Lead IT Program Manager

About the team

Klaviyo's Corporate IT team, part of Global Technology Solutions (GTS), provides technology systems, administration, and support to Klaviyos worldwide. Our goal is to give every Klaviyo a strong technology foundation to do great work. We solve problems with technology, embrace automation and AI, and support Klaviyo's continued scalability in a rapidly evolving environment.

Corporate IT brings together IT Support (SearchBar), IT Systems, IT Network, and IT Strategy & Operations. Our team works with modern DevOps practices and is moving toward configuration as code, infrastructure as code, and automating everything it can. The IT Strategy & Operations team develops and refines our work management systems, drives organizational change, coordinates cross-functional programs, and aligns Corporate IT initiatives with the broader GTS vision, working closely with every Corporate IT team, Information Security, and the broader Klaviyo organization.

About the role

As a Lead IT Program Manager, you will be the operational backbone of Corporate IT. You will deliver our largest cross-functional initiatives, own how we plan and prioritize our portfolio, run our OKR process, and make the team run better through consistent Agile practices, continuous process improvement, and strong vendor management. You are AI-first in how you work: you use AI every day to move faster and help the teams around you do the same. You will report to the Director of Corporate IT and partner with IT leaders, Engineering, Security, Finance, Procurement, Legal, and Business Operations.

How you'll have an impact

Lead our largest strategic initiatives

• Own end-to-end delivery of key, large-scale, cross-functional programs across IT Support, IT Systems, and IT Network: scope, plan, coordinate supporting teams, track progress, and adjust schedule and resourcing to meet business objectives.

• Partner with IT Systems on programs that use DevOps practices such as infrastructure as code and automation, understanding the concepts well enough to plan realistically, spot risks, and represent the work to leadership.

• Perform risk analysis, build contingency plans, and proactively raise critical issues so leaders can make timely prioritization and trade-off decisions.

• Establish success metrics for each program and report on adoption, delivery, and business impact.

• Lead vendor evaluation and selection: gather requirements, run RFI/RFP processes, define scoring criteria, coordinate demos and proofs of concept, and make build-vs-buy recommendations.

• Work with Procurement, Accounting, Security and Legal to manage program budgets and contingencies.

Own OKRs and contribute to IT strategy

• Partner with the Director of Corporate IT to establish quarterly objectives and key results (OKRs) for Corporate IT, aligned with GTS and company goals.

• Run the quarterly OKR cadence: drafting and alignment with team leads, regular check-ins, scoring, and retrospectives.

• Track and report progress on OKRs to Corporate IT and GTS leadership, highlighting what is on track, at risk, and needs a decision.

• Support strategic planning, including roadmaps, annual and quarterly planning cycles, and leadership and cross-functional communications.

Own and optimize the IT portfolio

• Partner with IT leadership to manage and influence the backlog: project selection, intake, prioritization, and a healthy pipeline of future work.

• Lead and grow the portfolio structure in Linear so every project traces back to an OKR or strategic opportunity.

• Lead capacity planning across Corporate IT and analyze trends across projects, tying work back to goals.

Mature Agile practices and Drive process improvements

• Own Agile ways of working across Corporate IT: define and align practices for planning, sprint and Kanban cadences, estimation, backlog refinement, retrospectives, and definition of done.

• Coach teams and leads on Agile principles, tailoring practices to each team's type of work (project, operations, and support) rather than imposing one model.

• Help drive our migration from Jira to Linear, and configure and evolve workflows, views, and metrics (velocity, cycle time, throughput) so teams and leaders have a consistent, trustworthy view of work.

• Lead improvement initiatives from idea to adoption, including documentation, change management, and measuring results.

Lead with AI

• Use AI daily to run programs: drafting plans and status reports, synthesizing meetings and decisions, analyzing portfolio and OKR data, and surfacing risks earlier.

• Build AI-assisted and automated workflows for program operations, such as automated status reporting, backlog hygiene, intake triage, and OKR tracking, to remove manual work.

• Champion AI adoption across Corporate IT processes: identify high-value use cases, pilot them with teams, and share playbooks for what works.

• Model responsible use of AI, including privacy, security, and human-in-the-loop review.

What we're looking for

• 6+ years of experience in program or project management, operational leadership, or strategic consulting, ideally in IT, infrastructure, or technical environments.

• Proven, hands-on experience implementing and coaching Agile practices (Scrum, Kanban) across multiple teams, with the judgment to adapt them pragmatically to different kinds of work.

• Experience establishing, running, and reporting on OKRs or a similar goal-setting framework with senior leaders.

• Track record of leading process improvement: diagnosing inefficiencies, redesigning workflows, and driving adoption.

• Experience scoping, planning, and delivering large, multi-team technical programs, including programs with budgets over $1M and close work with finance and procurement.

• Working understanding of DevOps and CI/CD concepts (such as infrastructure as code and automated deployments) and how they shape planning and delivery. Hands-on experience is not required.

• Experience leading vendor evaluations and RFP processes, through contract and performance management.

• AI-native way of working: you use AI tools (LLM assistants, AI search, agents) every day and can show concrete examples of how they changed how you plan, communicate, and deliver.

• Experience building AI-assisted workflows or automations (for example, prompts, agents, or low-code automation) to remove manual work for yourself and your teams.

• Excellent communicator who balances persuasiveness with active listening, and can tailor messaging from engineers to executives.

• Comfortable with ambiguity: you can lead cross-functional work with loosely defined plans and objectives, shift priorities, and bring others along.

• Strong hands-on experience with a modern Agile work management tool (Linear, Jira, or similar). Linear experience is a plus.

Nice to have

• PMP, Agile (PMI-ACP, CSM, SAFe), or Lean/process improvement certification.

• Experience with enterprise SaaS ecosystems (Okta, Slack, Workday, Jamf), network programs, or security and compliance programs.

• Familiarity with low-code automation or workflow tools.

• Experience mentoring or informally leading other project managers.

Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity Statement

We are committed to equal employment opportunity in both principle and as a matter of policy. We will recruit, hire, train, promote, compensate and provide benefits to all applicants and employees without regard to ancestry, sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, gender, age, religion, religious creed, mental and/or physical disability, medical condition, military and/or veteran’s status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state and local laws. This policy applies to all recruiting, hiring, promotions, upgrades, layoffs, compensation, benefits, terminations and all other privileges, terms and conditions of employment. The firm complies fully with all federal, state and local equal employment opportunity laws.