Program Manager - Contingent; VA

Position: Program Manager - Contingent (VA)
Public Trust Eligibility Required

About Aretum

Aretum is a mission-driven organization committed to delivering innovative, technology-enabled solutions to our customers across defense, civilian, and homeland security sectors. Our teams work at the intersection of strategy, technology, and transformation, helping agencies solve their most critical challenges. We believe in investing in our people and creating a culture where collaboration, inclusion, and professional growth are at the forefront.

Job Summary

Aretum is seeking a highly experienced Program Manager to lead delivery for the VA's enterprise-wide Reducing Inappropriate Polypharmacy initiative. This program is mission-critical, integrating clinical polypharmacy software with VA enterprise cloud environments, security frameworks, and operational processes. The role requires a senior leader with demonstrated experience managing complex federal programs, navigating VA infrastructure, and driving outcomes across large technical and cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary Aretum representative to VA leadership, COR, program offices, clinicians, and technical teams.
• Oversee all phases of the program: pilot, enterprise rollout, full capability deployment, and option periods.
• Coordinate across Aretum and subcontractors to ensure unified delivery
• Lead efforts related to AWS cloud architecture, ATO compliance, and secure hosting - aligning with experience performing cloud modernization and architecture reviews.
• Oversee architecture review processes, ensuring solutions comply with VA enterprise standards and cloud governance frameworks.
• Manage multi-million-dollar program operations including schedule, resourcing, risk, budget oversight, KPI tracking, and contract deliverables.
• Apply mature program management practices consistent with managing $50M+ programs and multi-disciplinary teams
• Lead integration activities between Polypharmacy software, VA systems, cloud environments, and data platforms.
• Direct testing, validation, performance improvement, and pilot success criteria defined in the QASP.

• Drive organizational change strategies aligning with VA clinical operations, Veteran-facing experiences, and enterprise engineering teams.
• Facilitate communications, training coordination, and adoption activities.
• Define staffing needs; develop role descriptions; oversee interviews and onboarding.
• Lead matrixed teams including cloud engineers, security SMEs, analysts, architects, and clinical-technical staff.

Requirements

• 10+ years progressive IT experience in architecture, engineering, and program leadership roles
• 5+ years cloud architecture experience with at least 3 years focused on AWS
• Proven track record leading Federal systems through complete RMF process to ATO (non-negotiable)
• Hands-on experience with container platforms (ECS, Open Shift, or Kubernetes) in production
• Direct experience implementing NIST 800-53 security controls in cloud environments
• 5+ years leading technical programs, preferably in federal or highly regulated environments
• Background in cybersecurity and risk management with ability to evaluate business impact and risk prioritization
• AWS: VPC, ECS, EC2, ALB/NLB, S3, IAM, Cloud Watch, Cloud Trail, KMS
• Containers:
  Docker, ECS/Open Shift deployment and orchestration
• Infrastructure-as-Code:
  Terraform or Cloud Formation
• Security: NIST 800-53, RMF methodology, vulnerability management, threat modeling
• Integration: API design, event-driven architecture, ETL/data integration patterns
• Monitoring:
  Familiarity with enterprise platforms (Splunk, Dynatrace, Data Dog)

Preferred Requirements

• Experience supporting clinical decision support, medication safety, or polypharmacy programs.
• Prior leadership supporting Veteran-facing enterprise applications, especially involving back-end system integration at scale.
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional (highly desired)
• CISSP or equivalent security certification (highly desired)

Travel Requirements

This is a remote position; however, occasional travel may be required based on project needs, client meetings, team collaboration events, or training sessions. Travel is expected to be less than 10% and will be…