Senior Technical Program Manager

With over 150 Million customers in 109 countries, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is committed to using data to understand The Players: our customers, better than anyone else. Using the amazing networked power of PlayStation®5 and our other PlayStation systems we learn how they use them for gaming, and also how they use the networked services like streamed games, music, video, and  how they pay, and how we can improve their customer experience. We work with games developers, marketing, R&D, PlayStation®Store, and many other parts of Sony to constantly improve our customer experience and maximise our business potential.

The ICDS DE team has grown rapidly over recent years in response to an increasing need for the business to leverage data to inform and shape key decisions, and to identify new opportunities. Currently there are approximately 120 staff within the ICDS DE team, split between London and California, made up of high-quality data professionals covering architecture and platform support, data processing and technical program management

Due to team expansion ICDS DE are looking to recruit talented, highly driven individuals who have excelled in previous roles and are looking for a new challenge in a dynamic and rewarding environment.

ICDS delivers data that powers Analytics, Data sciences, Marketing, ML and multiple other teams across the companies and offices that make up the PlayStation business:  high quality, valuable to the user, accessible, and continuously improving.

We are seeking a Senior Technical Program Manager  to lead complex, cross-functional technical initiatives from concept through delivery. This role is critical in driving alignment across engineering, product, design, operations, and leadership teams to ensure predictable execution and scalable, high-quality solutions. The ideal candidate thrives in ambiguous environments, excels at systems thinking, and has a strong background in software engineering or technical program management.

Key Responsibilities:

Program Leadership & Delivery

• Lead end-to-end program management for large, multi-quarter data engineering initiatives
• Develop program charters, execution plans, timelines, OKRs, and success metrics.
• Drive cross-functional alignment across engineering, product, analytics, cloud infrastructure, and security.
• Proactively identify dependencies, risks, and mitigation strategies.

Technical Expertise & Execution:

• Partner closely with Data Engineering leads to define architectural direction and technical roadmaps involving batch/stream processing, orchestration, metadata management, and data quality frameworks.
• Understand system architecture, APIs, distributed compute technologies (e.g., Spark, Flink, Databricks), and cloud services (AWS/GCP/Azure).
• Provide technical clarity to stakeholders; translate between business, analytics, and engineering requirements.
• Ensure scalable, secure, and reliable data platform deliveries following best practices.

Process & Operational Excellence

• Implement and evolve program delivery processes using Agile, Kanban, and hybrid models suitable for data infrastructure.
• Create visibility and reporting across engineering and business teams using dashboards, executive updates, and program reviews.
• Drive continuous improvement for system reliability, data quality, cost optimization, and operational excellence.
• Lead incident response coordination for major platform issues and ensure root cause analysis and corrective actions.

Stakeholder Management

• Work with business, product, and analytics partners to translate ambiguous requirements into executable engineering plans.
• Communicate program health, milestones, and risks to executives and cross-functional leadership.
• Manage vendor relationships and contracts when working with cloud, data, or ETL platform providers.

 Basic Qualifications:

• 7+ years of experience in technical program management, engineering management, or a related technical field.
• Strong experience managing programs in data engineering, data platforms, distributed systems, or analytics infrastructure.
• Bachelors or master's in computer science, engineering, or science.
• Experience in software development, data engineering, or business intelligence fields is a bonus.
• Solid understanding of modern data stacks:

  • Data lakes/warehouses (e.g., Snowflake, Delta Lake)

  • Batch/stream processing frameworks (Spark, Flink, Kafka, Kinesis)

  • Orchestration tools (Airflow, Workflow, Kubeflow)

  • Cloud platforms (AWS ,Azure)

  • Data Processing Platforms (Databricks, Ab Initio)

• Proven success in delivering multi-team, multi-quarter technical programs.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to influence engineering and executive-level audiences.
• Experience with Agile methodologies and engineering-driven delivery environments.
• Ability to break down complex problems into actionable plans.
• Empathy for the customer and understanding of customer service approaches.
• Knowledge of Data Warehousing fundamentals.
• Curiosity about gaming, digital entertainment, or consumer electronics is a plus.

 Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in large-scale data platform modernization or migration programs.
• Background in software engineering, data engineering, or architecture.
• Experience implementing data governance, privacy, lineage, or catalog solutions.
• Familiarity with ML platforms, MLOps workflows, or feature engineering.
• PMP, Scrum Master, or SAFe certifications (not required but beneficial).

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