About the roleAs a Senior Program Manager, Vendor & Scaled Operations within Thumbtack's Service Operations PMO, you will own our outsourced and scaled delivery model - the strategy, the governance, and the long-horizon programs that determine how a meaningful share of our service gets delivered. This is not a generalist PM role. It is purpose-built for someone who can hold a commercial relationship, an operational system, and an executive narrative at the same time.
You will own Thumbtack's vendor and BPO strategy for Service Operations end to end: how we decide what to outsource, how we hold partners accountable, how we govern performance, and how we scale or unwind capacity as the business changes. You'll own a portfolio of scaled operations and partner support programs spanning a year or more, with real interdependencies between them, and you'll make the prioritization and capacity calls across that portfolio rather than escalating them.
You'll also be the person leadership turns to for the make-versus-buy conversation. Expect to build the cost, quality, and risk case for how we scale, bring it to senior leaders and to vendor executives, and then be accountable for the model you recommended.
This is a high-leverage, high-ambiguity role. Much of the infrastructure you'll need does not fully exist yet, and building it durably - so it outlasts you - is a core part of the job.
What you'll do- Own Thumbtack's vendor and outsourcing strategy for Service Operations - sourcing decisions, make-versus-buy recommendations, capacity strategy across internal, vendor, and partner channels, and the case for expanding, consolidating, or exiting a partner. Own the commercial relationship alongside Legal, Finance, and Procurement (SOWs, rate structures, SLA credits and remedies, renewals) and know which levers to pull when performance slips.
- Design and optimize the governance model for vendor performance: SLA and scorecard architecture, QBR structure, decision rights, escalation paths, and remediation playbooks. Build durable frameworks, not one-off trackers.
- Own a portfolio of programs. Set the strategy, sequence the work, decide what does and doesn't get done, drive it to business-level outcomes, and establish the operating rhythms - cadences, decision logs, dependency tracking, escalation thresholds, change communication - that keep distributed, multi-party delivery predictable.
- Build the measurement framework for the scaled delivery model: quality, SLA attainment, forecast accuracy, cost-to-serve, and the leading indicators that reveal a program is silently degrading before the lagging metrics do. Define what "good" looks like and close the loop so performance data actually changes behavior - on our side and the vendor's.
- Align senior leaders and lead the change. Bring executives across Service Operations, IT, Legal, Finance, Product, and Workforce Management to a decision on sourcing priorities and tradeoffs, translating tangled multi-party problems into a clear recommendation - then drive adoption through teams and partners who don't report to you, including the unglamorous follow-through that determines whether change sticks.
- Raise the bar on how this work gets done. Identify and build AI and automation that reduces coordination overhead and improves oversight at scale, and coach other program managers while institutionalizing what works into playbooks and standards, so every future partnership starts from a higher floor.
In order to be successful, you must bring- 8+ years in program or project management, including 3+ years owning vendor, BPO, or outsourced delivery relationships at scale. Experience with multiple vendors, multiple sites, or a vendor transition is strongly preferred. Proficiency in program management tooling (e.g., Jira, Linear, Coda, Smartsheet) and fluency across Agile and Waterfall approaches. PMP, PgMP, or equivalent is nice-to-have.
- Deep vendor ownership and sourcing judgment. You've personally owned an outsourcing relationship end to end - commercial terms, governance, performance management, escalation, and the hard conversations - not just coordinated with one someone else owned. You've also built and defended a make-versus-buy or vendor expansion case with cost, quality, and risk modeling, and taken it to senior leadership.
- Portfolio-level ownership. You've run multiple concurrent scale programs with genuine tradeoffs between them, and owned the prioritization and capacity calls yourself. You've run programs where consistency of human execution at volume is the product - you know how to design for repeatability, and you spot degradation from leading indicators rather than after the fact.
- A track record of building durable infrastructure. SLA and scorecard architecture, governance models, transition playbooks, reporting systems - things other teams adopted and still use. You build and maintain the models, dashboards, and SLA tracking yourself rather than waiting for someone else to instrument it.
- Comfort where the playbook doesn't exist, and a habit of leaving people better than you found them. You've stepped into situations with no established approach and built one, with the judgment to know when structure helps and when it would slow things down - and you've mentored program managers or been the person other teams borrow practices from.
Expected salary ranges- For candidates living in San Francisco / Bay Area, San Jose, New York City, or Seattle metros, the expected total cash compensation (base salary + variable pay, if applicable) range for the role is currently $153,000 - $198,000
- For candidates living in Austin, TX or Washington DC metros or in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, or Washington states, the expected total cash compensation (base salary + variable pay, if applicable) range for the role is currently $137,700 - $178,200
- For candidates living in all other US locations, the expected total cash compensation (base salary + variable pay, if applicable) range for this role is currently $130,100- $168,300
Actual offered salaries will vary and will be based on various factors, such as calibrated job level, qualifications, skills, competencies, and proficiency for the role.
