Senior Program Manager

At F5, we strive to bring a better digital world to life. Our teams empower organizations across the globe to create, secure, and run applications that enhance how we experience our evolving digital world. We are passionate about cybersecurity, from protecting consumers from fraud to enabling companies to focus on innovation. 
 

Everything we do centers around people. That means we obsess over how to make the lives of our customers, and their customers, better. And it means we prioritize a diverse F5 community where each individual can thrive.

Job Title: Senior Program Manager 

Position Summary 

We are seeking a dynamic and seasoned Senior Program Manager to join the Central Operations team at F5. In this high-impact role, you will lead and manage a portfolio of strategic initiatives and programs that drive business growth, innovation, and execution of F5’s highest priorities. This portfolio encompasses each fiscal year’s Missions, directly driving progress toward F5’s multi-year Strategic Promises. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience successfully managing an enterprise's portfolio of high-priority initiatives to deliver measurable business outcomes while leading and mentoring a team of high-performing program managers.

This role reports directly to the Director of Central Operations and requires exceptional executive presence and the ability to navigate complex, high-stakes environments with senior leadership. A background in the technology industry plus consulting, or advisory experience is highly preferred, demonstrating expertise in providing strategic guidance, building alignment, and driving transformative initiatives while enabling a program team is required. The candidate must possess high emotional intelligence, strong critical-thinking skills, and a proven ability to work cross-functionally in matrixed organizations. They should excel at influencing stakeholders at all levels, fostering collaboration, and empowering teams to achieve program success.

What You’ll Do 

Promise Portfolio Management: 

• Refine, implement, and maintain the Promise portfolio management framework, ensuring alignment with the company’s strategic objectives. 
• Monitor and evaluate 1-2 Promise portfolio performance, identifying risks, opportunities, and areas for improvement. While refining and monitor measures of success / KPIs for the portfolio.
• Manage rhythm of business – including communications, status reports, and readouts to stakeholders and leadership 
• Partner with leaders to draft, refine, and socialize OKRs, ensuring strong alignment between strategy, priorities, and execution.

Strategic Planning: 

• Act as a strategic advisor to senior leaders, offering thought leadership, data-driven recommendations, and insights to shape strategic initiatives and ensure effective execution.
• Conduct market and industry analysis to inform decisions and identify emerging opportunities. 

• Create and maintain roadmaps to communicate priorities, timelines, and dependencies to stakeholders.

Stakeholder Engagement: 

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including Product Management, Engineering, IT, HR, Sales, Marketing, Security and Risk Management, to ensure successful delivery of initiatives. 

• Serve as the primary point of contact for 1-2 Promise status, providing transparent reporting and insights to the Central Operations leadership and executive leadership team. 

• Facilitate decision-making by presenting data-driven recommendations to senior executives. 

Governance and Resource Allocation: 

• Work with leadership team to maintain and refine governance processes to evaluate, prioritize, and approve new initiatives and projects within the portfolio. 

• Optimize resource allocation across the portfolio, balancing strategic priorities with capacity constraints. 

• Ensure compliance with organizational policies, processes, and standards. 

Leadership and Mentorship: 

• Mentor team members, fostering professional development and growth. 

• Contribute to a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement across the portfolio management function. 

What You’ll Bring 

• Background in consulting or advisory roles, with expertise in guiding executive teams and senior stakeholders through complex problem-solving and decision-making processes.
• Demonstrated experience managing programs or portfolios in cybersecurity, information security, risk management, or related domains.
• Proven expertise in managing complex, cross-functional portfolios with competing priorities. 
• Possess a strong understanding of organizational change management principles, software development lifecycle practices, and hybrid delivery methodologies, including waterfall and agile.
• Demonstrated experience in strategic planning, program development, resource allocation, budget management, and risk assessment. 
• Strong business acumen and understanding of enterprise-level processes and the interplay between functions, particularly Product Management and Engineering, Customer Support, Customer Success, Sales, Marketing, Technology Services, Security, Resiliency, Risk, Finance and Accounting 

• Strong interpersonal skills, high emotional intelligence, and ability to develop effective partnerships across the company to engage, align, and gain stakeholder buy-in. 

Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree in Project Management, Managing Information Systems, or a related field (MBA or advanced degree preferred). 

• 10+ years of experience in portfolio management, program management, or a related leadership role, preferably within the technology sector or certification (e.g., PfMP, PMP, PgMP). 
• 6+ years Background in consulting or advisory roles, with expertise in guiding executive teams and senior stakeholders through complex problem-solving and decision-making processes. 

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The Job Description is intended to be a general representation of the responsibilities and requirements of the job. However, the description may not be all-inclusive, and responsibilities and requirements are subject to change.

The annual base pay for this position is: $156,800.00 - $235,200.00

F5 maintains broad salary ranges for its roles in order to account for variations in knowledge, skills, experience, geographic locations, and market conditions, as well as to reflect F5’s differing products, industries, and lines of business. The pay range referenced is as of the time of the job posting and is subject to change.

You may also be offered incentive compensation, bonus, restricted stock units, and benefits. More details about F5’s benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.f5.com/company/careers/benefits. F5 reserves the right to change or terminate any benefit plan without notice. 

Please note that F5 only contacts candidates through F5 email address (ending with @f5.com) or auto email notification from Workday (ending with f5.com or @myworkday.com).

Equal Employment Opportunity

It is the policy of F5 to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and employment applicants without regard to unlawful considerations of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, sensory, physical, or mental disability, marital status, veteran or military status, genetic information, or any other classification protected by applicable local, state, or federal laws. This policy applies to all aspects of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, discipline, and termination.  F5 offers a variety of reasonable accommodations for candidates. Requesting an accommodation is completely voluntary. F5 will assess the need for accommodations in the application process separately from those that may be needed to perform the job. Request by contacting accommodations@f5.com.