Deputy Program Management Office (PMO) Tower Lead

Overview

Introduction:

Large programs succeed or stumble on discipline: knowing what is due, who owns it, whether it is on track, and what to do when it is not. As our Deputy PMO Tower Lead, you’ll support the PMO Tower Director in leading the office that gives a complex, multi-tower Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) program that discipline. You’ll help maintain the standards every tower works to, keep the program’s commitments visible, and provide leadership early warning while there is still time to act. You’ll help make governance something the teams doing the work find useful. If you like bringing order to complexity, and you want to provide exceptional service for those who served, we’d like to talk with you.

 

Position Summary:

The Deputy PMO Tower Lead supports the PMO Tower Director in leading program governance across the contract. This leader helps run the Program Management Office (PMO), which governs how the program executes: compliance, tracking and monitoring, metrics and analytics, scheduling, quality and standardization, staff onboarding, and program-level coordination.

The Deputy PMO Tower Lead serves as a key partner to the PMO Tower Director, helping ensure that governance processes, deliverables, schedules, risks, performance measures, and program commitments remain visible, coordinated, and on track.

The Deputy PMO Tower Lead Supports:

• Program governance, operating rhythm, and decision and escalation paths.
• The integrated master schedule and dependency management across towers.
• The deliverable calendar, quality review, and acceptance tracking.
• Performance measurement, including key performance indicator (KPI) and acceptable quality level (AQL) tracking and forecasting.
• Program risk, issue, and action management.
• Contract compliance and audit readiness.
• Quarterly program reviews and executive reporting.
• Staffing, onboarding, background investigation, suitability, and required training tracking.
• Standard PMO tools, templates, processes, and reporting.
• Coordination across towers to maintain consistency and visibility.
• Program-level quality review.
• Support to the PMO Tower Director in managing the PMO as one integrated office.

Responsibilities

Deputy PMO Tower Lead Performance Expectations:

Support execution of the governance structure, operating rhythm, tools, templates, and staffing.

Help maintain one integrated schedule and deliverable calendar that every tower works from, with internal due dates set ahead of contract dates.

Provide the PMO Tower Director early warning on at-risk deliverables, KPIs, and AQLs, with enough time to recover before a miss.

Help keep every reported metric traceable to its source, calculation, and evidence, with calculation methods agreed with the Government.

Support production of quarterly program reviews and executive reports that are accurate, consistent, and decision-ready.

Help keep staffing, onboarding, background investigations, suitability, and required training current and audit-ready.

Support PMO quality review to ensure deliverables are complete, accurate, on time, and ready for Government review and acceptance.

Maintain clear boundaries between contractor recommendations and Government decision, approval, and acceptance authority.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Support the PMO Tower Director in the day-to-day execution of PMO governance, program controls, and cross-tower coordination.
• Assist with maintaining the integrated master schedule and dependency management across towers, identifying schedule conflicts, risks, and required follow-up.
• Maintain the program deliverable calendar and support quality review, submission tracking, Government review, and acceptance tracking.
• Support KPI and AQL performance measurement, monitoring, forecasting, and reporting, ensuring supporting data and evidence are accurate and traceable.
• Maintain program risk, issue, action, and decision tracking and coordinate follow-up with responsible stakeholders.
• Support contract compliance, audit readiness, and preparation of documentation required for program reviews and Government oversight.
• Assist with quarterly program reviews, executive reporting, dashboards, and other decision-ready materials for program leadership.
• Support staffing, onboarding, background investigation, suitability, system access, and required training tracking to keep records current and audit-ready.
• Help maintain and standardize PMO tools, templates, processes, reporting methods, and documentation across towers.
• Coordinate with Tower Directors and other program stakeholders to maintain visibility into dependencies, deliverables, risks, and commitments.
• Support PMO quality controls to ensure program deliverables are complete, accurate, consistent, and ready for Government review.
• Serve as a key operational partner to the PMO Tower Director and provide continuity of PMO operations when delegated, while maintaining appropriate boundaries between contractor recommendations and Government decision, approval, and acceptance authority.

Qualifications Required Qualifications:

• 5–7 years of experience in program or project management, including experience in a Deputy PMO, PMO leadership, or comparable role supporting complex, multi-team programs.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.
• Experience managing integrated schedules, deliverable governance, risk registers, and performance measurement across multiple workstreams or contractors.
• Experience with Federal contract performance measures, such as KPIs, acceptable quality levels, and quality assurance surveillance plans.
• Proficiency with project and portfolio management tools such as Microsoft Project or Smartsheet, plus SharePoint, Excel, and Power BI.
• Strong executive communication. Must be well-written and comfortable in front of large audiences.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working within the Department of Veterans Affairs.
• Experience in a large Federal, healthcare, regulated, or mission-critical infrastructure environment.
• Master’s degree in business, information systems, public administration, or a related field.
• Program Management Professional (PgMP), Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP), or comparable advanced certification.
• ITIL 4, Lean Six Sigma, or CMMI credentials.
• Experience standing up a PMO during contract start-up or transition.
• Experience preparing for CPARS evaluations and Government audits.
• Experience managing subcontractor and teaming partner performance.
• Experience in an outcomes-based environment, comfortable transforming vague parameters into clear guidelines.

 

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, information systems, public administration, engineering, or a related field. Sixteen years of relevant experience may substitute for a degree.

Clearance: 

• Must be able to obtain and maintain the personnel suitability, credentials, system access, and training required per a Tier 4 / High Risk clearance.

Location: 

• Rockville, MD or Austin, TX.
• Onsite Requirements: In office a minimum of 2 days a week.
• Travel: As required per customer mission needs.

Pay Range:

• The suggested pay for this position ranges from $108,546 to $125,875.
• The actual salary offer will carefully consider a wide range of factors, including your skills, qualifications, experience, and location.
• Also, certain positions are eligible for additional forms of compensation, such as bonuses.
• TISTA associates are eligible to participate in our comprehensive benefits plan! More information can be found here: https://tistatech.com/working-at-tista/