Program Manager

About the Role

We are seeking a proactive and engaged Program Manager to directly build and manage comprehensive plans spanning multiple engineering teams and projects. This role requires hands-on involvement—far beyond status tracking—working onsite in Kochi while collaborating closely with US-based leadership. The position demands persistence through uncertainty and the ability to make project progress transparent when teams follow distinct workflows and reporting lines.

The successful candidate will use Jira as the primary tool for project tracking and leverage artificial intelligence to assist in plan creation, updates, and reporting. They will expertly blend Agile methodologies with classical project management principles, adapting to what best suits each workstream. Presentations to executives should be clear, concise, and delivered effectively in person.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and uphold detailed program and project plans including defining scope, milestones, dependencies, owners, and timelines.
• Continuously update plans reflecting engineering progress using Jira as the authoritative source.
• Organize Jira epics, versions, and dashboards to derive status directly from current work without manual report rebuilding.
• Integrate AI tools thoughtfully to draft, revise, and report on plans, ensuring all outputs are human-verified.
• Coordinate across diverse engineering groups and projects, accommodating different operational styles.
• Act as liaison to resolve dependencies and secure necessary decisions, persisting until outcomes are confirmed.
• Maintain a consistent, reliable rhythm of status reporting and communication.
• Prepare and deliver clear executive-level updates covering progress, risks, specific asks, and recent changes beyond simple slide decks.
• Identify risks early, drive mitigation efforts actively, and ensure open issues are resolved across teams with a tenacious follow-through approach.
• Apply Agile frameworks where appropriate, while also managing milestone-driven and gated project elements through traditional project management methods—avoiding rigid adherence to a single approach.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of two years’ experience managing complex projects with multiple workstreams, dependencies, and a variety of stakeholders.
• At least two years demonstrating hands-on expertise in Jira plan building, management, and reporting, including epics, roadmaps, filters, and dashboards.
• Capacity to directly configure and maintain project plans in Jira without relying on others for ticket updates.
• Some familiarity with employing AI tools to assist project management tasks like plan creation, upkeep, and reporting, with human validation.
• Comfortable operating within both Agile and traditional project management environments, using schedules, milestones, risk logs, and integrated program planning.
• Strong communication skills tailored to executive audiences, capable of delivering succinct and current status reports emphasizing actionable items.
• Natural ability to build trust and extract information across organizational boundaries that lack formal authority over all teams; persistent in driving work forward hands-on.
• Location-based in Kochi, with a collaborative spirit linking US leadership and local engineering teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• A technical background in software engineering or related fields, sufficient to understand development workflows, estimate delivery times, and navigate dependencies within Java/SaaS environments.
• Experience with Jira Advanced Roadmaps, Structure, Automation plugins, and Confluence for documentation and decision tracking.
• Credentials like PMP, PMI-ACP, or CSM, though practical plan ownership experience is paramount.
• Familiarity with regulated sectors such as healthcare IT or ambulatory care product delivery is a plus.
• Willingness to adjust work hours to overlap with US morning schedules for executive communications or similar shift flexibility.