VP, Program Management & Product Architecture

Location & Flexibility

The VP of Program Management and Product Architecture will be an integral part of our leadership at WillowTree. To help retain our deep culture of collaboration both among ourselves and our clients, this role will maintain an in-office presence in our Vancouver office.

Who We Are

WillowTree is one of the largest independent digital consultancies in the US building and designing digital flagship products crucial to our clients’ business needs. We consult with Fortune 500 companies all over the world, such as HBO, National Geographic, Anheuser-Busch, PepsiCo, and more.

WillowTree is an 8-time Inc 500/5000 company and has been featured in the Forrester Wave for mobile, digital design, and development services. We were named to Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 for the second year in a row due to our 219% revenue growth from 2017-2019. We are also one of a few firms globally to be certified partners with Apple, Google, SAP, and Microsoft.

In November 2018, WillowTree established our first external board following our new partnership with a private equity investor group called Insignia Capital Group. Our board is highlighted by former Global Managing Partner at A.T. Kearney, Johan Aurik, and the recent addition of T-Mobile’s Chief Digital Officer (and former WillowTree client), Marcus East. These relationships have allowed us to unlock additional opportunities in the digital consultancy space and properly scale our business to meet our clients’ evolving needs.

Our Team

Our organizational "Branch" structure allows us to scale mentorship, maintain client intimacy, and foster a cohesive culture as our company grows. WillowTree Branches operate as major business units, each with a total of 80–150 multidisciplinary team members allocated to several clients.

Each Branch is led by three peer Partners and VPs, each representing an integral part of our delivery at WillowTree—Program Management & Product Architecture, Engineering, and Product Design (what we call the Triforce). They lead the success and operation of the Branch and all that it entails such as the leadership of their team, client relationships, product delivery, and financial results.

The VP of Program Management will lead our Vancouver, British Columbia branch.  

The Opportunity

With your Branch Lead peers, you’ll coach teams to optimally deliver quality products to our clients while championing a culture of engagement, collaboration, and inclusion. You’ll build relationships with executive client partners to support their digital transformation efforts and identify ways to grow our work together. You’ll apply your knowledge of software development, team leadership, client management, and product strategy to implement and continuously improve processes both internally and with our clients.

We understand our responsibility to create a diverse, equitable, and inclusive place within the tech industry, while pushing to make our industry more representative. Because of this responsibility, we need candidates who value diversity and inclusion through their work, team collaboration, or mentorship. 

Responsibilities

• Provide effective oversight of delivery work in your branch (coach the team to mitigate risk, improve practices, and strengthen trust with the client through consistent delivery)
• Develop, maintain, and grow relationships with key client partners to ensure trust and good standing
• Serve as business advisor for senior client executives toward high-stakes program execution; apply agile delivery methods and project operating models to meet client needs 
• Bring innovative approaches, ideas, and tactics to clients and teams to drive excellence in the work.
• Collaborate with team leaders to develop a client communication strategy and long-term product vision
• Contribute to hiring, thought leadership, early stage commercial efforts, and team member allocation across your branch
• Manage performance and allocation for Project Management and Product Architecture teams
• Cultivate a strong team (branch) culture amongst team members from different locations and disciplines 
• Contribute thought leadership and outward contributions to the firm’s market presence

Qualifications

• Experience leading and providing oversight for cross-functional delivery teams in a consulting firm or agency setting, delivering digital products or enabling digital transformation services.
• Demonstrated ability to build relationships with multiple executive partners within a client organization, aligning client needs with firm expertise. 
• Experience creating and executing account plans, and managing KPIs or outcome targets across a set of teams. 
• Experience both personally building relationships with clients in complex client organizations and coaching teams on client and account management activities. 
• Strong executive communication skills in written, verbal, and meeting formats.
• Experience leading teams through excellence in:
• Planning program and/or product roadmaps that include long term strategy and ballpark estimates for client budgeting purposes
• Delivering software through various agile frameworks: Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, etc.
• Running software projects using modern engineering and DevOps practices such as CI/CD, Ensemble Programming
• Balancing multiple priorities by focusing on the golden path
• Experience with team management, proven ability to grow the skillsets and capabilities of a team through effective performance management. 
• Experience hiring and building multidisciplinary teams in a growing organization with evolving needs. 
• Direct experience with either project management, scrum master, or product ownership roles delivering digital products. 
• Ability to travel (expect 5-10 business days per month).

Even if you don’t have expertise in all of the qualifications listed, we value new perspectives and backgrounds and encourage you to apply. We’re committed to building a diverse company that reflects the diversity of our users, and we’re committed to a growth-mindset.

Why WillowTree?

We offer a place to be yourself.

Our differences, both visible and invisible, benefit our teams, our communities, and the products we craft. That’s why WillowTree strives to build a team with diverse backgrounds, skills, and perspectives. You’ll work hard here; however, we’ll balance that with a culture that supports your growth and cares about your well-being. We’re committed to creating an environment of inclusion — a place where every Tree can thrive.

We want you to reach your fullest potential and part of your professional development at WillowTree will include dedicated time to innovate on passion projects and an annual stipend to fund your professional pursuits.

WillowTree celebrates our differences and provides equal employment opportunities to all team members and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. Diverse teams build better products. We acknowledge that the tech industry especially lacks opportunity for those who are of non-traditional backgrounds and in underrepresented groups. In order to create the best products for everyone, we know that it’s important for our team to reflect the diversity of our users, and we are committed to being the change we want to see.