Program manager Jobs in Birmingham, AL

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What You Will Do

The Fire Program Manager is responsible for the overall planning, execution, governance, and successful delivery of fire protection programs within assigned Strategic Accounts. This role serves as the primary point of accountability for customer-facing fire initiatives, including fire alarm systems, fire suppression systems, inspections, testing, maintenance, service delivery, capital projects, and regulatory compliance activities.

The Fire Program Manager partners with customer stakeholders, branch operations, service teams, sales teams, engineering, subcontractors, and executive leadership to ensure fire programs are delivered safely, compliantly, on schedule, and within budget while supporting customer business objectives.

This position leads complex, multi-site programs across geographically dispersed customer locations and serves as the primary customer-facing program leader and escalation point for operational issues, compliance concerns, program risks, and customer satisfaction. The role exercises independent judgment, influences cross-functional teams without direct authority, and directly contributes to customer retention, business growth, regulatory readiness, and Strategic Account success.

Program Leadership & Delivery

• Lead execution and governance of enterprise fire protection programs across assigned Strategic Accounts.
• Manage portfolios consisting of inspections, testing, preventive maintenance, corrective service work, deficiency remediation, and capital projects.
• Develop and maintain integrated program plans that align customer requirements, branch execution, and contractual commitments.
• Coordinate fire-related initiatives across multiple customer locations, business units, and Johnson Controls branches.
• Ensure consistent execution of customer standards, contractual obligations, and service level agreements.
• Drive program performance against key operational, financial, and customer satisfaction metrics.

Customer Relationship Management

• Serve as the primary Fire Program Manager for assigned Strategic Accounts.
• Build trusted advisor relationships with customer facilities, safety, compliance, procurement, real estate, and operations leaders.
• Lead customer governance meetings, program reviews, and executive business reviews.
• Communicate program status, risks, compliance concerns, performance trends, and strategic recommendations.
• Align customer objectives with Johnson Controls operational capabilities.
• Identify opportunities for service growth, compliance improvements, and capital investments.

Fire Compliance & Regulatory Management

• Monitor program execution to support compliance with applicable fire and life safety regulations, codes, and standards.
• Partner with operations and technical teams to address deficiencies, violations, and compliance risks.
• Coordinate inspection, testing, and maintenance activities in accordance with contractual and regulatory requirements.
• Ensure documentation, inspection records, and compliance reporting are accurate and delivered on time.
• Escalate compliance concerns that may impact customer operations, safety, or contractual obligations.
• Support customer initiatives focused on life safety risk reduction and regulatory readiness.

Program Governance & Reporting

• Establish and maintain governance processes for assigned fire programs.
• Develop executive dashboards, scorecards, reports, and business reviews.
• Maintain program documentation including RAID logs, action registers, financial forecasts, project schedules, compliance trackers, service performance metrics, and executive summaries.
• Provide regular reporting on program health, compliance status, operational performance, and customer satisfaction.
• Ensure adherence to Strategic Accounts program management standards and governance requirements.

Risk, Issue & Escalation Management

• Own identification, assessment, mitigation, and escalation of program risks and issues.
• Develop corrective action plans for operational, compliance, financial, and customer-related challenges.
• Monitor dependencies affecting inspections, service delivery, deficiency remediation, and capital project execution.
• Facilitate issue resolution across operations, engineering, subcontractors, and customer stakeholders.
• Lead recovery planning for underperforming programs and high-risk customer situations.
• Escalate critical issues with clear impact assessments and recommended actions.

Financial & Commercial Management

• Manage program financial performance, including revenue forecasts, backlog management, budget tracking, and margin performance.
• Monitor inspection, service, project, and deficiency remediation revenue streams.
• Track purchase orders, invoicing activities, contract obligations, and financial forecasts.
• Identify revenue risks and growth opportunities across assigned accounts.
• Support contract renewals, amendments, and account expansion initiatives.
• Ensure alignment between program execution and contractual commitments.

Operational Coordination

• Coordinate activities among branch managers, operations leaders, service managers, technicians, inspectors, sales teams, and engineering resources.
• Monitor performance across multiple locations to ensure consistent service delivery.
• Facilitate resource planning and workload balancing to meet customer commitments.
• Drive accountability for action items and operational performance.
• Ensure accuracy of data within enterprise service, project, and portfolio management systems.

Continuous Improvement

• Lead lessons learned and continuous improvement initiatives across Strategic Accounts.
• Identify opportunities to improve operational efficiency, reporting, compliance management, and customer experience.
• Drive standardization of fire program management practices.
• Support implementation of digital tools, automation, dashboards, and reporting solutions.
• Contribute to portfolio-level initiatives focused on operational excellence, customer retention, and business growth.

What We Look For

Required

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Construction Management, Fire Protection, Project Management, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in program management, project management, operations management, or the fire protection industry.
• Experience leading customer-facing programs involving fire alarm, fire suppression, inspection, service, or construction activities.
• Experience managing multiple stakeholders across operations, sales, finance, and technical teams.
• Strong knowledge of project delivery, governance, risk management, and customer relationship management.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams and influence stakeholders in a matrixed environment.
• Strong executive communication, presentation, and customer relationship management skills.
• Proven ability to manage risk, drive issue resolution, and lead complex customer-facing programs.

Preferred Qualifications

• PMP (Project Management Professional) certification.
• Experience supporting national or enterprise Strategic Accounts.
• Experience with fire alarm systems, fire suppression systems, inspection programs, or life safety compliance programs.
• Knowledge of NFPA standards, fire and life safety regulations, and inspection processes.
• Experience with Smartsheet, Power BI, Salesforce, ServiceMax, Corrigo, Microsoft Project, or similar business system

HIRING SALARY RANGE: $82,000 to $137,000 (Salary to be determined by the education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data.) This role offers a competitive Bonus plan that will take into account individual, group, and corporate performance. This position includes a competitive benefits package. The posted salary range reflects the target compensation for this role. However, we recognize that exceptional candidates may bring unique skills and experiences that exceed the typical profile. If you believe your background warrants consideration beyond the stated range, we encourage you to apply. To support an efficient and fair hiring process, we may use technology assisted tools, including artificial intelligence (AI), to help identify and evaluate candidates. All hiring decisions are ultimately made by human reviewers. For details, please visit the About Us tab on the Johnson Controls Careers site at