Program director Jobs in Richardson, TX

Responsibilities:

We are seeking an experienced Program Director to lead a strategic commerce platform transformation programme. The role will be responsible for end-to-end ownership of the migration from an existing commerce platform to a modern microservices-based commerce implementation.

This is a highly customer-facing leadership position requiring strong programme ownership, commerce domain expertise, architectural understanding and delivery governance. The Program Director will work closely with customer business and technology leadership, architecture teams, product owners and engineering teams to translate the transformation vision into an executable roadmap and drive successful implementation.

Key Responsibilities:

• Own the end-to-end delivery and implementation of the commerce modernisation programme, from planning and architecture through development, migration, integration, testing, deployment and stabilisation.
• Act as the primary programme-level interface with the customer, building strong relationships with senior business and technology stakeholders.
• Drive migration from the existing commerce platform towards a microservices-based, API-first and cloud-ready commerce architecture.
• Partner closely with customer architects and engineering leadership to define the target architecture, migration roadmap, implementation approach and phased transition strategy.
• Provide programme leadership across commerce capabilities such as catalogue, product, pricing, promotions, cart, checkout, order management, payments and integrations.
• Coordinate multiple engineering, architecture, product, QA, DevOps and integration workstreams to ensure aligned delivery.
• Drive programme governance covering scope, milestones, dependencies, RAID management, release planning, quality and delivery commitments.
• Own executive-level programme status and proactively manage risks, delivery challenges, dependencies and customer escalations.
• Establish clear ownership and accountability across distributed delivery teams and ensure predictable execution against committed milestones.
• Work with the customer to manage requirement changes, prioritisation and scope decisions while protecting programme objectives and timelines.
• Drive architecture and delivery decisions required for scalability, performance, resilience, security, observability and operational readiness.
• Oversee integration with enterprise platforms such as ERP, CRM, OMS, payment gateways, PIM, search, identity and other digital ecosystem components.
• Lead cutover, migration, production readiness and transition planning to minimise business disruption.
• Drive continuous improvement in engineering practices, automation, DevSecOps, CI/CD, testing and release management.
• Provide transparent communication to customer executives and internal leadership on programme health, key decisions, risks and required interventions.
• Take overall accountability for successful implementation, customer outcomes and delivery excellence.

Required Experience & Skills:

• 18+ years of overall IT experience, with significant experience leading large-scale digital, commerce or enterprise transformation programmes.
• Strong experience as a Program Director / Delivery Director / Programme Delivery Leader handling complex customer-facing engagements.
• Proven experience delivering commerce platform implementations, modernisation or re-platforming programmes.
• Strong understanding of microservices architecture, APIs, event-driven integration, cloud platforms and distributed systems.
• Experience managing migration from monolithic or legacy commerce platforms towards modern composable/microservices architectures.
• Understanding of modern commerce platforms and ecosystems such as salesforce commerce, SAP Commerce, commercetools, Shopify, Adobe Commerce or similar enterprise commerce technologies.
• Strong understanding of programme governance, Agile delivery, product engineering, DevSecOps and enterprise release management.
• Demonstrated ability to manage large, geographically distributed, cross-functional delivery teams.
• Strong customer engagement and executive stakeholder-management capabilities.
• Ability to challenge assumptions, resolve ambiguity, drive decisions and manage complex programme dependencies.
• Strong commercial awareness with the ability to balance customer outcomes, delivery commitments, quality, cost and organisational priorities.

Preferred Profile

• Experience leading major commerce re-platforming or composable commerce transformation programmes.
• Experience implementing microservices on AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Platform.
• Understanding of MACH principles: Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS and Headless architecture.
• Experience working with enterprise customers in complex multi-vendor environments.
• Strong executive communication, negotiation, programme recovery and stakeholder-management skills.

Success Measures

The Program Director will be accountable for delivering a predictable, scalable and business-aligned commerce transformation, ensuring strong customer confidence, effective programme governance, successful platform migration and high-quality production implementation.

Writing approach: I positioned this as a true 18+ years customer-facing Programme Director role, rather than a project manager role, with clear ownership across customer collaboration, architecture/migration direction, programme governance and end-to-end delivery.