Technical Program Manager - Milestone Execution & Live Service

Title:  Technical Program Manager - Milestone Execution & Live Service
Job Type:  Contract
Contract Length:  5+ months
Target Start Date:  ASAP
Work Location/Structure:  Onsite - Foster City, CA

About the Opportunity:

Our client, a leader in the automotive industry, is looking for a skilled  Technical Program Manager - Milestone Execution & Live Service  to join their team for a 5+ month engagement. This project involves supporting Milestone Leads and Live Service leads in delivering on Milestones, ensuring a high quality of Live Service, and meeting all relevant metrics and KPIs. This is a high-impact role that requires a self-motivated professional who can hit the ground running and deliver results quickly.

Key Responsibilities & Deliverables:

This role is focused on the successful completion of specific tasks and deliverables. Your responsibilities will include:

• Leading and implementing initiatives, establishing standards and best practices that support organizational objectives to support ZRs, milestones and live service.
• Leveraging issue management processes and applying them to Milestones and Live Service, ensuring effective tracking, resolution, and reporting of issues and bug tickets.
• Leveraging milestone change management processes, and working closely with stakeholders to enforce the process, SLA and high quality of change requests including impact assessment, stakeholder communication, and implementation tracking across the organization.
• Coordinating planning functions including quarterly and annual planning processes, resource allocation, and capacity management for the Milestone Execution workstreams.
• Creating and maintaining execution reporting frameworks to track program progress, milestones, and key performance indicators.
• Developing and maintaining comprehensive documentation for all Milestones.
• Building and maintaining dashboards and metrics to track process effectiveness, team performance, and program health.
• Facilitating cross-functional alignment through effective communication channels and regular stakeholder engagement.
• Driving data-driven decision making through analytics and reporting capabilities.

Required Skills & Experience:

We are looking for someone with a proven track record of successful contract engagements. The ideal candidate will have:

• 8-10 years of experience in engineering or program management with a focus on issue management and change management.
• Deep expertise in managing complex cross-functional programs and rolling out new processes and process improvements. This isn't a learning role—you need to be a subject matter expert.
• Demonstrated ability to work autonomously and manage your own time effectively to meet project goals.
• Experience with project management tools, issue tracking software (e.g., Jira), data analysis, and Smartsheet. Experience with automotive or aerospace processes is preferred.
• Strong communication skills to provide clear and concise status updates to the project team, excellent negotiation and stakeholder management skills, and the ability to concisely and effectively communicate at all levels of an organization.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills with a focus on continuous improvement.
• An inquisitive and open attitude to exploring new ideas and eagerness to continuously learn and take on tough problems.
• Independent thinker capable of operating within ambiguously defined structures with an ability to deliver tangible results.
• Ability to perform in a fast-paced, high-stress environment.
• Willingness to get your hands dirty to understand the programs you are supporting.