Program Manager - Data

Role not advertised, but open to internal Pepperstonians

Role Scope Summary

The Program Manager is responsible for ensuring that Pepperstone’s data transformation initiatives are delivered on time to meet their strategic objectives. This role is critical in driving the development of data and analytics capabilities across the organisation, aligning with the broader organisation strategy.

The Program Manager collaborates with technology teams and engineering squads to shape and align the delivery of features and components essential for data transformation programs. They own and drive the development of delivery roadmaps for their programs and manage these to ensure timely, high-quality releases.

The Program Manager is accountable for all phases of the program, from scoping to release, and takes complete ownership, including regular status updates to stakeholders, risk mitigation, and issue management to ensure the program is tracking to plan.

Additionally, the Program Manager plays a pivotal role in managing, governing, and coaching various streams and squads to ensure their efficient operation, adherence to standards, and adherence to the processes of the technology department.

Reporting Line: This position reports to the General Manager, Portfolio & Delivery in Melbourne, Australia

Key Position Responsibilities

Program Delivery

• Manage the timely delivery of multiple data transformation initiatives across all phases, including scoping, planning, execution, and release.
• Develop and maintain delivery roadmaps that help identify key activities, manage dependencies, and highlight timelines.
• Partner with Product Managers, Engineering Leads, and Solution Architects to drive the delivery of programs and release milestones.
• Stakeholder and Governance
• Develop and present clear and concise status reports to stakeholders (including senior executives) to ensure alignment on progress and timelines.
• Document project risks, issues, dependencies, and decisions to ensure effective management and governance for senior stakeholders.
• Identify, facilitate, and document workshops and key program meetings to ensure alignment across all teams involved in the program.

Team Leadership and Optimization

• Lead and manage a team of Product Owners and Business Analysts assigned to squads for delivery.
• Provide technical governance of squads to ensure adherence to technology processes and standards.
• Inspect, coach, and mentor squads to optimize performance for predictable and confident delivery.
• Strategic Alignment
• Manage vendors engaged to deliver outcomes, including contracts and administration.
• Develop and maintain rolled-up metrics of delivery team health.
• Ensure alignment with strategy by focusing on initiatives such as data architecture modernization, platform enhancements, and governance.

Essential Experience

• Proven track record in delivering data transformation, data science, and AI projects within matrix organisations on time and to high quality.
• Expertise in Business Intelligence, Analytics, and enterprise-level reporting processes.
• Proficiency in Jira and Jira Roadmaps for release planning.
• Strong experience presenting program updates to senior stakeholders and working in scaled agile environments with 10+ squads.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with technical stakeholders and translate complex concepts into actionable insights.
• Skilled at providing clarity and direction in dynamic, fast-paced environments with shifting priorities.
• Deep understanding of data-centric development environments, working closely with or alongside data engineers, AI engineers, analysts, scientists, software engineers, and governance specialists.
• Previous exposure to financial services or other regulated environments

Attributes

● Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to present findings clearly to senior stakeholders across diverse teams.

● Collaborative mindset, capable of working across departments while maintaining focus on organizational goals.

● Detail-oriented with strategic thinking capabilities.

● Problem-solving ability and a sense of ownership to drive project outcomes.

● Skilled in relationship-building and engaging effectively at all levels of the business.

● Ability to lead from the front, handle challenging conversations, and inspire teams to deliver results.

● Committed to continuous learning and development.

Desirable

Information Technology related qualifications

Experience in delivering projects across data disciplines such as data warehousing, BI, analytics, data science, AI, CRM uplift, data migration, MarTech, application integration, or data governance tools.

Understanding of modern software engineering paradigms including cloud computing concepts

Familiarity with data governance frameworks, data quality management, and data architecture principles.

Knowledge of data architecture principles and data platform technologies.

Previous experience of programs delivering a major capability uplift would be beneficial

Previous experience in data management on AWS WS including Redshift, Snowflake or Databricks, Kafka, RDS and Tablea