Senior Director

Dev Technology

$135K — $200K *
Education, Government & Non-Profit
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience required; Master's preferred.
  • 15+ years in federal government contracting or technology services leadership.
  • Experience leading complex federal technology programs and portfolios.
  • PMP Certification or willingness to obtain.
  • Strong relationship-building skills with federal customers and stakeholders.
  • Proficient in program budget management and operational metrics.

Responsibilities

  • Establish strategic vision and performance expectations for the portfolio.
  • Provide leadership across multiple programs and projects.
  • Translate customer priorities into actionable portfolio plans.
  • Identify risks and opportunities across programs.
  • Ensure alignment of portfolio activities with customer missions and company goals.
  • Maintain oversight of program health and performance metrics.
  • Advise executive leadership on emerging concerns and opportunities.

Benefits

  • Professional development and leadership mentoring opportunities.
  • Support for employee engagement and high-performing team initiatives.
  • A collaborative and inclusive workplace culture.
  • Opportunities for growth and advancement within the organization.
Full Job Description
Senior Director, #1080

Portfolio Leadership • Federal Customer Partnership • Operational Excellence • Strategic Growth

Clearance: U.S. Citizenship is required. Must possess or be able to obtain and maintain a DHS Public Trust clearance.

The Senior Director will be accountable for the overall health, performance, leadership, and strategic direction of a portfolio of federal cloud and software development programs.

This leader will oversee Program/Project Managers and other portfolio leaders who are responsible for day-to-day contract execution. The Senior Director will establish consistent portfolio governance, monitor performance across programs, strengthen customer relationships, develop leaders, address cross-program risks, and ensure that teams have the resources and organizational support needed to succeed.

The Senior Director will also serve as a senior point of contact for government customers and Dev Technology leadership. This individual will connect customer mission priorities with portfolio execution, company capabilities, workforce planning, operational improvements, and opportunities for continued growth.

Key Responsibilities

Portfolio Strategy and Leadership
  • Establish and communicate the strategic vision, priorities, operating model, and performance expectations for the portfolio.
  • Provide leadership and direction across multiple programs, projects, task orders, and delivery teams.
  • Translate organizational and customer priorities into actionable portfolio plans and measurable objectives.
  • Ensure portfolio activities remain aligned with customer missions, contractual commitments, Dev Technology's strategic goals, and company values.
  • Identify patterns, dependencies, risks, and opportunities that extend across individual programs.
  • Create an environment of accountability, collaboration, innovation, resilience, and continuous improvement.
  • Advise executive leadership on portfolio performance, emerging concerns, customer priorities, workforce needs, and strategic opportunities.

Customer and Stakeholder Partnership
  • Serve as a trusted senior partner to federal customers, including program leaders, Contracting Officer's Representatives, Contracting Officers, technical stakeholders, and agency executives.
  • Establish and maintain positive customer relationships based on transparency, reliable delivery, responsiveness, and trust.
  • Maintain a strong understanding of customer missions, organizational priorities, operational challenges, and evolving technology needs.
  • Lead or participate in executive-level customer meetings, program reviews, strategic planning sessions, and issue-resolution discussions.
  • Ensure customer concerns are understood, communicated, assigned, and addressed in a timely and appropriate manner.
  • Partner with Program Managers to develop and execute customer engagement and communication strategies.
  • Use customer feedback and portfolio insights to improve delivery, strengthen relationships, and identify opportunities to provide additional value.

Program and Portfolio Health
  • Maintain visibility into the operational, contractual, financial, workforce, schedule, quality, and customer health of each program within the portfolio.
  • Establish consistent portfolio-level governance, reporting, metrics, and review processes.
  • Conduct regular program health reviews with Program Managers and other accountable leaders.
  • Monitor contract performance, deliverables, service levels, milestones, staffing, risks, issues, financial indicators, and customer satisfaction.
  • Ensure performance concerns are identified early and supported by clear mitigation or corrective-action plans.
  • Escalate significant risks, impediments, contractual concerns, or customer issues to the appropriate company leaders.
  • Oversee coordination across programs when work involves shared resources, integrated systems, common customers, or interdependent delivery schedules.
  • Ensure programs are meeting contractual requirements and delivering high-quality outcomes on schedule and within established budgets.
  • Promote disciplined risk management, change management, quality management, and continuous improvement across the portfolio.

Operational and Financial Oversight
  • Partner with Program Managers, Finance, Contracts, Human Resources, Talent Acquisition, Security, and other corporate teams to support effective portfolio operations.
  • Review and oversee portfolio budgets, forecasts, staffing plans, funding status, labor performance, revenue, profitability, and other key business indicators.
  • Ensure Program Managers understand and effectively manage the financial and contractual responsibilities associated with their programs.
  • Identify operational inefficiencies and lead improvements that increase delivery quality, consistency, scalability, and visibility.
  • Establish repeatable processes that strengthen program execution without creating unnecessary administrative burden.
  • Support resource allocation and prioritization across the portfolio.
  • Ensure programs are appropriately staffed and that workforce plans account for current delivery needs, anticipated growth, employee development, and succession planning.
  • Maintain awareness of contract periods of performance, option years, funding limitations, recompete timelines, and other events that could affect portfolio stability.

Leadership and Employee Development
  • Lead, mentor, and develop Program Managers, Project Managers, and other portfolio leaders.
  • Set clear expectations for leadership behavior, communication, customer engagement, operational discipline, and employee support.
  • Hold regular one-on-one meetings and leadership discussions focused on performance, development, challenges, and organizational priorities.
  • Coach leaders through complex customer, employee, delivery, and operational situations.
  • Strengthen leadership capability and consistency across the portfolio through mentoring, shared practices, and targeted development.
  • Support performance management, succession planning, high-potential employee development, recognition, and employee retention.
  • Encourage leaders to create inclusive, engaged, and collaborative teams where employees understand how their work supports the customer mission.
  • Promote consistent use of employee-care and performance tools, including performance reviews, development planning, recognition, and meaningful feedback.
  • Model accountability, integrity, sound judgment, respectful leadership, and an others-first mindset.

Technology Awareness and Innovation
  • Maintain current knowledge of cloud platforms, cloud-native application development, DevSecOps, Agile delivery, artificial intelligence, data analytics, cybersecurity, automation, low-code and no-code platforms, and other relevant technology trends.
  • Understand the practical benefits, risks, limitations, and government considerations associated with emerging technologies.
  • Partner with technical leaders and subject-matter experts to ensure customers receive sound, relevant, and forward-looking recommendations.
  • Help translate technical concepts, investments, and opportunities into language that is meaningful to customer and business stakeholders.
  • Encourage Program Managers and technical teams to identify innovations that improve mission outcomes, delivery effectiveness, security, employee productivity, or cost efficiency.
  • Support the development of presentations, white papers, demonstrations, roadmaps, and recommendations that communicate potential improvements or solutions to customer challenges.
  • Ensure innovation efforts remain grounded in customer needs, contract scope, security requirements, operational feasibility, and measurable value.

Growth and Portfolio Development
  • Identify opportunities to expand Dev Technology's support within existing programs and customer organizations.
  • Partner with Business Development, Capture, Contracts, Finance, Recruiting, and technical leaders on recompetes, proposals, task order responses, and strategic account planning.
  • Contribute customer, workforce, delivery, and operational insight to growth strategies and solution development.
  • Support the development of strong past-performance examples, management approaches, staffing strategies, and portfolio success stories.
  • Help evaluate prospective opportunities for alignment with Dev Technology's capabilities, culture, customer relationships, and delivery capacity.
  • Support smooth transitions for new awards, program expansions, contract changes, and leadership transitions.
  • Represent Dev Technology in customer, partner, and industry settings as appropriate.

Required Qualifications
  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and directly related professional experience.
  • At least 15 years of progressive professional experience, including significant leadership responsibility within federal government contracting, technology services, program management, or a related environment.
  • At least 15 years of experience leading complex federal technology programs, portfolios, delivery organizations, or groups of related projects with a Bachelor's degree, Master's degree preferred.
  • PMP Certification or willingness to obtain?
  • Demonstrated experience leading and developing Program Managers, Project Managers, or other people leaders.
  • Experience overseeing multiple programs, task orders, contracts, customers, or delivery teams simultaneously.
  • Proven success building trusted relationships with federal government customers and senior stakeholders.
  • Demonstrated ability to evaluate and improve program health across delivery, customer satisfaction, financial performance, staffing, risk, quality, and contractual compliance.
  • Experience managing or overseeing program budgets, forecasts, funding, staffing plans, contract performance, and operational metrics.
  • Strong understanding of the federal government contracting environment, including contract delivery, task order execution, subcontractor coordination, funding, performance requirements, and recompete considerations.
  • Working knowledge of cloud computing, modern software delivery, Agile, DevSecOps, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, data analytics, and emerging technology trends.
  • Ability to engage effectively with technical teams and customers without serving as a hands-on technical practitioner.
  • Experience leading organizational improvements, implementing governance practices, and increasing consistency across multiple programs.
  • Excellent executive communication, presentation, facilitation, negotiation, and relationship-management skills.
  • Strong judgment and the ability to make decisions, manage competing priorities, resolve complex problems, and communicate concerns clearly.
  • Demonstrated commitment to employee engagement, mentoring, leadership development, and building high-performing teams.
  • Ability to communicate complex program, business, or technology information clearly to technical and nontechnical audiences.
  • Ability to travel to customer, company, and industry locations as required.
  • U.S. Citizenship is required.
  • Ability to obtain and maintain the required DHS Public Trust clearance.

Preferred Qualifications
  • Experience leading a portfolio of cloud development, software modernization, application development, data, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, or DevSecOps programs.
  • Experience supporting the Department of Homeland Security or another federal civilian agency.
  • Experience overseeing Agile software development and cloud-enabled programs in complex federal environments.
  • Experience supporting program growth, recompetes, capture activities, proposals, and organic account expansion.
  • Experience managing programs that use AWS, Microsoft Azure, cloud-native architectures, containerized applications, low-code

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