spalding LLP (K&S) is committed to providing equal employment opportunity to all applicants and employees in full compliance with all state, federal, and local laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, genetic information, age, disability or any other status protected by applicable law.
We are proud of our remarkably cohesive culture, which now encompasses more than 2,500 lawyers and business professionals worldwide. We seek to attract and develop the very best talent to work with us.
