Lead Program Manager

About Freshworks:

Freshworks makes it fast and easy for businesses to delight their customers and employees. We do this by taking a fresh approach to building and delivering software that is affordable, quick to implement, and designed for the end user. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Freshworks has a global team operating from 13 global locations to serve more than 65,000 companies -- from startups to public companies – that rely on Freshworks software-as-a-service to enable a better customer experience (CRM, CX) and employee experience (ITSM). 

Freshworks’ cloud-based software suite includes Freshdesk (omni-channel customer support), Freshsales (sales automation), Freshmarketer (marketing automation), Freshservice (IT service desk), Freshchat (AI-powered bots), supported by Neo, our underlying platform of shared services.

Freshworks is featured in global national press including CNBC, Forbes, Fortune, Bloomberg and has been a BuiltIn Best Place to work in San Francisco and Denver for the last 3 years. Our customer ratings have earned Freshworks products TrustRadius Top Rated Software ratings and G2 Best of Awards for Best Feature Set, Best Value for the Price and Best Relationship. 

About the Role

What You’ll Do

• Works within and across a few teams. Serves as a connective tissue to cultivate effective, trusted working relationships cross-functionally within Product Development as well as matrix teams located globally across time-zones.
• Facilitate x-squad connects within or between product groups to ensure transparency and visibility to the work and to gain alignment. Influences roadmap priorities, product feature decisions, and engineering process. Manage "program/feature" dependencies across multiple teams, scrum teams, functions, business units and stakeholders.
• Partner effectively with product and engineering managers to secure human capital and resources, scope engineering efforts/capacity planning, set project priorities, milestones, assist in release planning and drive delivery. Help teams determine where to iterate to make improvements. Determine if success metrics are in place, and if not work to define them
• Own a small program. Manage difficult and/or cross-functional technology projects/goals. Define program requirements and help product and engineering teams meet goals. Own program communication and accelerate progress by driving crisp and timely decisions. Anticipate and remove obstacles, clear blockers (e.g., “Path to green”), escalating appropriately. Makes trade-offs: time vs. scope vs. cost.
• Develop solid understanding of business use cases and larger picture (i.e., customer experience, organization goals, opportunities, and/or problems). Understands design approaches (within technical domain i.e., architecture, dependency impacts, efficiency, performance, availability, operability, etc). Ensure and oversee timely completion of technical and business artifacts as part of product development workflows. Able to spot risks, ask the right questions to ensure appropriate trade-offs are made.
• Mentor & Coach the team on applying process improvement methodologies, agile & lean principles and mindsets, cross-functional collaboration and planning. Help build sustainable ways of working/practices in/between teams within the breadth of scope and influence with an eye for efficiency and effectiveness.
• Look for opportunities to incorporate needed system quality and operational excellence improvements in the entire system of work. Optimize cross-team and project processes to improve efficiency and delivery. Run retrospectives, and/or hold post-mortems with relevant teams/stakeholders for actionable insights and continuous improvement.
• Creates (TPM) impact on multiple team goals and program-related metrics on the business areas (adoption, metrics, dollars, customer, team, and organization).
• Manage meetings effectively. Put the right people in the room. Trusted to present decisions to leaders up to several tiers above level. 
• Develop and manage post-launch GTM/support strategy plans where applicable (e.g., drive customer value and product adoption, triage, issue/ticket management etc.)
• Deliver hands-on work, individual contributions through practical tasks; Outputs could include concise presentations, project status slides, or meticulously crafted documents designed to foresee and address internal/external customer requirements in a manner akin to business process flows. Use project management tools and techniques proficiently for developing and maintaining project schedules, plans and work management. 
• Shadow recruiting and interviewing for your team. Begin to mentor and help develop others. 
• Identify and innovate in areas where automation can replace manual work. Maximize productivity in a constantly changing environment of shifting priorities
• Influence without reporting structure
• Operate with independence & autonomy
• Resolve conflict productively across teams

• 7-11 years of overall experience and 3-5 yrs of relevant Technical Program or Technical Product Management experience
• Experience working in SaaS, Cloud Arch and related SDLC processes.
• In-depth knowledge of Agile Development or Scrum/Kanban Project and Program Management methodologies and proven track record in value creation
• Has an engineering background (e.g., CS, CE, or EE degree or equivalent experience). 
• Strong knowledge and solid foundation in software development methodologies and best practices.
• High agency individual with ‘get it done’ attitude and a strong sense of team spirit.
• Results orientation with a focus on delivering value for the customer with large-scale, cross-functional teams in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to build trusting relationships, credibility, and strong communications skills to influence stakeholders, connect partners to improve project decision-making, which drives business value.
• Excellent oral, written and presentation skills, confident communicator with ability to present complex issues and solutions in a clear, concise fashion to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Highly functional in a dynamic, energizing environment, ability to work under pressure and highly adaptable; ability to shift directions quickly when situations and priorities change.
• Ability to see the big picture and think through problems to come up with innovative solutions and deliver against tight deadlines.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to collect, organize, analyze, and disseminate significant amounts of information with attention to detail and accuracy.
• Proficiency in project management tools – MS office/G-suite, Confluence, Jira or equivalent PDLC tool

At Freshworks, we are creating a global workplace that enables everyone to find their true potential, purpose, and passion irrespective of their background, gender, race, sexual orientation, religion and ethnicity. We are committed to providing equal opportunity for all and believe that diversity in the workplace creates a more vibrant, richer work environment that advances the goals of our employees, communities and the business.