[Hiring] Director of Product Delivery and Programs @Young Life

Role Description

At Young Life, our mission is to introduce adolescents to Jesus Christ and help them grow in their faith. We invite you to join us in this life-changing work, building relationships and creating spaces where young people feel seen, known, and loved.

• Build and Lead the Product Delivery Organization
  • Leads program managers, Scrum leaders, and technical program managers through clear ownership, workforce planning, recruiting, performance management, and succession planning.
  • Develops leaders who can independently run delivery work, make sound decisions, and develop others.
  • Addresses capability and performance gaps directly and fairly.
  • Establishes consistent hiring, onboarding, and development practices for the delivery organization.
  • Builds a team culture of clear commitments and candid escalation.
• Run the Product Program Management Practice
  • Plans, forecasts, and tracks product delivery across teams, including dependencies, risks, and readiness for release.
  • Establishes proportionate practices for planning, dependency management, escalation, and release readiness.
  • Removes duplicate reporting and approvals.
  • Gives accountable leaders feasible options, a recommendation, and the consequence of delay when decisions are required.
  • Ensures launches have support, training, communication, and operating owners in place before they are considered complete.
• Establish the Delivery Operating Model
  • Maintains the Scrum operating model for product teams, including ceremonies, roles, and shared practices.
  • Ensures Scrum leaders run effective teams.
  • Leads the exploration and transition toward stream-aligned teams using Team Topology, in partnership with the GMET Leadership.
  • Defines team boundaries, interaction modes, and the role of technical program managers within each team structure.
  • Guides team splits and changes, ensuring ownership, backlog, and handoffs remain clear.
• Manage Vendors and Delivery Partners
  • Manages the day-to-day delivery and performance of vendors who provide services to product teams.
  • Tracks deliverables, quality, schedule, cost, and knowledge transfer.
  • Escalates performance concerns early with a recommendation.
  • Partners with GMET Leadership on negotiations, scope changes, renewals, and exits.
  • Plans knowledge transfer and transition before any vendor exits.
• Manage Budget and Capacity
  • Shares responsibility for the product delivery budget with GMET Leadership.
  • Makes capacity and investment tradeoffs visible, including staffing, vendor cost, and transition cost.
  • Directs scarce delivery capacity toward the highest-value work.
  • Escalates material decisions with a recommendation.
• Establish Measures and Report Outcomes
  • Defines delivery measures, including forecast reliability, cycle time, dependency health, team health, and vendor performance.
  • Establishes baselines and uses them to guide decisions.
  • Reports delivery status and risk to GMET Leadership and to product and engineering leaders with clear, evidence-based information.
  • Uses approved Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation tools to improve planning, reporting, and knowledge reuse.
• Supervisory Responsibilities
  • Manages professional teams composed of individual contributors and/or supervisors.
  • Sets clear ownership, priorities, and performance expectations, and delegates real authority.
  • Participates in the interview and selection process, provides training and mentorship, and offers career development guidance.
  • Provides timely and constructive coaching and feedback; develops staff and provides challenging opportunities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited university or college, preferably in a job related major field of study.
• Minimum ten (10) years of relevant professional experience, including leading and managing complex initiatives or programs with outcome-focused deliverables.
• Minimum three (3) years of managerial experience.
• Or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Typically eight or more years of progressively responsible experience in program management, product delivery, agile delivery, or related work.
• Five or more years leading program managers, Scrum leaders, technical program managers, or multidisciplinary delivery teams.
• Demonstrated success leading delivery across a portfolio of product teams, with sustained outcomes achieved through others.
• Experience developing managers, team leads, or senior practitioners through delegation, feedback, performance management, and succession planning.
• Strong program and portfolio judgment across capacity, dependencies, risk, and operational readiness.
• Experience with Scrum and agile delivery at scale, and with moving teams toward stream-aligned or Team Topology operating models.
• Experience managing vendors and contractors who deliver services to product teams.
• Ability to connect technical dependencies to delivery consequences, and to work with technical leaders without substituting for their authority.
• Strong written, facilitation, and executive communication skills.
• Personal commitment to Young Life's Christian mission and required staff statements and policies.

Preferred Experience

• Nonprofit or mission-driven delivery.
• Product delivery in distributed or global teams.
• Team Topology or stream-aligned transitions.
• Salesforce or other enterprise platform delivery.
• Responsible adoption of AI in planning and reporting.

Job Specific Working Conditions

• The anticipated salary rate for this position can range from $91,750.00 - $118,250.00 depending on relevant experience and education, working location, and scheduled weekly hours.