IT Program Manager - Limited Term

IT Program Manager

The IT Program Manager is a 5-year limited term position. It is responsible for managing the IT Project Management Office for the San Mateo County Transit District (Sam Trans), the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board (Caltrain), and the San Mateo County Transportation Authority (TA). Under general direction, plans, organizes, manages, and oversees the Division of Innovation & Technology's enterprise information technology program and project portfolio;

establishes and administers portfolio governance, project intake, prioritization, resource planning, budget tracking, vendor coordination, risk management, and performance reporting; leads complex, cross-functional technology initiatives supporting transit operations, administrative business functions, customer-facing services, cybersecurity, infrastructure modernization, and enterprise applications; and performs related duties as assigned. This position will be highly technical in nature with hands on expertise in running complex enterprise IT projects.

The following are representative of the functions and duties performed. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list.

• Develops, implements, and maintains an enterprise IT project portfolio management framework aligned with agency strategic goals, service delivery priorities, regulatory obligations, and budget constraints.
• Leads project intake, business case review, prioritization, sequencing, and portfolio planning for technology initiatives.
• Establishes and facilitates governance processes for evaluating scope, risk, funding, resource capacity, operational impact, and expected business value.
• Recommends portfolio tradeoffs and prioritization decisions to executive leadership based on cost, urgency, risk, compliance, and service impact.
• Maintains portfolio roadmaps for enterprise applications, infrastructure, cloud, cybersecurity, data, communications, and transit technology initiatives.
• Oversees and manages multiple large, complex, and interdependent IT projects and programs from initiation through implementation and transition to operations.
• Ensures projects are appropriately planned with defined scope, schedule, budget, milestones, dependencies, risks, staffing, procurement actions, and success metrics.
• Monitors portfolio health and project performance using dashboards, status reports, KPI tracking, and executive briefings.
• Identifies delivery risks, escalation points, resource conflicts, and change impacts; develops mitigation and recovery strategies.
• Promotes consistent use of project management standards, templates, controls, and documentation practices.
• Partners with business units, transit operations, maintenance, finance, procurement, HR, customer service, safety, and executive leadership to define project needs and expected outcomes.
• Translates operational and business priorities into executable technology roadmaps and implementation plans.
• Facilitates stakeholder meetings, steering committees, workshops, and executive decision sessions.
• Supports organizational change management, communication planning, training coordination, and adoption readiness for new technologies and processes.
• Assists in development and administration of the IT capital and operating project portfolio budget.
• Tracks project expenditures, encumbrances, forecasts, and funding utilization.
• Coordinates procurement activities related to technology projects, including requirements development, scopes of work, RFP/RFQ support, proposal evaluation, contract administration support, and vendor onboarding.
• Oversees vendor, consultant, and systems integrator performance to ensure compliance with contractual obligations, schedules, deliverables, and service levels.
• Supports audit responses, funding documentation, and executive reporting related to projects and contracts.
• Coordinates initiatives affecting enterprise applications, servers, storage, networks, cloud services, cybersecurity controls, identity and access management, business continuity, and end-user platforms.
• Supports implementation of systems relevant to transit and public-sector operations, which may include ERP, HRIS, asset management, fare systems, dispatch/CAD-AVL, customer information systems, document management, data integration, and reporting platforms.
• Ensures proper transition from project delivery into production support, operations, maintenance, and service management.
• Works with technical teams to identify architecture, integration, security, support, and lifecycle implications of proposed projects.
• Promotes compliance with applicable agency policies, information security standards, privacy requirements, records management practices, accessibility expectations, and public procurement requirements.
• Supports disaster recovery, business continuity, and operational resilience planning as related to technology initiatives.
• Develops and refines PMO, portfolio, and governance practices to improve delivery consistency, transparency, and…