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Director, Technical Program Management
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Overview
A well-established SaaS business is hiring a Director of Technical Program Management on a permanent, full-time basis. The role is UK-based, either fully remote or hybrid with one to two days a week in Windsor or London, with travel expected given the global team spread. Salary is open and will be discussed with shortlisted candidates.
This role exists because the business needs to fundamentally change how it runs programs, not just add governance on top of existing habits. With around 70 concurrent project tracks spanning AWS cost optimisation, cybersecurity remediation, and a shift toward quality-embedded engineering, the person coming in needs to build the structures, the accountability culture, and the stakeholder relationships that make delivery actually happen. They will also build out a small direct team, hiring two or three program managers placed strategically across the UK, US, and India to cover the areas where the portfolio needs the most depth. This is a high-visibility role reporting into senior leadership, with a real mandate to change how the business thinks about commitments and bad news.
Key Responsibilities
- Build and own program governance across a portfolio of approximately 70 concurrent tracks
- Lead delivery across three priority areas: cloud cost reduction, cybersecurity remediation, and engineering transformation (including QA integration)
- Shift the milestone culture so that teams surface risks and delays early, not at the point of failure
- Manage the Executive Sponsor relationship and act as the connective tissue between senior US stakeholders and delivery teams in India and globally
- Recruit, manage, and develop a direct team of two to three specialist program managers
- Drive accountability and transparent reporting across a distributed, cross-cultural organisation
- Embed privacy-by-design and security thinking into engineering mindsets, not just tooling
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Requirements
Must-haves
- Proven track record leading large, complex program portfolios
- Demonstrated success changing delivery culture, not just installing frameworks
- Technical depth in at least one of: AWS/cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, or software engineering
- Experience managing distributed teams across multiple countries and cultures
- Direct line management experience, including hiring and developing PMs
- High EQ and the ability to influence senior, sometimes resistant, stakeholders
- Background in SaaS or a comparable tech organisation
- Comfortable being hands-on, not purely strategic
Nice-to-haves
- Experience in all three of cloud, cybersecurity, and engineering transformation
- Familiarity with QA integration into engineering workflows
- Prior work in organisations with a large India delivery presence
- Exposure to non-executive or board-level stakeholder engagement
What Success Looks Like
- Measurable, evidenced progress on cloud cost reduction within the first year
- A portfolio where milestones are visibly being hit, and where risks surface early enough to act on
- Security thinking embedded into how engineering teams work day to day, not bolted on after the fact
- A functioning direct team hired and productive, placed where the portfolio needs them most
- Senior stakeholders, including those who were initially resistant, trust this person's read on the portfolio
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Team and Culture
- Global team spanning the UK, US, Colombia, and India, with the UK as the preferred hub for this hire
- Hybrid and flexible in practice, but visibility in Windsor or London is encouraged where practical
- Senior leadership is genuinely invested in this hire, reflected in the interview panel, which includes the Chief Program Officer, Chief People Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and a Non-Executive Director
- The business values humility and hands-on leadership over top-down governance
Challenges
- A deeply embedded culture of telling leaders what they want to hear, rather than what they need to hear, means building psychological safety around bad news is as important as any process change
- The US/India dynamic requires someone who can hold senior US stakeholders and India-based delivery teams to the same standard of accountability, without alienating either
- Some individuals in the organisation have limited exposure to what good program delivery looks like, so this person will need patience and credibility in equal measure
- The portfolio is live and urgent, so there is no quiet onboarding period - this person will need to make an impact while still learning the landscape
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