Sr Director, Program Management

Description

The Sr. Director of Program Management owns the Program Management Office for Switchback Medical – Minneapolis and leads a team of program and project management direct reports. The role carries three areas of accountability: leading and developing the PMO team; owning the strategy, structure and standards of program management across the site; and serving as the internal owner of the customer experience across the portfolio, from new product development through design transfer and sustaining work.

This is a leader-of-leaders role. Success is measured less by the execution of any single program and more by the strength of the PM team, the consistency of how programs are run, and the willingness of customers to bring Switchback their next project. The role sets the standard for program and project management practice everywhere it happens at the site, and much of its impact comes through influence rather than direct authority: the person in this seat brings portfolio-level visibility to the leadership team and shapes decisions in functions they do not manage.

The role partners closely with Operations, Quality, Engineering, Finance and Business Development, and serves as a senior voice of the customer inside the business.

• Directly lead the PMO team — Program Directors, Program Managers and Project Managers — including hiring, onboarding, performance management, compensation recommendations and succession planning.
• Set clear expectations by level and build development plans that move people from Project Manager through Program Director, including those coming into program management from technical functions.
• Assign programs based on complexity, customer profile and individual development goals, balancing workload and utilization across the team.
• Coach PMs through difficult customer conversations, cross-functional conflict and recovery planning rather than taking the work over, supported by a regular cadence of one-on-ones, program reviews and peer learning.
• Hold a consistent performance bar — recognize strong work visibly and address underperformance directly and early.

• Drive program management excellence across SBM-MN: set the bar for how programs are planned, run and reported, and build capability through training, mentoring and coaching for everyone leading program or project work, including those who do not report into this role.
• Own the PMO for Switchback Medical – Minneapolis, including its charter, structure, staffing model and standards, as the single accountable owner of how program management is practiced at the site.
• Define and execute the strategy for the program management organization, aligned to site priorities and business objectives, including structure, staffing model and capability roadmap.
• Own the standard way programs are run — phase gates, design control deliverables, planning standards, risk management, change control and escalation paths — and drive continuous improvement in the tools, templates and training that support it.
• Establish the metrics the function is run by (schedule and budget performance, gate quality, revenue against plan, resource utilization) and report portfolio health, risk and recommendations to leadership on a regular cadence.
• Partner with Finance on program financials: estimates, quoting inputs, scope and budget tracking, change orders and forecast accuracy.
• Lead portfolio-level resource planning in partnership with Engineering, Operations and Quality; surface capacity constraints early and frame the tradeoff decisions they require for the leadership team.
• Represent Minneapolis in corporate…