Senior Program Management Lead
Location: Newark, NJ (work from office at least 3-4 days in a week)
Position Overview
We are seeking an experienced Senior Program Management Lead to provide end-to-end leadership for a large-scale, multi-year ERP transformation (Enterprise level transformation) program involving multiple projects, teams, and senior stakeholders. The role will be responsible for managing a multi-million-dollar project portfolio, providing strategic direction to multiple Project Managers, and ensuring successful delivery across business, IT, and PMO functions.
The ideal candidate will be a strong program leader with proven experience managing complex enterprise transformation initiatives, engaging with senior executives, and driving governance, financial, schedule, risk, and stakeholder management. Experience with SAP transformation programs is highly preferred.
Key Responsibilities
- Own and provide end-to-end leadership for the overall program/project portfolio, ensuring successful delivery against scope, schedule, budget, quality, and business objectives.
- Manage a multi-million-dollar, multi-year transformation portfolio, ensuring effective prioritization, governance, financial management, and resource allocation.
- Lead and mentor multiple Project Managers, providing direction, coaching, escalation support, and accountability for project delivery.
- Establish and maintain strong program governance, processes, reporting, and performance management mechanisms.
- Work closely with senior leadership, including VP, SVP, CIO, and other executive stakeholders, to provide program updates, resolve critical issues, and drive strategic decisions.
- Prepare and lead SteerCo meetings and executive governance forums, including development of executive-level presentations, dashboards, status reports, and decision materials.
- Act as a key point of contact between the program, IT leadership, business leadership, PMO, and customer stakeholders.
- Partner closely with Senior Managers across Business, IT, and PMO to ensure alignment of program objectives, dependencies, resources, and priorities.
- Proactively identify and manage program-level risks, issues, dependencies, assumptions, and escalations.
- Ensure effective stakeholder management across project teams, IT, business functions, PMO, and executive leadership.
- Drive alignment and accountability across multiple teams, including the ability to hold stakeholders and delivery teams accountable and maintain focus on program outcomes.
- Ensure appropriate program-level financial management, including budget tracking, forecasting, variance analysis, and financial reporting.
- Establish and maintain effective use of Project/Portfolio Management (PPM) tools and methodologies.
- Develop and maintain executive-level reporting and dashboards using tools such as PowerPoint and Excel.
- Ensure consistent program reporting, metrics, governance, and communication across all projects within the portfolio.
- Drive cross-project dependency management and ensure effective coordination across multiple workstreams.
- Lead executive-level discussions involving complex issues and provide clear recommendations and options for decision-making.
- Ensure the overall transformation roadmap remains aligned with business strategy and organizational objectives.
- Drive continuous improvement in program management practices, governance, reporting, and delivery effectiveness.
Required Qualifications & Experience
- Significant experience in Program Management / Senior Program Management leadership roles.
- Proven experience managing large, multi-million-dollar project/program portfolios.
- Demonstrated experience leading large-scale, multi-year ERP transformation programs.
- Strong experience managing multiple projects and multiple Project Managers.
- Experience working in complex enterprise environments involving Business, IT, PMO, and executive stakeholders.
- Strong experience with senior stakeholder management, including interaction with VP, SVP, CIO, and other C-level/senior executives.
- Proven ability to manage programs end-to-end, from planning and governance through execution, delivery, and transition.
- Strong understanding of program governance, financial management, risk management, resource management, and dependency management.
- Hands-on experience with PPM tools and program/project management methodologies.
- Advanced proficiency in PowerPoint and Excel, with the ability to create executive-level presentations, dashboards, analysis, and reporting.
- Excellent verbal and written communication and presentation skills.
- Demonstrated ability to lead executive meetings, SteerCo forums, and high-visibility governance meetings.
- Strong negotiation, influencing, problem-solving, and conflict-resolution skills.
Ability to operate effectively in a complex, matrixed organization and influence stakeholders without direct authority.
