Staff Technical Program Mgr

Job Summary

Expert Release Manager (Technical Program Manager 5) to own complex medium-size or large software releases from development through production and beyond, partnering with Product Management, Engineering (Dev, Test, DevOps) and other stakeholders. Makes day-to-day release decisions independently, influences leaders up to VP level and mentors other Release Managers; decisions have a noticeable operational and financial impact.

• Planning & ownership: Drive releases on time and with quality; manage risk, cross-team dependencies and schedule changes with documented mitigation; run milestone tracking, launch planning and metrics dashboards.
• Governance & readiness: Define milestone entry/exit criteria, defect/test metrics and the codeline branching model (with Engineering/DevOps); run Release Readiness, Milestone and Go/No-Go reviews with a recommendation; drive compliance with NetApp release/phase-review processes and IP protection (Legal/Privacy by design, patent mining, GTC, third-party code, SDL, ISO 9001).
• Process, tooling & automation: Develop and improve release processes and metrics; drive tooling improvements (JIRA, Jenkins, qTest, PowerBI); support Dev teams' adoption of automation pipelines; experiment with AI-driven automation alongside tools teams.
• Communication & influence: Report status, risks and mitigations to Product, Dev/Quality, DevOps and senior leadership, tailored to the audience; negotiate goals, schedules and resources; hold teams accountable to agreed processes.
• Mentorship & leadership: Mentor Release Managers as release management SME; advise on cost, schedule, technical and quality objectives; motivate teams; operate where no precedent exists.

Job Requirements

• 12+ years of experience driving complex software or hardware releases and project management from kick-off through Go Live, with thorough knowledge of release phases, dev/test cycles, milestone management and quality metrics.
• Hands-on release management expertise across multiple development methodologies and teams; strong knowledge of software/hardware development life cycles, testing methodologies, and automated configuration and code management systems.
• Able to spot release risk, identify mitigations and trigger contingency plans; comfortable running fast cycles while requirements and plans are still changing.
• Strong data analytics, presentation and communication skills; strong soft skills: negotiation, conflict resolution, facilitating decisions in complex situations, problem solving and relationship building.
• Hands-on use of AI-based program management tooling (automated status, pattern/signal inference to manage risk).
• Recognized subject matter expert; works independently with minimal supervision and leads cross-functionally.
• Nice to have: JIRA, qTest, PowerBI and Jenkins; owning compliance programs (SDL, third-party code, ISO 9001); using AI tools for productivity and analysis.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in an Engineering discipline or business, plus 12+ years of experience; an MS or MBA is desirable.