Principal Technical Program Manager - Deployment Scheduling

Location: Hybrid — regular presence across active deployment sites, with daily coordination alongside onsite Field LeadsTravel: Required — frequent site visits to validate the schedule against ground truth

About the Role

The Deployment Technical Program Manager owns the date. Not a date on a Gantt chart — the date the customer is counting on, across every partner, vendor, and workstream that has to line up to hit it. You are the customer’s single point of accountability for the schedule, from physical build to logical handoff.

You build the schedule yourself — you don’t wait for inputs to arrive. You read it critically, challenge it when it doesn’t hold up, and keep it anchored to what’s actually happening on the ground through daily lockstep with the Field Lead.

When plan and reality diverge, you’re the one who knows whether to escalate or absorb, and you make the calls — including ones with real cost consequences — that keep the programme moving without creating friction with the people who have to deliver it.

What You’ll Do

Own the Schedule

• Build the delivery schedule proactively — never wait on inputs from others to start.
• Read and challenge delivery schedules; don’t take a plan at face value.
• Own the full end-to-end picture, from physical build to logical handoff.
• Be relentless on the customer handoff date — it does not move quietly.
• Run daily lockstep with the Field Lead to reconcile plan versus reality.
• Know when to escalate and when to absorb — and make decisions with real cost consequences when the schedule demands it.
• Drive accountability across every partner and vendor without creating friction.
• Translate ground truth from the floor into sharp, accurate reporting.

Technical Judgment and Credibility

• Facilitate technical trade-off decisions between engineering, operations, and customers, and document the rationale.
• Hold technical credibility in design and readiness reviews.
• Influence and create solutions to technical challenges of moderate difficulty.

Stakeholder and Executive Communication

• Be the person senior customers and partners trust when delivery is going wrong: composed, credible, and honest under pressure.
• Handle politically sensitive situations — including vendor underperformance and customer escalations — with sound judgement.
• Translate deployment complexity into decision-ready executive narratives.

Process and People

• Drive process and tooling improvements across a portfolio or region.
• Deliberately balance standardisation against programme-specific needs.
• Deliver through the people you’ve grown, not just your own output.

Who Thrives in This Role

• Owns outcomes, not tasks. The date is yours whether or not the inputs show up on time.
• Comfortable being the single point of accountability. When the customer asks, “Will we hit the date?” they’re asking you.
• Sharp under pressure, calm in escalation. You know the difference between a problem to absorb and a problem to raise — and you’re right most of the time.
• Numbers-honest. Your reporting reflects ground truth, not the version of the plan people wish were true.
• A builder of people. You grow talent around you and deliver through them, not just through your own hours.

Requirements

• Proven experience owning end-to-end delivery schedules for complex, multi-partner technical deployments.
• Track record as the customer-facing single point of accountability for a delivery date.
• Demonstrated ability to build and challenge schedules independently, without waiting on other functions.
• Experience running a daily cadence with field and onsite teams to reconcile the plan against reality.
• Strong technical grounding, with the ability to hold credibility in design and readiness reviews.
• Experience managing vendor and partner accountability without damaging working relationships.
• Strong executive communication skills, with the ability to turn schedule and delivery complexity into clear, decision-ready narratives.
• Willingness to travel to sites as needed to validate the schedule against ground truth.

This role carries direct accountability for the customer handoff date.

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