Sr. Engineering Program Manager

Overview

It’s fun to work in a company where people truly BELIEVE in what they’re doing We’re committed to bringing passion and customer focus to the business. The Role: Proofpoint Engineering is looking for an enthusiastic and passionate Program Manager to help various teams deliver on their goals and provide visibility to the management team. In this role you’ll work with world‑class teams—to lead them, help them execute, and facilitate a cooperative environment that is both fun and productive. You will help run our entire SDLC, from requirements analysis and design all the way to release. Leadership is a must. We are a cloud company—delivering product releases frequently is our thing. We also build appliances—understanding both models is important. We’re a software company and we’re doing Agile. We run fast, and you need to be fast with us. You do not need to understand how everything is built (we have architects for that) but you are required to be technical to identify possible dependencies, reach out to dependent teams, and communicate clearly. We constantly balance new features, special customer requirements, and other customer escalations. Being very organized is a must—keeping track of everything is not simple. On the personal level, you are fun to work with, but can be serious when needed. You hate spending unnecessary time but know when to relax. You’re approachable and have a unique style to bring teams together to build amazing things.

Key Responsibilities

- Direct and manage the development lifecycle from beginning to end in a technical and Agile environment.

- Create the project plan and schedule, identify the project teams, allocate and level the work schedule for each team member, prioritize and target features and defects based on the defined project themes.

- Update the team dashboard with summary metrics for each sprint.

- Cultivate and maintain open communication and constructive collaboration between key stakeholders from Engineering Management, Product Development, Threat Research, Operations, and Customer Support.

- Manage and lead projects with multiple cross‑functional, matrixed teams across the US (Sunnyvale, Draper, Broomfield), Belfast, Cordoba, and Argentina.

- Command respect and trust of peers, including Engineering and technical leads.

- Effectively set and communicate project expectations to team members and stakeholders in a timely and clear fashion.

- Communicate, both written and orally, on complex issues relating to process, projects, status, and resource staffing.

- Be technically proficient in software development practices and able to identify and manage project dependencies and critical‑path deliverables.

- Manage release/sprint planning and help maintain the backlog.

- Proactively manage changes in project scope, identify potential crises, and devise contingency plans.

- Lead sprint planning, sprint demos, daily stand‑ups, and weekly project sync‑up meetings with Product Marketing, Engineering, Customer Support, and Professional Services, bug triage sessions, project planning meetings, and sprint demos.

- Conduct project retrospectives and create a recommendations report to identify successful and unsuccessful project elements.

Qualifications / What you bring to the team

- BA or BS degree in Computer Science or equivalent.

- 10+ years experience as a Program Manager in the Software industry, using Agile‑Scrum development methodology.

- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

- Team player—our teams will rely on your leadership; cooperation is key to success.

- Ability to work with multiple teams on different projects and context‑switch quickly between them.

- Ability to work as an independent self‑starter and as part of a team.

- Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail with a persistent, unwavering ability to follow through.

- Ability to handle stressful situations with grace and to tackle them one at a time, escalating as needed.

- Adapt to shifting priorities, demands, and timelines through analytical and problem‑solving capabilities.

- React and adapt promptly and efficiently to project adjustments and alterations.

- Demonstrate excellent negotiation and risk‑mitigation skills to resolve issues and conflicts within the project team.

- Persuasive, encouraging, and motivating.

- Experience delivering a product as a cloud service— a plus.

- Experience with the Atlassian toolset (Jira, Confluence).

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