Technical Program Manager

This is a Full Time Job

Position Summary

Discovery is looking for a Project Manager to join our Global Information Technology team in Northern Virginia. We are looking for that rare candidate preferably with a technical background, exemplary written and verbal communication skills, strong organizational skills, and the ability to thrive with little process, direction, or oversight. This is a role inside a fast-paced start-up environment where we are also building process and structure befitting a major corporate entity. This position will appeal to a person who is excited by end user experience and new technologies, while yearning to help shape project and portfolio management practices and contribute towards establishing the overall strategy of the Information Technology space.

As television and media habits change, our mission remains true to the principles that founded Discovery – every day we seek to ignite people’s curiosity to engage, entertain and enlighten the world around them through amazing viewing experiences.

We are looking for a project manager to manage technical projects within our Global Information Technology team. The ideal candidate communicates clearly, organizes project timelines, secures commitments, manages risks, identifies the critical path, spots edge cases, reviews metrics & data, and monitors operations for the Technology Portfolio. The ideal candidate can switch effortlessly between these modes adapting themselves to the needs of their work streams. They are a strong self-starter and therefore have the ability to drill into business data and research results to identify clear direction and focus for their tasks and projects. They continue to move forward in the face of ambiguity and imperfect knowledge. Their interest in computer science has not faded as they moved into a project management role and they are still comfortable with a technology setting and working closely with engineers on their projects.

Responsibilities

* Proactive Problem-solving: First and foremost you are a problem-solver. You work tirelessly to keep work streams on track, to unblock software development, and to ensure that the best possible outcome is achieved for the business. You are eager, confident, and able to use all of the tools at your disposal to solve whatever problems crop up.

* Active Learning: You are here to learn and grow. Your industry knowledge will never be complete and you are hungry to learn more and to share what you have learned with your peers and the team(s) that you influence.

* Computer Science Fundamentals: You understand a broad range of computer science concepts, and know how, when, and when not to use them. You can dive deep into a wide range of technical problems offering suggestions and feedback to your team. Your interest in computer science has not faded as you moved into a project management role and you are still comfortable with technical details.

* Efficient & Effective: You are here to solve business problems and help our customers, not to prepare reports or oversee meetings. You find the most effective way to use our precious internal resources to achieve the best

outcome. You find the most effective means to communicate clearly and concisely to all interested stakeholders. You are a simplifier and a productivity multiplier for others around you.

* Exemplary Communication: Your written and verbal communication skills are top notch. You can distill key points out of complex technical descriptions to share with non-technical stakeholders, adapting your language and style of communication depending on the audience. You can clearly articulate decisions that have been made and supporting materials that back them. You are confident and capable of speaking to both the business operations or technical decisions. You communicate through data, dates, and facts using narrative and emotion judiciously.

* Adaptable: You communicate clearly, analyze technical designs, organize project timelines, secure commitments, manage risks, identify the critical path, spot edge cases, triage bugs, review metrics & data, and monitor launch operations. You switch effortlessly between these modes adapting yourself to the needs of your work streams.

* Self-starter: You are a strong self starter and therefore have the ability to drill into business data and research results to identify clear direction and focus for your projects and programs. You continue to move forward in the face of ambiguity and imperfect knowledge. You do not suffer from “analysis paralysis.”

* Open & Decisive: You proactively share information to teach and inform your stakeholders. You are valued for the decisions that you make in pursuit of your projects. You are driven by your own impact, the positive outcomes that you drive. You share freely all that you learn so that others around you can be more effective.

Requirements

* You have demonstrated the ability to manage a technology portfolio and have experience in demand management (intake, prioritization, etc.), resource capacity management (headcount planning, work allocation, hiring, etc.), annual operating planning, road-mapping, risk management, and program/project management standards and templates.

* You have demonstrated the ability to understand organizational and corporate goals and ensured that your projects delivered what was required to hit these goals.

* You have the ability to plan budgets, adjust forecasts as necessary and track financial performance of projects.

* You have demonstrated your written and verbal communication skills can be applied to business and technical areas across all levels, from the engineering teams to senior level executives.

* You have contributed to creating processes and mechanisms, deploying tools and building partnerships across a technology organization to deliver on ambiguous and challenging goals.

* Good understanding of software development methods like CI/CD, Agile Scrum, Waterfall, etc.

* You have experience with all phases of project delivery from concept to production, including defining features and deliverables, securing team commitments, establishing a project charter, handling all communication and reporting, overseeing development & deployment, and performing retrospective assessment using data and key performance indicators.

* You have demonstrated the ability to make decisions for more than one project or program area showing that your judgment is fungible, and you are able to handle more than one project simultaneously and successfully.

Preferred Skills

* Technical background in software engineering or related field, ideally with professional experience as a software engineer.

* Data literacy including one or more of: SQL, Tableau, Power BI, R tool usage, Smartsheet, Adobe Analytics, Google Analytics, AWS Redshift, and AWS Timestream. You are confident with data retrieval and its application to guiding project decision-making.

* Subject matter expertise in one or more of: SaaS collaboration and productivity solutions, endpoint management systems, identity and governance administration or content management systems.