Senior Director of R&D Transformation & Operations

Do you relish the prospect of leading strategic cross-organization, transformational programs?

Do you thrive on managing complexity and uncertainty?

Join our Cloud Technology Group Business Operations team!

Akamai's Cloud Technology Group seeks a results-oriented Senior Director of R&D Transformation & Operations to redefine global engineering and product processes. This strategic role drives CTG's operating model evolution, enhancing resource efficiency, predictability, decision-making speed, and strategic execution. Leading program managers and analysts, responsibilities include transformation roadmaps, PDLC/SDLC practices, portfolio management, R&D metrics, and PMO execution optimization.

Partner with the best

As a Senior Director of R&D Transformation & Operations, you will lead the definition and execution of complex transformation programs, directly managing a team of Transformation-focused Technical Program Managers, Analysts and Technical Trainers in their planning, implementation, development, and support of these efforts.

As a Senior Director of R&D Transformation & Operations, you will be responsible for:

• Guiding and mentoring a geographically diverse team, enabling strategic delegation to create a scalable and empowered workforce.
• Guiding the creation of transformation strategies and supporting internal stakeholders, enabling teams to shift toward proactive, sustainable operational excellence.
• Monitoring the overall health of projects and program within your portfolio, ensuring stringent data hygiene and accurate Engineering Productivity Metrics.
• Negotiating program scope definition and modification and working with program sponsors to prepare for executive presentations.
• Presenting program and portfolio updates regularly to senior executives, using data to encourage transparent discussions and informed decision-making.
• Participating in internal projects to scale operations, enhance practices, and refine methodologies like Software Capitalization Administration, Agile coaching, and Tooling Standardizations.
• Fostering an inclusive workplace culture that champions diversity, empathy, and belonging across all levels of the organization.

Do what you love

To be successful in this role you will:

• Have 15 years of relevant experience and a Bachelor's degree or its equivalent
• Have experience with enterprise engineering & product development framework and measurement systems, such as Lean Portfolio, SAFe, DORA, SDLC/PDLC.
• Understand how to drive change management across large employee populations
• Demonstrate expertise as a Program leader collaborating across teams, skillfully transitioning between strategic vision and intricate technical aspects.
• Demonstrate expertise managing priorities and stakeholder demands to prioritize programs that optimize business value within minimal timeframes.
• Have ability to Influence individuals across organizational levels without authority, leveraging unique skills to find compromises, bridge silos, and secure stakeholder support.

About us

At Akamai, we make life better for billions of people, trillions of times a day.
Whether you're streaming live events, scrolling social media, watching your favorite series, or managing your savings, we're the engine behind the scenes. We provide the world's most distributed platform from Cloud to Edge to help the giants of the digital world work faster and stay more secure, making the internet a better experience for everyone.
Our focus is simple:
Cloud and Edge: Running apps closer to users for instant performance.
Security: Neutralizing threats before they ever reach your data.
Content Delivery: Scaling the world's biggest moments without a glitch.
AI: Enabling our customers to build, secure, and scale AI apps on the world's most distributed cloud platform.
At Akamai, we don't just support the internet; we power and protect it, because behind every great digital experience is a massive hidden challenge. And we're the ones who solve it. When millions of people hit play or pay, Akamai ensures it just works.

Benefits at Akamai: We support your health, well-being, finances, and life beyond work. See our benefits.

FlexBase adapts to your job's needs

Akamai's FlexBase program is yet another way we show our commitment to providing employees with an exceptional workplace experience. It's not about telling employees where to work; it's about supporting employees to do their best work.
We trust our incredible employees to work in ways that suit them best: at home, in an office, or a combination of both.

Compensation

Akamai is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. For US based candidates only - the base salary for this position ranges from $190,700 - $343,300/year; a candidate’s salary is determined by various factors including, but not limited to, relevant work experience, skills, certifications and location. Compensation for candidates outside the US will vary. The compensation package may also include incentive compensation opportunities in the form of annual bonus or incentives, equity awards and an Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). Akamai provides industry-leading benefits including healthcare, 401K savings plan, company holidays, vacation (in the form of PTO), sick time, family friendly benefits including parental leave and an employee assistance program including a focus on mental and financial wellness; Eligibility requirements apply.