Senior Technical Program Manager (Agile / SAFe / Jira)
Job Description
The OperAxis team is seeking a Senior Technical Program Manager for a 7-month contract with a payments industry client in O'Fallon, MO (onsite). Only candidates local to O'Fallon, MO will be considered. You will independently manage technology programs from inception to completion, coordinating engineering delivery across multiple teams and integrations for digital-first corporate payment, travel and business-to-business solutions. The ideal candidate is an experienced Scrum Master and program leader with deep Agile delivery experience in Jira, hands-on SAFe or Scrum@Scale practice in large-scale team environments, and a proven ability to influence engineers, managers and cross-functional stakeholders. Requirements: - Must have: Scrum Master experience - Must have: program execution and delivery management using Jira - Must have: Agile delivery (Scrum and Kanban), including sprint planning, breaking down problems and organizing work - Must have: in-depth experience with SAFe or Scrum@Scale in large-scale team environments - Strong stakeholder leadership and communication skills - Experience managing end-to-end delivery across teams, including cross-team dependencies and delivery risks - Clear status reporting, effective meetings and timely decision-making - Ability to build relationships and influence engineers, managers, peers and leaders - Broad understanding of software engineering concepts, with CI/CD and DevOps awareness - Data-driven approach to continuous improvement; able to operate independently - Preferred: cloud-native services at scale, payments, IaaS/PaaS, microservice APIs and agentic AI - Bachelor's degree in Information Systems, IT, Computer Science or Engineering, or equivalent experience - Must be local to O'Fallon, MO Responsibilities: - Plan, execute and deliver projects and programs end to end, from inception to completion - Develop and maintain integrated plans covering internal and external dependencies, constraints and contingencies - Proactively manage engineering delivery across the organization and dependent teams - Track and report progress with accurate status updates to the right audiences - Serve as the primary point of contact and translate complex information into clear communications - Facilitate effective meetings and drive timely decisions - Monitor delivery risks across initiatives spanning multiple teams and integrations - Coach teams in self-organization and cross-functional collaboration - Remove impediments and escalate obstacles affecting delivery - Use retrospectives and data to drive continuous improvement