Program Manager

Job Summary & Responsibilities:

The Program Manager (full-time, salaried, regular) communicates clearly with both internal and external stakeholders, creates detailed cross-functional program schedules, secures commitments, proactively manages risks, ensures requirements are documented, identifies the critical path, spots edge cases, analyzes data, and monitors operations. You switch effortlessly between these modes adapting yourself to the needs of your work streams. You are a strong self-starter and therefore able drill into business data and research results to identify clear direction and focus for tasks, projects, and programs.

You have experience working with and maintaining multiple partner relationships. You demonstrate experience leading medium to large digital technology and creative programs. You have a proven track record of delivering results. You thrive and succeed in an entrepreneurial environment and are not hindered by ambiguity or competing priorities. You are a key influencer in your team’s strategy and contribute significantly to team planning. You show good judgement making trade-offs between immediate and long-term business needs.

Essential duties and responsibilities include but not limited to:

• Proactive Problem-solving: First and foremost, you are a problem-solver. You work tirelessly to keep multiple projects on track, to remove blockers for your teams, and to ensure that the best possible outcome is achieved for the business. You are eager, confident, and able to use all 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 teams that you influence.
• Efficient & Effective: You are here to solve business problems and help our customers, not to just 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 the supporting materials that back them. You are confident and capable of speaking to both the business operations and technical decisions. You communicate through data, dates, and facts using narrative and emotion judiciously.
• Adaptable: You communicate clearly, ensure completeness of requirements, organize program timelines, secure commitments, manage risks, identify the critical path, spot edge cases, triage issues, 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 can 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 program. You are driven by your own impact and the positive outcomes that you drive. You share freely all that you learn so that others around you can be more effective.

Supervisory Responsibility:

• This position does not include supervising employees.

Education/Experience:

• 3+ years of experience in a program management role leading both digital technology and creative programs either in-house for a large media organization or at a digital consulting agency working with large clients.
• 2+ years of experience working as a Scrum Master.
• Preferred education is a BA or BS degree in business administration, computer science, or project management. Master degree is a bonus.
• Preferred certifications: PMP, ACP, CSM, CSPO.

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities:

• Must have experience leading the full lifecycle of programs from planning thru production support utilizing Agile (Scrum & Kanban), waterfall, and Hybrid Agile methodologies. Experience with Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Scrum of Scrums (SoS), and/or Disciplined Agile (DA) methodologies are a plus.
• Experience leading teams in the delivery of complex/multitier web sites, mobile apps, 360 digital marketing campaigns, tier 1 advertising campaigns, tentpole experiential events, co-branded content, and social media campaigns. Familiarity with media plans, IO contracts, video podcasts, and event management are a plus.
• Familiarity with modern Lean SDLC processes including DevOps, CI/CD, TechOps, QA automation, and release management.
• As a client-facing, servant leader you will manage with influence and collaborate with multiple groups internally and externally including executive leadership, editorial, content, ad sales, marketing, PR, promotions, legal, compliance, product, tech, vendors, and clients.
• Experience collaborating and leading programs across various work streams including business teams as well as product, front-end, CMS, API, and mobile development teams. Experience with editorial and video platforms is a plus.
• Drive high-quality, effective, innovative, efficient solutions that are on-schedule, on-budget, and delight our customers.
• Proactively manage risks, provide escalation management, and make trade-offs.
• Create and communicate various reports including status, budget, risk, sprint burn downs, KPIs, and velocity trackers.
• You have shipped multiple high impact programs and used data to assess their impact.
• You have experience with all phases of project delivery from concept to production, including business analysis, defining requirements, securing team commitments, establishing a project charter, handling all communication & reporting, overseeing development & deployment, and performing retrospective & “post-mortem” meetings using data and key performance indicators.
• You have repeatedly demonstrated the ability to understand organizational and corporate goals and ensured that your programs have delivered what was required to hit these goals.

Physical Requirements:

• The ability to sit for prolonged period of time and view computer screen.

Equipment/Software Used:

• Microsoft (Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote)
• Google (Gmail, Calendar, Meet, Chat, Docs, Sheets, Slides)
• Atlassian (Jira, Confluence, Advanced Roadmaps)
• Smartsheet & Smartsheet for Jira Connector
• Notion
• Lucidchart
• Zoom

Work Environment:

• Work environment is either remote or hybrid (a mix of remote and in office).
• In the office, the work is performed in an environment that is well lit and ventilated.
  

In compliance with local law, we are disclosing the compensation, or a range thereof, for roles that will be performed in California. Actual salaries will vary and may be above or below the range based on various factors including but not limited to location, experience, and performance. The range listed is just one component of MotorTrend's total compensation package for employees. Pay Range: $95,000.00 - $140,000.00 salary per year. Other rewards may include annual bonuses, short- and long-term incentives, and program-specific awards. In addition, MotorTrend provides a variety of benefits to employees, including health insurance coverage, an employee wellness program, life and disability insurance, a retirement savings plan, paid holidays and paid time off (PTO).