Sr Program Manager

Responsibilities 

Act as town manager and chief scrum master facilitating agile framework that results in quality product delivery and continuous product and process improvement across the cyber organization. You will work with the cross-functional teams to align product vision, sprint goals, and strategize productive solutions. You will serve as a point of escalation related to issues of pod performance and the ability to meet necessary OKRs. You will provide portfolio, neighborhood and pod level reporting to provide insight to executive level management on priorities, volume of work and escalations. You will remediate challenges in the pod and remove any impediments. Acting as Chief Scrum Master will work to coach junior level Scrum Masters and help individuals to clarify goals and outline strategies to achieve them. You develop the strategy for consistent story writing, backlog maintenance, prioritization, labeling and planning for the organization. You will utilize metrics and data visualization to report progress, support decision making, and creating practical forecasts for sprints and releases. You will leverage internal applications to create portfolio-level views that support both top-down and bottom-up capacity planning, visibility into completed work and backlog, and executive insight into delivery efficiencies. You will be responsible for implementation and maintenance of our operating model of pods and resources, communicating with various stakeholders and keeping our operating structure up to date in the system of record. 

Will apply program level expertise to the management of cyber town, responsible for resource mapping, neighborhood planning and changes, creating consistency for portfolio level management and delivery of the program.  Strong quantitative, analytical, and project management skills are required. You will be responsible for coordination and facilitation of prioritization and planning sessions for both internal and external work as needed.

The Senior Program Manager will be responsible for: 

• Lead daily scrum, sprint review, and planning meetings to ensure full team engagement. Communicate project status to the teams to ensure common understanding, set expectations and align stakeholders and project team members. Manages interdependencies between agile teams.
• Understand and align the sprints across cross-functional teams to align vision, sprint goals, prioritization and capacity planning. 
• Assists in resolution of escalations related to issues of pod performance and the ability to meet necessary OKRs. 
• Remediate challenges in the pod and remove any impediments.
• Assist with story writing, backlog maintenance, prioritization, and planning.
• Utilize metrics and data visualization to report progress, support decision making, and creating practical forecasts for sprints and releases. 
• Pull data from source tools to create portfolio-level views that provide top-down and bottom-up capacity planning, visibility into completed work and backlog, and executive insight into delivery efficiencies.
• Responsible for town management, aligning with financial management, and working with the overall town and neighborhoods to develop executive and portfolio-level metrics that provide insight into each team's work outcomes.
• Creation and prioritization of program-level feature and architectural backlogs.
• Coach more junior Scrum Masters. Help individuals clarify goals and strategize actions to achieve them.
• Ensures team maintains focus on quality and continuous delivery of business value. Helps team pro-actively identify impediments and recommends solutions to remove impediments. 
• Works toward continuous improvement activities to increase productivity; coaches team(s) in conducting continuous improvements events
• Mentors’ colleagues to increase team productivity and improve the overall effectiveness.
• Responsible for program portfolio of complex / critical projects through the entire life cycle utilizing Waterfall or Agile methodologies.  Ensure projects are structured, defined, sanctioned, and initiated and then responsible for delivery to time, cost and quality. Includes responsibility for full benefit realization and formal closure with Post-Project Implementation Review undertaken. Responsible for management of full project governance with all projects fully documented in accordance with requirements laid down by Program Office. Responsible for provision of timely reports on project status and representing Change Management at relevant Steering groups, PIBs and PCCs.
• Regarded internally as a program management expert and agile framework expert, providing specialist knowledge and support to project teams to shape business development and resolve business issues.
• Define and manage the scope of the program in agreement with project sponsors, own and manage program goals, risks, issues and resources. Full Management responsibility for Delivery, Cost and benefit management.

Required Qualifications 

• Deep understanding of Agile methodologies and principles

• Program management of technology and/or Cyber initiatives. 

• Knowledge of project management methodology

• Deep understanding of JIRA for agile project management

• 5 years as a practicing Scrum Master or Chief Scrum Master

• 5 years of large scale program or people management preferred 

• Proven track record of managing large program end-to-end delivery to time, cost and quality.

• Deep understanding of Agile methodologies and principles

• Experience with management of technology and/or Cyber programs using waterfall and Agile methodologies.

• Utilization of the following software: Microsoft Office applications to include Visio, Project, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Atlassian applications Jira and Confluence, and Plan View.

• Good interpersonal skills necessary for business partner relationships within and outside the organization

• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills
• Good problem-solving skills
• Experience working individually as well as a member of a team
• Results-driven
• Self-motivated

Preferred Skills/Experience:

• Basic conceptual understanding of technology and cyber security domains including but not limited to: Identity and access, vulnerability management, data protection, infrastructure security, cloud and SaaS security, code scanning and security logging and monitoring concepts, business continuity and resilience, and risk management. 

• Ability to leverage GenAI tools to analyze JIRA data and provide executive level reporting

Education and Certifications

• Certified Scrum Master Required
• Required: Bachelor's Degree and minimum of 5 years as practicing Scrum Master
• PMI certification preferred.
• Certified Professional in Agile Coaching (ICP-ACC), and SAFe Program Consultant (SPC4) is desired

Locations and Work Arrangement: Candidates must be willing to commute to one of the following hub locations with a hybrid schedule and flexibility across the listed hubs. We are open to supporting relocation assistance for highly qualified candidates who are not currently located near one of these offices:

Work Schedule/Hours: M-F, 8:30am-5pm

• Johnston, RI
• Boston, MA
• Iselin, NJ
• Pittsburgh, PA 
• Plano or Irving TX
• Phoenix, AZ
• Charlotte, NC
• Manchester, NH
• Cleveland, OH

Pay Transparency

The salary range for this position is $150,000 - $200,000 per year, plus an opportunity to earn additional incentive earnings. Actual pay is based on various factors including but not limited to the budget, work location, and relevant skills and experience.

We offer competitive pay, comprehensive medical, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, maternity/paternity leave, flexible work arrangements, education reimbursement, wellness programs and more. Note, Citizens’ paid time off policy exceeds the mandatory, paid sick or paid time-away policy of every local and state jurisdiction in the United States. For an overview of our benefits, visit https://jobs.citizensbank.com/benefits.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Citizens, its parent, subsidiaries, and related companies (Citizens) provide equal employment and advancement opportunities to all colleagues and applicants for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, citizenship, physical or mental disability, perceived disability or history or record of a disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity or expression, genetic information, genetic characteristic, marital or domestic partner status, victim of domestic violence, family status/parenthood, medical condition, military or veteran status, national origin, pregnancy/childbirth/lactation, colleague’s or a dependent’s reproductive health decision making, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or any other category protected by federal, state and/or local laws. At Citizens, we are committed to fostering an inclusive culture that enables all colleagues to bring their best selves to work every day and everyone is expected to be treated with respect and professionalism. Employment decisions are based solely on merit, qualifications, performance and capability.

Equal Employment and Opportunity Employer

Job Applicant Data Privacy Policy

Background Check

Any offer of employment is conditioned upon the candidate successfully passing a background check, which may include initial credit, motor vehicle record, public record, prior employment verification, and criminal background checks. Results of the background check are individually reviewed based upon legal requirements imposed by our regulators and with consideration of the nature and gravity of the background history and the job offered. Any offer of employment will include further information.