Program Manager

The Program Manager acts as the owner of strategic projects for a defined product category. This associate will work closely with the product category teams, and other key stakeholders, to drive clarity on new product opportunities for the markets BISSELL competes in, then lead cross functional teams through the development and market launch of selected products. The Program Manager will apply Rapid Learning Cycles (RLC) to identify key decisions and knowledge gaps early, and close them through structured learning cycles before committing to design and investment.

• Communicates and coordinates within all functions of the organization, as well as with key suppliers, vendors and sometimes customers. Must be able to successfully influence internal and external contacts regarding highly complex and sensitive topics.
• Owns and leads multiple projects. The Program Manager will use informal leadership to drive cross-functional teams for program success. Programs managed will mostly be product-oriented, but could include process and people initiatives that are highly visible and strategic. Projects likely will involve global resources.
• Facilitates and leads the scoping of new projects including technical requirements, resource needs, and launch timing targets.
• Plans and leads programs using the Rapid Learning Cycles framework, working with the cross-functional team to define key decisions, identify knowledge gaps, and sequence learning cycles, then facilitating recurring integration events where the team makes evidence-based decisions.
• Ensures key decisions are made at the right time with sufficient evidence, escalating when knowledge gaps put schedule, cost, or product performance lies stop criteria to decide whether to continue, re-scope, or stop, based on alignment to requirements and likelihood of success.
• Creates and maintains project schedules, tracking progress toward objectives and resource levels compared to what was planned.
• Uses program data and KPIs (schedule health, cost, open risks, and learning cycle progress) to drive decisions across the cross-functional team, and makes the facts visible rather than letting opinions set direction.
• Leads gate and executive program reviews, delivering clear, concise status and escalations to senior leadership.
• Advocates on behalf of the project to creatively solve problems affecting project delivery.
• Owns program performance against approved scope limits, including product cost, capital spend, and timing. Guards against changes that put those limits at risk, assessing the impact of any necessary changes and presenting trade-offs to leadership for decision.
• Ensures program teams own and follow BISSELL’s Pre-GPD and Global Product Development (GPD) processes, including RLC practices in early development.
• Accountable for capturing knowledge generated through learning cycles and lessons learned, in a form that future programs can reuse, and mentors other PMs and team members in program management best practices.
• Applies AI tools to improve program execution (for example schedule risk analysis, requirements synthesis, status reporting, or knowledge capture), validating outputs for accuracy and measuring whether they actually save time or improve decisions.

• Owner mindset: takes personal accountability for program outcomes, raises problems early, and takes initiative to resolve issues without waiting to be asked.
• Comfort leading teams through uncertainty: framing open questions, designing quick experiments, and driving decisions from evidence rather than assumption.
• Sound judgment on when AI is and isn't appropriate, including awareness of limitations such as inaccurate outputs, data sensitivity, and…