Senior Technical Program Manager

Overview

Senior Technical Program Manager for Zillow's People Technology organization, owning sprint execution, the Product-to-Engineering handoff quality gate, and US-India coordination for the India-based engineering team supporting Workday, ServiceNow and the agentic AI layer.

What you'll do

• Own sprint execution end to end: create and close sprints in Jira, run grooming and planning, lead standup, track capacity and velocity, and ensure all stories are estimated and complete before each sprint closes.
• Serve as the handoff quality gate between Product and Engineering: review stories for build readiness before sprint commitment, flag ambiguity or missing technical context, and resolve open requirements questions with PM and Engineering before work begins.
• Run a daily touchpoint with the US-based PM to carry blocker and handoff status, facilitate overlap-window ceremonies (grooming, sprint planning, sprint demo), and maintain async-first practices that keep live meeting load low.
• Manage cross-team dependencies and risks: identify sequencing issues and resource constraints early, route blockers to the right owner, and escalate to leadership when something threatens delivery.
• Coordinate unit test logistics: manage test resources, defect tracking, and communication between Engineering and the PM during unit testing cycles.
• Document the team's operational model: post-launch on-call and support structure, escalation paths, and the handoff from project delivery into business-as-usual operations.
• Drive continuous improvement using retrospective findings to sharpen handoff processes, story quality and sprint predictability, and build and share repeatable practices.
• Apply AI tools to program work (status synthesis, risk and dependency tracking, meeting notes and follow-ups, draft communications) and help the broader team build that fluency.

What you'll need

• 5-8 years of technical program or project/scrum team management experience delivering complex, cross-functional programs in enterprise SaaS or platform environments.
• Demonstrated ownership of programs spanning multiple teams end to end, including programs where you defined scope and goals yourself in ambiguous conditions.
• Strong technical fluency: can understand and explain how Workday, ServiceNow, or comparable enterprise platforms fit together, reason about integration dependencies, and assess whether a user story is ready to build without writing the code yourself.
• Demonstrated working knowledge of Workday HCM or ServiceNow (module configuration, integrations, annual HR cycles, security model basics).
• Experience operating in a distributed or offshore/nearshore engineering model with US-based product and business partners, designing for async-first collaboration and using overlap hours well.
• Best-in-class Jira and sprint management skills: run ceremonies cleanly, keep the board accurate, and produce sprint summaries that give leadership a clear picture without a meeting.
• Strong communication across technical and non-technical audiences, including senior executives, choosing the right altitude for each conversation.
• Track record of influencing without authority, resolving blockers, and driving cross-org alignment on decisions.
• Fluent with AI tools for program management and able to help others build that fluency.
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, IT, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Details

• Location: Bengaluru, India (Zillow India office).
• Work mode: Office; regularly at the Zillow India office approximately 80 to 100 percent of time each month.
• Must live within a reasonable commuting distance of the office.
• Single senior individual contributor role operating across time zones with US-based Product Managers.