Senior Manager, Digital Program Management

Ford Ford · Auto · Dearborn, MI +1 · Research and Advance Engineering

This role is for a Senior Manager, Digital Program Management at Ford, focusing on orchestrating the global execution and performance of a new service lead program. The role requires building and enforcing a global operating model to hold various teams accountable for delivering the product, technology, and go-to-market roadmap, meeting business KPIs, and driving dealer adoption and lead conversion. It involves cross-functional governance, delivery accountability, business performance monitoring, and strategic planning.

What you'd actually do

  1. Establish Global Governance: Define, implement, and lead the global management system, operating rhythm, and problem-solving cadence (PDCA) for the service lead program.
  2. Hold IT & Product Accountable: Partner with and hold technical product teams and IT delivery leads accountable to critical milestones.
  3. Enforce Adoption Targets: Hold regional market leaders accountable for driving dealer weekly usage (e.g., achieving and growing % weekly usage in the US) and implementing localized tactics to meet these goals.
  4. Lead 2027 Planning: Lead the global enterprise planning and prioritization process for VCP, orchestrating inputs from all stakeholders to build a cohesive 2027 business plan and inform demand planning.
  5. Govern Business Cases & Funding: Coordinate the development of robust business cases for future service lead expansion, ensuring alignment on value creation, and bring forward recommendations on global team structure, funding, etc.

Skills

Required

  • Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field.
  • 7 +Experience designing and running global governance structures/operating models (PDCA, Lean, Six Sigma, or similar continuous improvement frameworks)
  • 7+ years of experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder global rollouts or platform launches.
  • 7+ years of experience working with or managing relationships with external partners (e.g., DMS-type agency/vendor relationships)
  • Conflict resolution and negotiation skills to manage cross-functional friction points and resource constraints.
  • Expert knowledge of dealer operations, dealer change management, and onboarding/training processes.
  • Strong understanding of automotive lead generation and conversion funnels (lead-to-RO conversion specifically)
  • Strong analytical skills to build, monitor, and report on standardized KPIs/metrics across global markets.
  • Proven experience setting and tracking adoption targets, usage metrics, and performance baselines.
  • Experience building business cases, including ROI/value creation analysis, for technology or program investments.
  • Enterprise planning experience — able to synthesize input from multiple stakeholders into a cohesive multi-year business plan.
  • Strong program/project management skills, ideally with PMP or Agile/Scrum certification.
  • Proven ability to align and drive accountability across IT, Product, Marketing, Go to Market, and Regional Business Units without direct authority (strong influence management skills)

Nice to have

  • Master of Business Administration (MBA) or equivalent advanced degree.
  • Experience launching digital products or platforms in international markets
  • Exceptional executive level communication skills.
  • Knowledge of connected vehicle data/prognostics systems.
  • PMP certification

What the JD emphasized

  • global execution and performance
  • global operating model
  • global roadmap
  • global service lead metrics
  • global rollouts
  • global enterprise planning
  • global team structure
  • global releases
  • global alignment
  • global markets