Program Manager, Application Service Maintenance

Populus is an amazing company where our employees stay because they love their teams and the growth opportunities. Additionally, we offer a competitive 401K match, a generous paid time off package, and Health Benefits.

Our mission is to provide a broad range of quality financial products and services delivered with best-in-class customer service. We work and lead with integrity, and we celebrate employees who exemplify our values. Come join our team!

Job Summary

The Program Manager, Application Service Maintenance (ASM) manages ASM work from intake and prioritization through implementation and transition to ongoing support. Working within the Project Management Office (PMO), this role provides the planning, stakeholder partnership, and delivery oversight needed to keep ASM work organized, visible, and on track. The Program Manager partners with internal stakeholders at all levels to clarify needs, confirm priorities, assign ownership, and manage handoffs, and presents status, risks, and decisions to executive leadership. This role relies on technical subject-matter experts for solution design and engineering decisions.

Major Responsibilities

• Organize and drive results for ASM work, managing projects and requests end to end, from intake, evaluation, and prioritization through planning, execution, implementation, stabilization, transition to support, and closeout.
• Apply PMO governance, standards, tools, templates, and reporting practices to ASM work.
• Serve as the central coordination point between business stakeholders, technology teams, vendors, and support functions throughout the ASM lifecycle.
• Develop and maintain project plans, schedules, milestones, owners, dependencies, resource needs, and critical-path activities.
• Facilitate stakeholder meetings and working sessions that define outcomes, assign ownership, document decisions; hold internal partners accountable to commitments through consistent follow-up and timely escalations.
• Align stakeholders with differing priorities by translating business needs and technical inputs into an organized, actionable delivery plan.
• Identify, document, and manage risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies; develop mitigation plans and escalate when leadership action is required.
• Monitor delivery health against approved scope, schedule, quality, budget, and resource commitments.
• Present ASM progress, risks, resource constraints, and required decisions to executive leadership in a clear, concise, decision-oriented format.
• Build effective working relationships with internal stakeholders at all levels, proactively communicate and tailor messages for technical and business audiences.
• Maintain organized, accessible documentation, including intake records, project plans, status reports, RAID items (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies), decision logs, action lists, meeting outcomes, implementation plans, and closeout materials.
• Drive implementation readiness, including cutover planning, communications, training or knowledge transfer, support coverage, rollback planning, and post-production validation.
• Lead post-implementation reviews and lessons learned, and recommend improvements to ASM intake, prioritization, handoff, reporting, and escalation practices.
• Coordinate vendors and contractors supporting ASM work, including deliverable planning, progress reviews, and risk escalation.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Key Competencies

• Project planning and execution
• Ability to influence, negotiate priorities, and build effective working relationships across departments and organizational levels
• Risk, issue, and dependency management
• Meeting facilitation and follow-through
• Documentation and status reporting
• Time management and organization
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present to executive leadership
• Results-driven execution and accountability

Interactions

• Direct Report Title Number

N/A

• Indirect Report Title Number

N/A

• Other Internal/External Interactions

Internal: PMO Director, PMO Team, executive and IT leadership, business stakeholders, Application Development, Architecture, Infrastructure, Information Security,

• QA, Support, Finance, Procurement, Legal, and Compliance

External: Technology vendors, service providers, consultants, and contract resource partners

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the major responsibilities.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit, stand or walk; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; stoop or bend; and talk or hear. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 lbs. Must have appropriate vision to see up close, and at a distance with ability to adjust vision and focus.

Position Type/Expected Hours of Work

This is a full-time position. Days and hours of work are generally Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. This position may require after-hours or weekend work to support implementations, production events, or critical project milestones.

Travel

Travel may be required based on business and project needs.

Work Environment

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The noise level in some work environments can be moderate.

Disclaimer

The above information on this description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted, as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, qualifications required of employees assigned to this job.

EEO Statement

Populus Financial Group is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable federal, state and local fair employment practices laws. In compliance with applicable law, Populus Financial Group does not discriminate against any applicant or employee on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender (including gender nonconformity and status as a transgender or transsexual individual), national origin or ancestry, ethnicity, age, physical or mental disability, citizenship, past, current, or prospective service in the uniformed services, genetic information, pregnancy status, or any other protected classification. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, training, promotions, discipline, compensation, benefits, and termination of employment.