Engineering Program Manager

Ford Ford · Auto · United States · Research and Advance Engineering

Engineering Program Manager responsible for owning the system of delivery within a domain, ensuring work is focused on important outcomes, aligned to strategy, and planned/governed consistently. This role establishes structures for predictable delivery, challenges and de-prioritizes work, manages the domain backlog and delivery plan, and drives clarity for cross-team sequencing and integration planning. The role also involves maintaining risk and dependency registers, ensuring accurate reporting, and validating acceptance criteria and delivered value.

What you'd actually do

  1. Own the domain “system of delivery” and ensure the domain’s work is focused on the most important outcomes, aligned to VC&M strategy, and planned/governed consistently.
  2. Establish the structures and mechanisms that enable predictable delivery (backlog structure, planning artifacts, governance cadence, reporting hygiene).
  3. Challenge and de-prioritize work that does not support the strategy or agreed priorities (in partnership with Technical Program Manager (TPM), Product, and VC&M leadership).
  4. Own the domain backlog structure, PI planning, and the domain delivery plan (scope, milestones, dependencies), within the strategic frame set by TPMs and leadership.
  5. Prioritize within the domain, with Engineering Manager input, to ensure capacity is focused on the highest-value work.

Skills

Required

  • Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field
  • Experience in software/services delivery environments
  • Coordinating cross-functional work across multiple disciplines
  • Experience with delivery tooling and disciplined delivery hygiene
  • Experience operating in scaled delivery models
  • Experience defining and implementing standards/templates

Nice to have

  • Ability to synthesize complex information for diverse audiences

What the JD emphasized

  • 5+ years of experience in software/services delivery environments (product/platform/feature delivery)
  • 3+ years of experience coordinating cross-functional work across multiple disciplines (engineering, program, product, design, QA/test, systems, operations, etc.)
  • 3+ years of experience with delivery tooling (e.g., Atlassian Suite, Miro) and disciplined delivery hygiene (plans, dashboards, dependency tracking)
  • 3+ years of experience operating in scaled delivery models (PI planning, multi-team roadmapping, portfolio governance)
  • 3+ years of experience defining and implementing standards/templates that improve consistency across teams