IT Program Manager with MSP
Jersey City, NJ (Need Local Candidates only)
Position Overview
We are seeking an experienced IT Program Manager for managing Managed Services Projects to lead the planning, execution, governance, and delivery of complex IT programs within a managed services environment. The Program Manager will oversee multiple concurrent applications, infrastructure, cloud, and service management projects while ensuring delivery against contractual commitments, SLAs, budgets, timelines, quality standards, and customer expectations.
The ideal candidate will have strong experience with Banking and Financial Services clients in managing managed services programs for Application Development, Modernization, Infrastructure transformation, service transition, operational improvement, vendor management, and cross-functional technology teams.
This TPM role requires a strong combination of program leadership, stakeholder management, delivery management, technical experience, financial management, risk management, and IT service management expertise.
Key Responsibilities
Program & Project Management
- Lead end-to-end delivery of multiple IT projects and programs within a managed services environment.
- Develop program strategies, roadmaps, project plans, milestones, dependencies, and delivery schedules.
- Manage software application, infrastructure, cloud, network, cybersecurity, data center, workplace, and service management initiatives.
- Establish program governance, delivery methodologies, reporting structures, and performance metrics.
- Ensure projects are delivered on time, within budget, within scope, and according to agreed quality standards.
- Manage interdependencies across multiple projects, technology towers, vendors, and operational teams.
- Track program milestones, deliverables, resource utilization, and critical path activities.
- Drive continuous improvement and standardization across project delivery processes.
Managed Services Delivery
- Lead delivering managed services projects within the contractual terms.
- Well versed in delivering milestone based fixed price projects
- Strong Technical program and transition of new or transformed IT services into managed services operations.
- Develop and execute project plans, transition and transformation plans, including knowledge transfer, operational readiness, documentation, and service acceptance.
- Coordinate with Service Management, Infrastructure, Application, Security, Network, Cloud, and Operations teams to ensure smooth service transition.
- Ensure operational teams are prepared to support new services before production handover.
- Establish transition criteria, service acceptance criteria, readiness assessments, and stabilization plans.
- Lead transformation initiatives are designed to improve service reliability, automation, scalability, and operational efficiency.
Client & Stakeholder Management
- Serve as the primary program-level point of contact for customers and senior stakeholders.
- Establish strong relationships with business leaders, IT leadership, service owners, vendors, and delivery teams.
- Conduct regular program reviews, steering committee meetings, and executive status reviews.
- Communicate program progress, risks, issues, financial status, dependencies, and decisions to stakeholders.
- Manage stakeholder expectations and proactively address concerns.
- Facilitate decision-making and escalation resolution across business and technology organizations.
Service Level & Operational Governance
- Ensure project and program activities align with managed services SLAs, OLAs, KPIs, and contractual commitments.
- Monitor service performance and identify trends requiring corrective or preventive action.
- Partner with Service Delivery Managers and operational teams to address recurring incidents, service risks, and performance issues.
- Drive initiatives to improve availability, reliability, incident resolution, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency.
- Ensure project deliverables support operational service management processes.
- Track service transition, stabilization, and post-implementation performance.
Financial & Commercial Management
- Manage program budgets, forecasts, resource costs, and financial performance.
- Track project financials against approved budgets and contractual commitments.
- Identify cost optimization and efficiency opportunities.
- Liaison with Client partners, client stakeholders, delivery leadership in creating contractual documents such as SOWs, contractual document amendments and pricing
- Support financial forecasting, business cases, resource planning, and investment decisions.
- Partner with account and commercial teams on change requests, statements of work, and contractual deliverables.
- Monitor vendor costs and ensure services are delivered within agreed commercial parameters.
Risk, Issue & Dependency Management
- Establish and maintain program RAID logs covering risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies, and decisions.
- Identify potential delivery, operational, financial, security, and compliance risks.
- Develop mitigation and contingency plans for critical risks.
- Drive timely resolution of issues and escalations.
- Manage cross-project dependencies and prevent schedule or delivery conflicts.
- Escalate critical risks and decisions to appropriate leadership forums.
Vendor & Partner Management
- Manage third-party vendors, technology partners, and subcontractors supporting program delivery.
- Track vendor performance against contractual commitments, SLAs, milestones, and deliverables.
- Conduct vendor governance meetings and performance reviews.
- Coordinate vendor dependencies, escalations, issue resolution, and delivery commitments.
- Support contract changes, renewals, statements of work, and commercial negotiations as required.
Change & Release Management
- Coordinate project changes with enterprise Change Management and Release Management processes.
- Ensure appropriate impact assessments, approvals, testing, communication, and implementation plans are completed.
- Manage production implementation schedules and minimize operational disruption.
- Lead post-implementation reviews and ensure lessons learned are incorporated into future programs.
Governance, Reporting & Documentation
- Establish standardized program governance and reporting mechanisms.
- Prepare executive dashboards and management reports covering:
- Schedule
- Budget
- Scope
- Risks and issues
- Resource utilization
- SLA/KPI performance
- Milestones
- Dependencies
- Benefits realization
- Service Improvements
- Maintain program documentation, decision logs, meeting minutes, project plans, and governance artifacts.
- Present program status and recommendations to executive leadership and customer stakeholders.
Continuous Improvement & Automation
- Identify opportunities to improve managed services delivery through automation, standardization, and process optimization.
- Partner with engineering and operations teams to automate repetitive processes and reduce operational effort.
- Drive initiatives focused on reducing incidents, improving MTTR, increasing service availability, and reducing operational costs.
- Promote adoption of Agile, DevOps, SRE, ITIL, and other appropriate delivery and operational practices.
Required Qualifications & Skills
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Business Administration, Engineering, or a related field.
- 12+ years of experience in Technical Project/program management, preferably leading and delivering managed services projects involving application developments, modernization, infrastructure, cloud, or enterprise technology environments.
- Demonstrated experience managing complex, multi-workstream IT programs.
- Strong understanding of IT infrastructure and managed services environments.
- Experience managing projects involving infrastructure, cloud, data center, network, security, workplace, or application services.
- Strong understanding of ITIL/service management principles.
- Experience with SLA, KPI, OLA, service governance, and operational performance management.
- Strong financial management, budgeting, forecasting, and resource planning skills.
- Proven experience in risk, issues, dependency, and change management.
- Strong vendor and third-party management experience.
- Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills.
- Demonstrated ability to work with senior executives, customers, technology leaders, and technical engineering teams.
- Experience with Agile, Waterfall, or hybrid project delivery methodologies.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities in a complex, fast-paced environment.
Preferred Qualifications
- PMP, PgMP, PRINCE2, or equivalent program/project management certification.
- ITIL Foundation or higher certification.
- Scrum Master or Agile certification.
- Experience managing large-scale Managed Services / MSP / IT outsourcing programs.
- Experience with cloud transformation and migration programs.
- Experience with infrastructure modernization and data center transformation.
- Experience with ServiceNow or similar ITSM platforms.
- Experience with Full stack Development using Java and React Technologies, DevOps, SRE, automation, and infrastructure-as-code initiatives.
- Experience managing global delivery teams including outsourced engineering team.
- Experience with contractual governance, SOW management, and commercial management.
- Experience managing programs involving Microsoft, VMware, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, networking, storage, cybersecurity, or enterprise infrastructure technologies.
Key Performance Indicators
Success in this role will be measured through:
- On-time and on-budget program delivery
- Achievement of contractual milestones and deliverables
- Customer satisfaction and stakeholder engagement
- SLA/OLA/KPI performance
- Reduction in operational risks and recurring issues
- Successful service transition and operational acceptance
- Vendor performance
- Resource and financial optimization
- Operational efficiency and automation
- Outcome driven delivery and program management
- Zero to minimal escalations
Leadership Expectations
The Program Manager will be expected to:
- Provide clear direction across multiple technical workstreams.
- Establish accountability and ownership across project teams.
- Build strong relationships with customers and senior leadership.
- Drive decisions and remove delivery blockers.
- Promote a culture of continuous improvement and operational excellence.
- Mentor project managers and delivery leads.
- Champion collaboration across engineering, operations, service management, security, finance, procurement, and vendor organizations.
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