Senior Program Manager, Product
justworks · New York, New York ·
- Seniority
- Senior
- Category
- Project management
- Experience
- 5+ years
Who We Are
At Justworks, you’ll enjoy a welcoming and casual environment, great benefits, wellness program offerings, company retreats, and the ability to interact with and learn from leaders in the startup community. We work hard and care about our most prized asset - our people.
We’re helping businesses get off the ground by enabling them to focus on running their business. We solve HR issues. We’re data-driven and never stop iterating. If you’d like to work in a supportive, entrepreneurial environment, are interested in building something meaningful and having fun while doing it, we’d love to hear from you.
We're united by shared goals and shared motivations at Justworks. These are best summed up in our company values, which are reflected in our product and in our team.
Our Values
If this sounds like you, you’ll fit right in.
About the team
The Justworks Technology Program Management team advances our mission by leading the complex, cross-functional programs that turn our most important Product and business strategies into outcomes for our customers. Sitting within the Product organization, our Program Managers help teams navigate some of the most complicated challenges facing Justworks — connecting work across FinTech, Healthcare, HRTech, and the technology and operations that power our products.
Our Program Managers lead highly collaborative, cross-functional endeavors, bringing together stakeholders across Product, Engineering, Design, Data, Operations, and customer-facing teams to solve problems that extend beyond any single team or roadmap. They deeply understand the business and customer outcomes behind the work, connect threads across teams and priorities, and create the clarity, structure, and alignment needed to move from strategy to execution.
By joining us, you’ll be part of an experienced Program Management team with a track record of leading large-scale transformations and strategic initiatives that impact how Justworks builds products, serves customers, and operates as a business.
About the role
As a Senior Program Manager on the Technology team, you’ll play a high-impact role leading some of Justworks’ most complex and strategically important cross-functional programs. You’ll work across multiple Product domains, Technology teams, and business functions to solve organizational problems where the desired outcome is important, the path forward isn’t fully defined, and success depends on creating alignment across teams with different priorities and incentives.
You’ll operate as a strategic partner to Product and Technology leaders, deeply understanding the business and customer problem behind the work and translating broad strategic objectives into programs the organization can execute. You’ll look across roadmaps and organizational boundaries to identify dependencies, constraints, and opportunities for leverage, helping leaders make informed decisions about priorities, sequencing, and tradeoffs.
As a champion for the program’s outcomes, you’ll create the operating models that enable complex work to succeed and evolve them as the organization learns. You’ll operate with a high degree of independence, anticipate challenges before they become execution issues, and clearly articulate your reasoning and recommendations to senior and executive stakeholders. Your impact will extend beyond the programs you directly lead by building systems and ways of working that help the broader organization execute more effectively.
Responsibilities
- Independently own highly complex, strategically important programs from problem definition through execution and measurable business impact
- Translate ambiguous business and customer problems into clear program strategies, outcomes, operating models, and measures of success
- Lead discovery across teams and functions to deeply understand the problem, challenge assumptions, and ensure the organization is solving for the right outcome before moving into execution
- Build scalable program operating models from the ground up, establishing governance, decision rights, stakeholder engagement, planning mechanisms, and operating rhythms appropriate to the complexity of the work
- Partner deeply with Product and Technology leaders to connect business strategy, Product strategy, and execution across roadmaps, influencing prioritization, sequencing, and tradeoffs toward broader outcomes
- Build strong relationships across organizational boundaries and influence senior stakeholders with different priorities and incentives to create alignment and drive decisions without formal authority
- Anticipate systemic risks, dependencies, and second-order impacts, establishing mechanisms that allow teams and leaders to address them before they become execution issues
- Use quantitative and qualitative data to identify the signals that matter, diagnose problems, measure impact, and inform strategic or resource decisions
- Adapt program strategy, scope, sequencing, and operating models as business priorities change and new information emerges
- Communicate complex work clearly at different altitudes, using strong frameworks and storytelling to translate ambiguity into decisions, recommendations, risks, and actions
- Build durable systems and ways of working that reduce organizational friction and continue creating value beyond your direct involvement
- Coach teams and stakeholders through complexity and take on opportunities beyond core responsibilities to strengthen Program Management capabilities across Technology
- Proactively identify and take on opportunities beyond core responsibilities to strengthen Program Management practices and drive impact across Technology
What you’ll need
- 5+ years of program management, strategy, operations, product, consulting, or equivalent experience leading complex cross-functional work in a modern technology business
- A strong commitment to problem-solving, with demonstrated ability to define and structure highly ambiguous problems rather than relying on a predefined solution or execution plan
- Demonstrated experience building complex programs or operating models from the ground up and leading them through execution and measurable outcomes
- Deep Product and Technology fluency, with experience partnering closely with Product and Engineering leaders and understanding how business strategy, Product strategy, roadmaps, prioritization, and delivery connect
- Strong business acumen and the ability to connect program decisions and tradeoffs to broader customer, business, and organizational outcomes
- Demonstrated ability to influence senior and executive stakeholders, navigate competing priorities, and drive consequential decisions across organizational boundaries without direct authority
- Strong systems thinking, with the ability to identify patterns, dependencies, second-order effects, and organizational constraints across complex environments
- A willingness to deeply understand Justworks’ products, customers, business model, and operating environment and independently invest in the learning required to become a credible partner
- Strong analytical skills and the ability to use quantitative and qualitative evidence to frame problems, evaluate options, and influence decisions
- Excellent persuasion, written and verbal communication, and storytelling skills, with the ability to make complex problems understandable and recommendations compelling
- Strong judgment and the ability to determine when additional structure is needed, when to simplify, and when to challenge or reframe the approach entirely
- Technical acumen and experience operating in complex or highly regulated domains such as FinTech, Healthcare, or HRTech are a plus
The base wage range for this position based in our New York City Office is targeted at $166,000.00 to $214,000.00 per year.
Actual compensation is based on multiple factors that are unique to each candidate, including and not limited to skill set, level of relevant experience, and specific work location. Salary ranges for positions based in other locations may differ based on the cost of labor in that location.
For more information about Justworks’ Total Reward Philosophy, including all of the perks and benefits we are proud to offer our team members, please visit Total Rewards @ Justworks.
Diversity At Justworks
Justworks is committed to maintaining a workplace where diversity of identity, culture, and life experience is the norm and is celebrated authentically and respected consistently. Diversity in our work, our people, and our product drives creativity and innovation, entrepreneurial leadership and integrity, competitiveness, and collaboration throughout our business and in the market. We depend on our differences to make our team stronger, our workplace more dynamic, and our product accessible to all of our customers.
We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer open to all qualified applicants regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital or familial status, disability, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status. Justworks is fully dedicated to providing necessary support to candidates with disabilities who may require reasonable accommodations. We also provide reasonable accommodations to employees based on their sincerely held religious beliefs, as well as for other covered reasons consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws. If you're in need of a reasonable accommodation, please reach out to us at [email protected]. Your comfort and success matter to us, and we're here to ensure an inclusive experience.
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