Program Lead – Data Modernization Programs

We are seeking a highly experienced Program Manager to lead large-scale Data Modernization and Business Transformation initiatives involving Finance, IT, Sales, and Marketing stakeholders. This individual will serve as the program lead responsible for driving execution, managing stakeholder expectations, facilitating executive governance, and ensuring successful delivery against approved scope, timeline, and budget commitments.

The role requires a strong communicator capable of supporting weekly program updates to Steering Committee members including the CFO, CIO, VP of Sales, and VP of Marketing. The successful candidate must possess the executive presence and soft skills necessary to challenge unrealistic expectations professionally, communicate difficult messages diplomatically, and create alignment across cross-functional leadership teams.

This individual will act as the "voice of project reality," ensuring that risks, dependencies, delays, and stakeholder actions are clearly surfaced while maintaining positive relationships and executive sponsorship. 

·       Support weekly Steering Committee meetings with executive stakeholders.

·       Develop and deliver concise, executive-level project status updates focused on business outcomes rather than activities.

·       Tell a compelling project story each week that connects accomplishments, risks, decisions, and next steps.

·       Present emerging risks, issues, dependencies, and key decisions requiring executive attention.

·       Introduce strategic discussion topics that impact program success and organizational readiness.

·       Obtain executive alignment on priorities, decisions, and resource commitments.

·       Clearly articulate requests and actions required from executive stakeholders to remove project blockers.

·       Establish realistic delivery expectations across business and technology organizations.

·       Professionally challenge unrealistic timelines, assumptions, and commitments.

·       Facilitate difficult conversations while maintaining trust and credibility.

·       Escalate unresolved risks and issues when business teams fail to meet committed deliverables.

·       Hold cross-functional leaders accountable for decisions, inputs, testing participation, and business ownership activities.

·       Ensure stakeholder feedback is captured, assessed, and incorporated into delivery plans.

·       Manage end-to-end execution of complex Data Modernization initiatives.

·       Drive delivery across Finance, Sales, Marketing, IT, Data Engineering, Architecture, and Analytics teams.

·       Develop and maintain integrated project plans and delivery roadmaps.

·       Monitor milestones, scope, budget, dependencies, and resource utilization.

·       Ensure project teams consistently meet commitments and delivery objectives.

·       Drive execution discipline and operational rigor across all workstreams.

Agile & Hybrid Delivery Management

·       Manage projects using Hybrid Agile delivery methodologies combining Agile execution with traditional governance controls.

·       Facilitate sprint planning, sprint reviews, retrospectives, and release planning activities.

·       Coordinate business readiness, testing, cutover, and deployment activities.

·       Ensure effective backlog management and prioritization.

·       Align sprint outcomes with overall program milestones and executive expectations.