Staff Technical Program Manager || Remote || Contract

Role- Staff Technical Program Manager

Experience- 10 + Years

Location: Remote

Job Type- Contract

TPM Org Strategy

TPM Scope Definition

Technical Program Managers (TPMs) are accountable for the executional success of complex, time-bound initiatives, especially those that span multiple teams, systems, or functional domains. Unlike Product Managers who define what gets built for a durable product, TPMs focus on how and when it gets built ensuring cross-functional teams are aligned, risks are surfaced and mitigated, and that the program delivers the intended impact on time.

What do TPMs own & drive?

• TPMs own the successful achievement of ephemeral time-bound goals.
• Contrastingly, Product Managers own durable products for which they set time-bound goals against
• TPMs are primarily responsible for cross-functional risk management (identification and mitigation), examples include:
• Alignment Risk - Are executive sponsors, dependent teams, and key stakeholders aligned on the goals, success criteria, and tradeoffs?
• Scope Risk - Is the problem space clearly bounded? Are there unacknowledged requirements, edge cases, or out-of-scope work creeping in?
• Dependency Risk - Are there external teams, vendors, or systems that must deliver on time? Are those dependencies stable and well-managed?
• Delivery Risk - Are the people and tools needed for success allocated and committed? Are there gaps in staffing or expertise?
• Technical Risk - Are there known unknowns or implementation uncertainties? Are we building on fragile or evolving platforms?
• Communication Risk - Is critical information flowing across the right levels and stakeholders? Are updates, decisions, and blockers visible?
• Change Risk - Are there organizational, strategic, or market changes that may undermine the program's relevance or success?
• Adoption Risk - Will the output of the program actually be adopted or deliver the expected value?
• Compliance / Policy Risk - Are there legal, regulatory, or internal policy requirements that could delay or invalidate deliverables?

How are TPMs Aligned?

TPMs are semi-durably embedded within one or more STOs (Single-Threaded Owners), reevaluated on a quarterly basis during the panning cycle. Within this structure, TPMs serve as execution partners who elevate the STO s ability to drive impact by owning risk across portfolios and priority initiatives

Why this model works well:

• Scales Well: TPMs amplify STO capacity without overstepping PM/EM initiative ownership
• Maximizes Leverage: Deep ownership is reserved for the most complex execution bets, not every project
• Builds Domain Fluency: Semi-durable alignment helps TPMs develop strategic intuition and trusted relationships within the STO domain
• Minimizes Overhead: Separating portfolio operations from initiative ownership avoids unnecessary dual-tracking of the same work

Portfolio Stewardship (Primary Responsibility)

TPMs support the STO s quarterly initiative portfolio by enabling alignment, clarity, and delivery across the execution landscape, without duplicating initiative-level ownership by PMs or EMs. While TPMs are accountable for identifying and managing execution risk, engineering and product leads remain responsible for driving initiative outcomes.

Accountabilities

• Quarterly Planning Facilitation: Partner with STO leadership, PMs, and EMs to shape a realistic, sequenced portfolio of initiatives and interdependencies.
• Cross-Initiative Risk Management: Monitor and escalate aggregate Alignment, Delivery, and Communication risks across the portfolio enabling EMs and PMs to focus on execution.
• Signal Amplification: Synthesize cross-initiative patterns and blockers to inform STO and leadership decisions.
• Communication Infrastructure: Maintain lightweight, transparent status rhythms (e.g., dashboards, reviews, updates) that improve coordination without adding overhead.
• Initiative Support, Not Redundancy: TPMs avoid duplicating PM or EM efforts, focusing instead on surfacing net-new risk, decision friction, and interdependencies across initiatives.

Analogy: If the STO is the general, and EMs are field commanders, TPMs are the operations officers, translating strategy into coordinated action, maintaining situational awareness, and enabling sustained execution.

Initiative & Theme Ownership (Secondary Responsibility)

TPMs own the execution of the STO's most complex cross-functional themes or initiatives, particularly where technical ambiguity, sequencing risk, or organizational coordination challenges are highest. TPM selection for initiative ownership is determined by the Product & Tech STO leads and should be guided by risk density, not visibility. TPMs go deep where execution is most fragile.

Accountabilities:

• Program Definition: Help shape milestones, dependencies, and success metrics early, often translating business goals into actionable delivery plans
• Direct Execution Ownership: Act as the RACI-R for execution, holding teams accountable to agreed timelines and outcomes while unblocking delivery
• Complex Integration Management: Orchestrate work across engineering pods, partner teams, vendors, or systems to land integrated launches or migrations
• Tech & Product Partnership: Operate as a force multiplier for PMs and EMs, bringing structure, cross-functional insight, and change management chops.

Target State TPM Org Model

To effectively support multiple cross-functional STOs while managing execution risk across both portfolios and complex initiatives, we propose a hub-and-spoke TPM structure anchored by one senior strategic lead and a tiered mix of Staff and Offshore Sr. TPMs.