Technical Program Mgr

Job Summary

Drive medium-sized software releases from initial development through production release and beyond. You will lead cross-functional release core teams across Product Management, Engineering (Development, Test), Marketing, Operations, and Global Services; set your own priorities; recommend release tradeoffs; and influence stakeholders up to the Senior Director level. Your decisions carry limited to noticeable operational and financial impact, keeping releases predictable and high quality and directly shaping customer experience.

• Own the plan: Lead releases on schedule and with quality through the program life cycle. Lead schedule and resource planning to meet product requirements; plan, track, and manage scope, schedule, cost, resources, and risk; and merge disparate team and component plans into a single release plan.
• Manage risk: Identify risks to schedule, content, or quality, communicate them early, and develop mitigation plans. Know when help is needed and seek it.
• Execute and go live: Work with engineers and DevOps teams to understand the impact of branches and code merges; coordinate release-branch fixes and publish releases; lead and coordinate Go-Live activities and decisions, including deployment plans and checklists; and follow NetApp release and phase-review processes.
• Use tools and metrics well: Use release tools and processes correctly and model their use for the team throughout the release life cycle. Track and report progress with defined metrics (e.g., JIRA, Jenkins, qTest, PowerBI), and apply the release mission to day-to-day activities.
• Communicate and influence: Share all key plans, commitments, and changes (requirements, Test plans, schedule, scope); clearly report team results to immediate management; work with teammates to articulate, compare, and implement alternative approaches based on project management principles; and influence stakeholders outside your department.
• Grow with the team: Be a key, active member of the release team. Work independently on routine release work, with guidance from senior Release Managers on new assignments, building toward ownership of larger releases.
• Explore AI-enabled automation: Experiment with AI-driven automation to streamline release workflows (analysis, synthesis, decision support), and work with tools teams to understand evolving tooling capabilities and constraints and stay aligned with how Engineering is adopting them.

Job Requirements

• Proficient knowledge and experience in a specific area of engineering, with demonstrated release or project management ability
• Working knowledge of release management concepts, company policies and procedures, the product life cycle, development methodologies, and the technology area supported; understanding of industry practices a plus
• Ability to handle a mix of regular and unstructured tasks, with somewhat-defined processes and multiple interdependencies
• Clear written and verbal communication of plans, commitments, and changes to team members and management
• Technical competency ranging from moderate to subject matter expert
• Ability to work independently on routine work and to seek help when needed
• Nice to have: Hands-on experience with JIRA, qTest, PowerBI, and Jenkins; familiarity with automated configuration management and code management systems and with testing methodologies; experience using AI tools to improve productivity and analysis

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in an Engineering discipline or business plus 5+ years of experience , or an entry-level MS with equivalent experience