Program Manager, CO&P PMO – Hybrid, Cary, North Carolina 

About the job

The Corporate Operations & Planning Program Management Organization (CO&P PMO) is looking for a Program Manager to lead high-impact, cross-divisional programs or projects that drive strategic transformation and operational excellence across SAS. The CO&P addresses four critical challenges for SAS: ensuring the right strategy, enabling better decisions, improving operational effectiveness, and strengthening our competitive advantage. The CO&P PMO accelerates SAS’s strategic vision and addresses those four challenges by transforming prioritized initiatives into measurable results through program alignment, governance, and business impact.  Through disciplined execution, we ensure strategic initiatives and programs are delivered on time, within scope, and with measurable value, fostering a culture of accountability and continuous improvement that drives long-term business success. This position is a critical part of the team working to secure SAS’s future.

As a Corporate Operations & Planning Program Manager, you will:

Collaborate with the PMO, business sponsors and leaders, and cross-functional teams to deliver programs and projects that advance SAS’s strategic goals and initiatives with the following guiding areas of focus:

• Program Leadership: Manage and support the initiation, planning, execution, and closure of programs and projects with diverse yet defined scope to ensure they align with strategic goals and the CO&P PMO charter. Serve as the primary point of contact for all program- or project-related matters, liaising with interested parties throughout the company to ensure successful outcomes. Demonstrate strong analytical abilities to assess solutions for both program and business operation needs.
  • Provide guidance and direction to program or project team to ensure alignment with established goals, objectives, and deadlines.
  • Develop detailed program or project plans to effectively track and monitor progress, ensuring scope is aligned with broader business strategies.
  • Orchestrate a consistent cadence of meetings and working sessions with colleagues and team members to manage deliverables and monitor progress.
• Stakeholder Engagement & Alignment: By cultivating and sustaining strong working relationships, you will partner with key stakeholders to define, scope, identify objectives with measurable outcomes, and lead programs or projects that align with strategic initiatives. Collaborate with partner organizations responsible for shared success to identify and track key performance metrics related to stakeholder priorities, satisfaction, and achievement of objectives, ensuring collective program or project success.
• Governance & Reporting: Abide by the PMO methodology by developing and maintaining comprehensive program or project documentation including plans, schedules, and status updates; facilitate clear communication across teams to drive alignment, transparent reporting, and realization of intended benefits. Including preparing and delivering tailored reports for various stakeholder groups, outlining program or project status, challenges, and solutions.
• Program or Project Delivery: Plan, prioritize, implement, and adjust delivery schedules, scope, resourcing, and quality requirements as needed. Facilitate status meetings, coordinate cross-divisional resources, and facilitate clear communication among stakeholders to keep programs or projects on track. Proactively manage action items, formulate mitigation strategies, and resolve issues in partnership with stakeholders to maintain program or project delivery within defined scope and timelines.
• Continuous Improvement: Foster a culture of innovation, agility, and adherence to program management best practices.
• Operational Excellence: Apply rigorous operational oversight to monitor, sustain, and continuously evolve programs to secure ongoing success. Ensure continuous alignment between scope and overarching organizational goals and objectives.
• Promote Innovation: Engage in ongoing professional development through educational opportunities, reading industry publications, networking, and actively participating in relevant organizations to ensure up-to-date expertise.
• Embrace curiosity, passion, authenticity and accountability. These are our values and influence everything we do.  

Work Location: Cary, NC (Hybrid)

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Program or Project Management, or related field.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in program or project management, preferably in a cross-divisional or enterprise environment.
• Proven ability to work independently, receive minimal guidance on day-to-day work, perform effectively under pressure, manage shifting priorities, prioritize changing deadlines, and maintain performance standards.
• Proven excellent organizational and problem-solving capabilities; excellent attention to detail and accuracy.
• Demonstrated excellent interpersonal, written, oral, and visual communication abilities, with experience engaging audiences including senior leaders.
• Proven ability to lead program teams and build consensus among stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to apply innovative and creative thinking to design tailored solutions for complex and unique challenges.
• Proven ability to apply change management methodologies to effectively manage people, processes, and technology transitions systematically, minimizing disruption, scope creep, timeline delays, stakeholder resistance, and misalignment.
• Demonstrated understanding of business and technical concepts to evaluate strategic programs and their impacts.
• Proven experience in process improvement design and support.
• Proven experience with program management tools (e.g., MS Project, Jira) and extensive knowledge of Microsoft Office 365.
• Proven experience working in technology or at a data, analytics, or AI software/service provider.
• An equivalent combination of related education, training and experience may be considered in place of the above qualifications

Additional competencies, knowledge and skills 

• Communication: Conveying information and ideas clearly and concisely to individuals or groups in an engaging manner that helps them understand and retain the message; listening actively to others.
• Planning and Organizing: Establishing an action plan for self and others to complete work efficiently and on time by setting priorities, establishing timelines, and leveraging resources.
• Driving Execution: Translating strategic priorities into operational reality; aligning communication, accountabilities, resource capabilities, internal processes, and ongoing measurement systems to ensure that strategic priorities yield measurable and sustainable results.
• Global Perspective: Demonstrating an awareness of, and sensitivity to, the international market, cultural, technological, political, and legal factors that impact individual work group priorities and results; leveraging own understanding of the organization’s global strategy, global business trends, and regional differences to enhance individual and work group results
• Project Management Professional (PMP), Program Management Professional (PgMP) or Agile certification or equivalent, demonstrable professional development with goal of obtaining certification.
• Experience in strategic planning, governance, or enterprise transformation.
• Familiarity with SAS software, analytics, or cloud technologies.

Discover what’s next – right here at SAS

• Explore Internal Career Mobility and discover your next opportunity at SAS.
• Build and showcase your career profile in Avature, SAS’ talent management solution.
• Visit the Career Development SharePoint site for tools, resources and guidance to support your growth.
• Get involved in career programs like Career Circles, Career Mentoring and the Learning & Development Exchange to expand your skills and connections.

Additional Information

To qualify, applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States, and should not require, now or in the future, sponsorship for employment visa status.

Resumes may be considered in the order they are received. SAS employees performing certain job functions may require access to technology or software subject to export or import regulations. To comply with these regulations, SAS may obtain nationality or citizenship information from applicants for employment. SAS collects this information solely for trade law compliance purposes and does not use it to discriminate unfairly in the hiring process.

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