Principal Technical Program Manager - Deployment Scheduling

Location: Hybrid — regular presence across active deployment sites, with daily coordination
alongside onsite Field Leads
Travel: Required — frequent site visits to validate schedule against ground truth

About the Role
The Deployment Technical Program Manager owns the date. Not a date on a Gantt chart — the
date the customer is counting on, across every partner, vendor, and workstream that has to line up
to hit it. You are the customer’s single point of accountability for the schedule, from physical build
to logical handoff.
You build the schedule yourself — you don’t wait for inputs to arrive. You read it critically,
challenge it when it doesn’t hold up, and keep it anchored to what’s actually happening on the
ground through daily lockstep with the Field Lead. When plan and reality diverge, you’re the one
who knows whether to escalate or absorb, and you make the calls — including ones with real cost
consequences — that keep the programme moving without creating friction with the people who
have to deliver it.

What You’ll Do
Own the schedule
Build the delivery schedule proactively — never wait on inputs from others to start
Read and challenge delivery schedules; don’t take a plan at face value
Own the full end-to-end picture, from physical build to logical handoff
Be relentless on the customer handoff date — it does not move quietly
Run daily lockstep with the Field Lead to reconcile plan versus reality
Know when to escalate and when to absorb — and make decisions with real cost
consequences when the schedule demands it
Drive accountability across every partner and vendor without creating friction
Translate ground truth from the floor into sharp, accurate reporting
Technical judgment and credibility
Facilitate technical trade-off decisions between engineering, operations, and customers, and
document the rationale
Hold technical credibility in design and readiness reviews
Influence and create solutions to technical challenges of moderate difficulty
Stakeholder and executive communication
Be the person senior customers and partners trust when delivery is going wrong: composed,
credible, and honest under pressure
Handle politically sensitive situations — vendor underperformance, customer escalations —
with sound judgement
Translate deployment complexity into decision-ready executive narratives
Process and people
Drive process and tooling improvements across a portfolio or region

Deliberately balance standardization against program-specific needs
Deliver through the people you’ve grown, not just your own output

Who Thrives in This Role
Owns outcomes, not tasks. The date is yours whether or not the inputs show up on time.
Comfortable being the single point of accountability. When the customer asks “will we
hit the date,” they’re asking you.
Sharp under pressure, calm in escalation. You know the difference between a problem to
absorb and a problem to raise — and you’re right most of the time.
Numbers-honest. Your reporting reflects ground truth, not the version of the plan people
wish were true.
Builders of people. You grow talent around you and deliver through them, not just through
your own hours.

Requirements
Proven experience owning end-to-end delivery schedules for complex, multi-partner technical
deployments
Track record as the customer-facing single point of accountability for a delivery date
Demonstrated ability to build and challenge schedules independently, without waiting on
other functions
Experience running daily cadence with field/onsite teams to reconcile plan against reality
Strong technical grounding — able to hold credibility in design and readiness reviews
Experience managing vendor and partner accountability without damaging working
relationships
Strong executive communication skills — able to turn schedule and delivery complexity into
clear, decision-ready narratives
Willingness to travel to sites as needed to validate schedule against ground truth

This role carries direct accountability for the customer handoff date.