Technical Program Director

Title: Technical Program Director Location: California-Remote About Us At Cast & Crew, we’ve empowered creativity and supported the global entertainment industry for decades. Together with our family of brands - Backstage, CAPS, Checks & Balances, Final Draft, Media Services, Sargent-Disc, and The TEAM Companies – we operate as a combined entertainment technology and services provider offering industry standard screenwriting accounting software, digital payroll products, data & reporting, and a host of creative tools. The industry continues to move faster than ever, and the need for our expertise, our technology, and our people has never been greater. We are a production’s best ally every step of the way. #OneCastOneCrew This role will lead the technical implementation of complex strategic initiatives that cross multiple product, engineering, and data teams. Key initiatives of focus will be Slate and possibly Payroll Services Automation and TTC Stabilization. Summary Cast & Crew runs a portfolio of high-priority, multi-faceted engineering initiatives that cut across product, engineering, infrastructure, and business operations teams — the kind of programs where a missed dependency or a late escalation can ripple into a missed deliverable. The Technical Program Director (TPD) is accountable for the delivery rigor of these programs: keeping scope, timeline, and budget under control; keeping information flowing across contributing teams and up to executive stakeholders; and surfacing and resolving risks before they threaten the delivery schedule. This is explicitly not a product management role. The TPD does not own product vision, roadmap prioritization, or feature requirements. Instead, the TPD partners with Product, Engineering leadership, and workstream owners to instill the program discipline — planning, sequencing, dependency management, and escalation — that lets those teams execute against a shared plan with confidence. Given the visibility of the initiatives in scope, this role reports directly to the CTO and carries executive-level exposure from day one. What You'll Own Program Governance & Delivery Rigor Establish and maintain scope, schedule, and budget baselines for each assigned program, and maintain a single source of truth for status across contributing teams. Build and maintain integrated program plans and dependency maps across engineering, product, QA, data, and operations workstreams to sequence work realistically and expose critical-path risk early. Run the standard program-management cadence (RAID logs, steering committees, change-control processes, milestone gates) proportional to program complexity — without adding process for its own sake. Track burn against budget and forecast variance early enough for leadership to act on it, not just report it after the fact. Cross-Team & Executive Communication Own the communication rhythm — status reports, steering committee updates, and working sessions — that keep engineering, product, and business stakeholders aligned on status, decisions, and near-term priorities. Keep updates to the CTO and other executive stakeholders clear, honest, and actionable at every altitude — the same update landing as technical detail for an engineer, a risk-and-tradeoff summary for a VP, and a business-impact headline for the CEO. Act as the connective tissue between teams that don't naturally talk to each other, so decisions get made once instead of re-litigated in five different meetings. Risk, Issue & Blocker Management Identify risks and blockers proactively — before they become schedule or budget impacts — and drive them to resolution or a documented mitigation plan. Escalate clearly and with the right urgency: know when a blocker needs a Teams/Slack message, when it needs a leadership decision, and when it needs the CTO in the room. Chase down cross-team dependencies across engineering, infrastructure, vendor, and third-party dependencies before they stall a workstream. Budget, Resourcing & Vendor Oversight Track program spend and resource allocation against approved budgets in partnership with engineering leadership and finance, and flag resourcing gaps before they cause slippage. Where applicable, oversee third-party or vendor workstreams (staff augmentation, systems integrators, or specialty vendors), including timeline and deliverable accountability. Stakeholder Alignment & Change Management Ensure business stakeholders (Payroll Ops, Client Services, Finance, and others touched by these programs) understand what's changing, when, and how it affects their work — reducing surprises at go-live. Run formal change management (scope changes, timeline shifts, re-sequencing) so decisions are made deliberately and documented, not absorbed silently into the plan. What Success Looks Like High-priority programs hit their committed milestones, or leadership knows well in advance — with options — when they won't. Scope and budget variance are caught and communicated early enough to course-correct, not discovered at the end of a phase. The CTO and executive stakeholders can get an accurate read on program health without having to chase it down. Blockers get resolved or escalated in days, not weeks, because the right people were looped in at the right time. Engineering and product teams report that program overhead helps them move faster and with more clarity — not that it's slowing them down. Required 5+ years of specific, relevant experience leading complex, technical, cross-functional programs — ideally including large-scale software delivery, systems integration, platform modernization, or automation initiatives. PMP certification (Project Management Professional), or equivalent demonstrated program management rigor. Track record managing programs with real budget, staffing, and executive accountability — not just coordinating a backlog. Fluency with both structured (waterfall/stage-gate) and Agile delivery models, and good judgment about which to apply where. Demonstrated proficiency using LLM tools — Claude Cowork in particular — as a daily productivity multiplier: drafting and maintaining status reports, program plans, and executive updates; synthesizing notes and artifacts across workstreams; and pressure-testing schedules, dependency maps, and RAID logs before they go to stakeholders. Ability to set up and manage AI projects with scheduled, automated tasks that carry recurring program work — standing status roll-ups, RAID log hygiene checks, milestone and burn-rate monitoring, pre-meeting briefing prep — paired with the judgment to review and own the output rather than forward it unchecked. Excellent communication skills, written and verbal, with the judgment and range to tailor the same message for an engineer, a VP, and the CEO. Comfort operating in ambiguity across multiple concurrent, high-visibility initiatives without losing rigor on any of them. Experience standing up or maturing a PMO function or program-governance model inside an engineering organization. Hands-on proficiency with program/PPM tooling (e.g., Jira, Confluence, Smartsheet, MS Project, or equivalent). Preferred Experience in payroll, HR technology, entertainment/media production finance, or another regulated, operationally complex domain. Experience managing vendor or systems-integrator relationships on technical delivery programs. Additional certifications (e.g., PgMP, SAFe, Lean Six Sigma) are a plus but not a substitute for demonstrated delivery track record. A Note on Scope & Growth This role is scoped to the specific high-priority, cross-cutting programs the CTO assigns, and that portfolio is expected to evolve as Cast & Crew's engineering priorities shift. There are no direct reports at launch, but as the program portfolio grows, this role may expand to include hiring and leading a small team of Program or Project Managers. The constant across that growth is the discipline this role brings to complex delivery, not any single program. Special Work Conditions Sedentary – Involves sitting most of the time but may involve walking or standing for brief periods of time. Some positions may entail exerting up to 15 lbs. of force occasionally and/or a negligible amount of force to lift, carry, push, or pull. Benefits Cast & Crew provides a comprehensive package of employee benefits including: Medical, Dental, Vision, PTO, health and wellness programs, employee discounts, and more! Note: Cast & Crew benefits are subject to eligibility requirements. Cast & Crew is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce and sustaining an inclusive culture. It is our policy to provide equal employment opportunities to all individuals based on job-related qualifications and ability to perform a job, without regard to age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, creed, national origin, disability, genetic information, veteran status, citizenship or marital status, and to maintain a non-discriminatory environment free from intimidation, harassment or bias based upon these grounds. CA residents Your personal information may be collected in connection with certain services provided by Cast & Crew or its affiliated companies. A summary of your California privacy rights can be found at: Compensation is commensurate with various factors including, but not limited to, relevant experience, qualifications, skills, training, licensure, certifications, geographic cost of labor, and other business and organizational needs. Compensation range for candidates in other locations may differ based on the cost of labor in that location. The compensation range for this position is: $170,000.00 - $185,000.00 per year.