Principal Program Manager

We're looking for a Principal Program Manager This role is Office Based, Hyderabad Office
Cornerstone OnDemand is looking for a Technical Program Manager who will drive the planning, execution, and delivery of complex, cross-functional technical programs. You will work at the intersection of engineering, product, and business teams to ensure large-scale initiatives are delivered with clarity, predictability, and impact. This role requires a strong technical foundation combined with exceptional program management skills to orchestrate multiple workstreams and stakeholders toward shared outcomes.
In this role, you will…
Program Planning & Execution
Own end-to-end program management for large-scale, cross-functional technical initiatives spanning multiple engineering teams, products, and business units.
Define program scope, milestones, deliverables, success criteria, and resource requirements in collaboration with engineering and product leadership.
Build and maintain detailed program plans, roadmaps, and schedules with clear dependencies, critical paths, and risk mitigation strategies.
Drive program execution through structured governance — standups, status reviews, steering committee meetings, and escalation workflows.
Track and report program health, progress, risks, and blockers to senior leadership and stakeholders through dashboards and executive summaries.
Manage program-level trade-offs across scope, timeline, quality, and resources — making recommendations grounded in data and technical context.
Conduct retrospectives and post-mortems to capture lessons learned and drive continuous improvement in delivery processes.
Identify process bottlenecks and inefficiencies across teams and implement improvements to accelerate delivery cycles.
Technical Leadership & Cross-Functional Alignment
Partner with engineering leaders and architects to understand system designs, technical dependencies, and integration points across programs.
Facilitate architecture and design reviews to ensure alignment across teams and identify cross-cutting concerns early.
Coordinate platform migrations, infrastructure upgrades, API versioning, and other technical initiatives that span multiple teams.
Partner with DevOps and SRE teams to ensure release readiness, deployment coordination, and operational handoffs for program deliverables.
Define and drive Agile-at-scale practices (SAFe, Scrum of Scrums, or similar) across engineering teams to improve delivery predictability and velocity.
Facilitate alignment between product roadmaps, engineering capacity, and business priorities to ensure realistic commitments.
Stakeholder Communication & Risk Management
Serve as the central point of communication for program status, decisions, and escalations across engineering, product, design, QA, and business teams.
Translate complex technical concepts and program details into clear, concise updates for executive leadership and non-technical stakeholders.
Manage stakeholder expectations proactively — surfacing trade-offs, timeline impacts, and scope changes early with data-backed recommendations.
Build and maintain a risk management framework — proactively identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks before they become blockers.
Manage cross-team dependency tracking, capacity planning, and sprint/release coordination.
Build strong relationships across the organization to enable effective collaboration and influence without authority.
Requirements
You've Got What It Takes If You Have…
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
10+ years of experience in technical program management, engineering project management, or a related role within software product organizations.
5+ years of hands-on software engineering or technical lead experience (prior to or alongside program management).
Proven track record of successfully delivering large-scale, cross-functional technical programs on time and within scope.
Technical Expertise
Strong understanding of software development lifecycle, system architecture, distributed systems, and cloud platforms (Azure preferred).
Familiarity with microservices architecture, API design, CI/CD pipelines, and modern DevOps practices.
Ability to read and understand code, technical design documents, and architecture diagrams at a level sufficient to assess risks and dependencies.
Experience with Agile/Scrum methodologies and scaling frameworks.
Proficiency with program management and collaboration tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, Confluence, Smartsheet, or MS Project.
Communication & Leadership
Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to tailor messaging for technical and executive audiences.
Strong facilitation skills — able to lead productive meetings, drive decisions, and resolve conflicts constructively.
Exceptional organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple complex programs simultaneously.
Proven ability to build trust and influence across engineering, product, and business functions.
Proactive and self-driven with a strong sense of ownership over program outcomes.
Nice to Have
Experience in SaaS/enterprise product development environments.
Exposure to AI/ML programs and their unique delivery challenges.
Familiarity with talent management, HR tech, or learning management domains.
Our Culture
Spark Greatness. Shatter Boundaries. Share Success. Are you ready? Because here, right now – is where the future of work is happening. Where curious disruptors and change innovators like you are helping communities and customers enable everyone – anywhere – to learn, grow and advance. To be better tomorrow than they are today.
Who We Are
At Cornerstone, we believe in AI that works in the service of people, amplifying their judgment to drive high-performing, future-ready organizations forward. Cornerstone Workforce AI™, the intelligence platform for workforce readiness, brings together workforce and labor market data into a proprietary Cornerstone People Graph™, translating signals into intelligence, targeting learning where it matters, developing critical skills, and surfacing hidden talent. Delivered as an open, enterprise platform across whatever application your people work in every day, Cornerstone Workforce AI is built for scale, security, and trust, with certified AI guardrails. As an industry leader, Cornerstone is helping approximately 7,000 organizations, 140M+ users, across 186 countries build continuous workforce readiness.
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Work arrangement
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