Program Manager III

Location: Rancho Cordova, CA
Work Arrangement: In Office
Experience: 12+ Years
Industry: Semiconductor & Manufacturing

Job Description

We are seeking a highly experienced Senior Principal Program Manager to report to and directly support the Head of Talent Acquisition in leading the HR workstream for a confidential, large-scale strategic initiative.

This person will serve as the operational backbone of the HR workstream, establishing governance, creating structure, driving accountability, and enabling disciplined execution across multiple concurrent priorities.

The successful candidate must be able to plug in immediately with minimal onboarding. This role requires a senior program management practitioner who genuinely enjoys project and program management, can create order from ambiguity, and is comfortable operating with executives and cross-functional leaders in a fast-paced, highly confidential environment.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Partnership to the Head of Talent Acquisition

• Serve as the primary program management partner to the Head of Talent Acquisition for the HR workstream.
• Translate strategic objectives into executable plans, measurable milestones, clear ownership, and decision-ready recommendations.
• Prepare executive briefings, presentations, status updates, meeting materials, and communications for leadership forums.
• Create leverage for the Head of Talent Acquisition by maintaining operational discipline, surfacing risks early, and driving follow-through.

2. Program Governance and Operating Rhythm

• Establish and manage the HR workstream governance model, meeting architecture, scheduling cadence, and stakeholder forums.
• Build and maintain a comprehensive RACI matrix that clarifies roles, responsibilities, decision rights, and escalation paths.
• Facilitate meetings, document decisions and actions, distribute concise meeting recaps, and ensure owners close commitments on time.
• Coordinate cross-functional dependencies across HR and relevant business functions while maintaining strict confidentiality.

3. Integrated Planning, Milestones, and Execution

• Develop and maintain the integrated project plan, detailed schedules, milestone tracker, deliverable tracker, dependency map, and critical path.
• Monitor progress against commitments and identify schedule, resource, and execution risks.
• Drive practical mitigation and recovery plans when issues or delays arise.
• Maintain a single, accurate view of workstream status, upcoming deadlines, decisions required, and areas requiring leadership intervention.
• Adapt plans quickly as priorities evolve without losing accountability, documentation quality, or execution rigor.

4. Decision, Action, Risk, and Issue Management

• Own and maintain the:
  • Decision register
  • Action-required tracker
  • Risk register
  • Issue log
  • Assumptions log
  • Escalation tracker
• Ensure decisions are documented with owners, dates, rationale, dependencies, and required follow-up.
• Proactively identify blockers and facilitate resolution across stakeholders.
• Escalate issues at the appropriate time and organizational level.
• Create concise reporting that clearly distinguishes:
  • Information updates
  • Actions required
  • Decisions required
  • Risks
  • Milestones

5. Budget Development and Monitoring Support

• Support development of the HR workstream budget, resource plan, assumptions, and supporting business cases.
• Monitor planned versus actual spend, commitments, forecast changes, and emerging budget risks.
• Partner with Finance, Procurement, and workstream owners to maintain accurate budget reporting and supporting documentation.
• Prepare leadership-ready financial summaries.
• Clearly flag financial decisions, tradeoffs, risks, and corrective actions.

6. Tools, Reporting, and AI Enablement

• Create executive-ready Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, dashboards, trackers, and decision materials.
• Use Microsoft Teams and SharePoint to enable disciplined collaboration, document control, meeting management, and transparent follow-through.
• Build and manage advanced Excel and spreadsheet-based trackers, analyses, reconciliations, and reporting tools.
• Apply Microsoft Copilot and other approved AI productivity capabilities to improve:
  • Meeting preparation
  • Action capture
  • Reporting
  • Analysis
  • Workflow efficiency
• Follow all confidentiality, security, and data-handling requirements when using AI tools.

Required Qualifications

• 12+ years of progressive project and program management experience, including leadership of highly complex, cross-functional initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience supporting senior executives and serving as a trusted program management partner in a highly visible environment.
• Direct experience in both the semiconductor and manufacturing industries. Candidates without experience in both relevant industry contexts should not be advanced.
• Proven ability to establish and manage:
  • Program governance
  • Integrated project plans
  • RACI matrices
  • Milestone tracking
  • Decision logs
  • Action tracking
  • Risk management
  • Issue management
  • Executive reporting
• PMP certification in active good standing.
• Practical experience applying Agile and Scrum methodologies in complex programs.
• Advanced proficiency in:
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Spreadsheet management
• Ability to independently produce polished, executive-ready deliverables.
• Demonstrated responsible use of AI productivity tools to accelerate program management activities while protecting confidential information.
• Ability to work primarily in Pacific Time and collaborate effectively with geographically distributed stakeholders.
• Exceptional:
  • Judgment
  • Discretion
  • Written communication
  • Facilitation skills
  • Organizational discipline
  • Attention to detail

Preferred Qualifications

• West Coast-based candidate with established availability during Pacific Time business hours.
• Advanced certification such as:
  • Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)
  • PMI-ACP
  • SAFe
  • PgMP
• Experience supporting:
  • Organizational readiness
  • Workforce planning
  • Business expansion
  • Large-scale transformation programs
• Experience managing:
  • Program budgets
  • Consulting spend
  • Contractor spend
  • Resource forecasts
  • Leadership-level financial reporting
• Experience partnering across:
  • Talent Acquisition
  • Human Resources
  • Finance
  • Information Technology
  • Legal
  • Procurement
  • Operations
• Experience with:
  • Microsoft Project
  • Smartsheet
  • SharePoint
  • Dashboard and reporting solutions

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a senior-level Program Manager with 12+ years of experience, a current PMP certification, and strong experience leading complex programs in both semiconductor and manufacturing environments.

The candidate should be comfortable working directly with senior executives, particularly Talent Acquisition/HR leadership, and should have strong hands-on experience building program structure from the ground up.

Strong candidates will demonstrate expertise in program governance, RACI, integrated project planning, risk and issue management, executive reporting, budgeting, Agile/Scrum, Microsoft Excel/PowerPoint/Teams/SharePoint, and AI productivity tools.

Because this is a highly confidential initiative, the candidate must demonstrate excellent judgment, discretion, communication skills, and attention to detail.

Work Location: Rancho Cordova, California
Work Arrangement: In Office
Minimum Experience: 12+ Years
Certification: PMP Required
Industry Experience: Semiconductor + Manufacturing Required