Strategic Program Manager

IBM
IBM

Operations

Remote

Posted on Sep 26, 2026
Introduction

At IBM Finance & Operations, we are the backbone of IBM’s transformation driving efficiency, transparency, and smart decision-making across the business. Our teams provide the insight and discipline that guide strategy, ensure financial strength, and enable IBM to invest in innovation and growth. Working in Finance & Operations means combining analytical skills with collaboration and curiosity. You’ll partner with colleagues across functions and geographies, using data, technology, and process excellence to create solutions that improve performance and deliver measurable impact. IBM offers continuous learning, career development, and a culture that values diverse perspectives. Join us and be part of a global team that keeps IBM moving forward, while building your own future in a dynamic and evolving environment.

Your role and responsibilities

A Strategic Program Manager (LPM) stewards critical strategic investments and transformational change by providing leadership and direction to programs. You'll partner with other organizations within Red Hat to facilitate project delivery and motivate teams to achieve program goals. You'll be responsible for planning, governance, and overseeing the successful output of a program. This role involves coordinating program delivery across multiple areas to drive high-quality outcomes for the business. Programs, by nature, have a start and end date. Strategic Program Managers will move to the work as business needs dictate.


Primary Job Responsibilities

  • Provide overall program leadership, guidance, and manage all aspects of a given program, including requirements gathering, business case creation, and implementation in partnership with Product Management.
  • Develop and implement program management strategy, standards, and processes to ensure projects and programs are delivered effectively and efficiently.
  • Identify opportunities to streamline the program and introduce efficiencies / new initiatives related to the scope in order to focus on long term successes and drive Red Hat’s vision.
  • Adapt methods, structures, and processes to the needs of the program with a focus on continuous improvement.
  • Provide steady leadership in the face of change and aggressive deadlines with the support of Product Management, who ultimately provides prioritization guidance.
  • Proactively support and coach teams, helping them manage expectations of delivery and requirements, yielding consistent results.
  • Proactively identify and manage business facing, program-level risks and interdependencies, with a focus on business partners and organizations outside of IT.
  • Implement and manage governance processes for the program that ensure high-quality delivery on schedule, including meeting cadences, status reporting, budget management, milestone achievements, risk management, issue tracking & prioritization, blockers threatening timeline or quality, and escalation management.
  • Manage different levels of stakeholder communication across the organization in order to facilitate project / program success and promote collaboration and coordination.
  • Build a level of trust and collaboration between the product team and business in order to ensure they are working towards a common goal, including, but not limited to Release Train Engineers, Product Owners, Product Managers, and Business Readiness teams, etc.
  • Support the design of KPIs and measurement methods to capture program success criteria. Collect, calculate, track and report program KPIs and outcomes to various stakeholders including C-level.
  • Assist Product Managers with decision-making facilitation and escalation management – ensuring the right people, with the right content, structured in the right way to get decisions made on time.
  • Propose solutions and action plans for goals not met or at risk.
  • Develop, optimize, and continuously evaluate and adapt the resourcing strategies to ensure optimum support for projects and for the day-to-day operational activities.
Required education
Bachelor's Degree
Preferred education
Bachelor's Degree
Required technical and professional expertise
  • More than ten years of project management experience, including large-scale complex technical projects, large portfolios OR equivalent experience.
  • Thorough understanding of project/program management techniques, methods, and tools.
  • Implementation and management of effective program governance frameworks (templates, processes, etc.).
  • Excellent facilitation and presentation skills, both virtually and in-person.
  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, and proven ability to work effectively with all organizational levels in a dynamic matrix organization.
  • Ability to message for executive audiences at SVP and C-suite level, including distilling complex concepts into consumable content to support decision making.
  • Proven problem-solving, consultative, influencing, and decision-making skills.
  • Ability to innovate under new and/or changing conditions.
  • Must have demonstrated leadership ability, business acumen, organizational skills, and industry knowledge.
  • Strong knowledge of budgeting, resource allocation, and process design procedures.
  • Capacity to effectively understand SFDC and Agile delivery models.
  • High attention to detail with cross-organization coordination skills to keep respective people responsible for tasks.
Preferred technical and professional experience
  • Bachelor’s in computer science, information technology, management, or related field.
  • Project management certification or program management certification (PMP) are a plus.

ABOUT BUSINESS UNIT

The IBM Finance organization is responsible for driving enterprise performance and transformation. We are the financial stewards of IBM, delivering IBM’s financial strategy, developing new business models, and mitigating enterprise risk. Do you have a passion for creating business value? Join our team in accounting, financial planning, pricing, business controls, tax, treasury, business development (acquisitions & divestitures), and global financing.

YOUR LIFE @ IBM

In a world where technology never stands still, we understand that, dedication to our clients success, innovation that matters, and trust and personal responsibility in all our relationships, lives in what we do as IBMers as we strive to be the catalyst that makes the world work better.

Being an IBMer means you’ll be able to learn and develop yourself and your career, you’ll be encouraged to be courageous and experiment everyday, all whilst having continuous trust and support in an environment where everyone can thrive whatever their personal or professional background.

Our IBMers are growth minded, always staying curious, open to feedback and learning new information and skills to constantly transform themselves and our company. They are trusted to provide on-going feedback to help other IBMers grow, as well as collaborate with colleagues keeping in mind a team focused approach to include different perspectives to drive exceptional outcomes for our customers. The courage our IBMers have to make critical decisions everyday is essential to IBM becoming the catalyst for progress, always embracing challenges with resources they have to hand, a can-do attitude and always striving for an outcome focused approach within everything that they do.

Are you ready to be an IBMer?

ABOUT IBM

IBM’s greatest invention is the IBMer. We believe that through the application of intelligence, reason and science, we can improve business, society and the human condition, bringing the power of an open hybrid cloud and AI strategy to life for our clients and partners around the world.

Restlessly reinventing since 1911, we are not only one of the largest corporate organizations in the world, we’re also one of the biggest technology and consulting employers, with many of the Fortune 500 companies relying on the IBM Cloud to run their business.

At IBM, we pride ourselves on being an early adopter of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and blockchain. Now it’s time for you to join us on our journey to being a responsible technology innovator and a force for good in the world.

IBM is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, or other characteristics protected by the applicable law. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

OTHER RELEVANT JOB DETAILS

IBM offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits program. Eligible employees may have access to:

- Healthcare benefits including medical & prescription drug coverage, dental, vision, and mental health & well being

- Financial programs such as 401(k), cash balance pension plan, the IBM Employee Stock Purchase Plan, financial counseling, life insurance, short & long- term disability coverage, and opportunities for performance based salary incentive programs

- Generous paid time off including 12 holidays, minimum 56 hours sick time, 120 hours vacation, 12 weeks parental bonding leave in accordance with IBM Policy, and other Paid Care Leave programs. IBM also offers paid family leave benefits to eligible employees where required by applicable law

- Training and educational resources on our personalized, AI-driven learning platform where IBMers can grow skills and obtain industry-recognized certifications to achieve their career goals

- Diverse and inclusive employee resource groups, giving & volunteer opportunities, and discounts on retail products, services & experiences

We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable law.

This position was posted on the date cited in the key job details section and is anticipated to remain posted for 21 days from this date or less if not needed to fill the role.

IBM will not be providing visa sponsorship for this position now or in the future. Therefore, in order to be considered for this position, you must have the ability to work without a need for current or future visa sponsorship.

The compensation range and benefits for this position are based on a full-time schedule for a full calendar year. The salary will vary depending on your job-related skills, experience and location. Pay increment and frequency of pay will be in accordance with employment classification and applicable laws. For part time roles, your compensation and benefits will be adjusted to reflect your hours. Benefits may be pro-rated for those who start working during the calendar year.