Software Program Manager Jobs in Irvine, CA (NOW HIRING)

Auction.com is seeking a Senior Program Manager to lead complex, cross-functional initiatives that drive business process improvement, technology transformation, and scalable execution across the organization. This role is ideal for a strategic leader who brings structure to ambiguity, aligns diverse stakeholders, and ensures successful delivery of high-impact programs from concept through launch and adoption.

The ideal candidate combines strong program leadership, technical fluency, operational rigor, and excellent communication skills. You will partner across product, engineering, operations, marketing, and business teams to improve delivery outcomes, accelerate execution, and evolve ways of working as software development increasingly incorporates AI-enabled tools, automation, and experimentation.

This role requires the ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution, drive accountability across teams, and continuously improve delivery frameworks to support speed, quality, and business value.

• Lead the end-to-end delivery of complex strategic programs, ensuring alignment on goals, scope, timelines, dependencies, risks, and measurable outcomes.
• Build and maintain strong cross-functional partnerships across product, engineering, operations, marketing, and business teams to ensure coordinated execution.
• Establish fit-for-purpose delivery models across initiatives, leveraging Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Waterfall, or hybrid methodologies as appropriate.
• Drive program structure, governance, and operating rhythms, including planning, status reporting, risk management, dependency tracking, and executive communications.
• Identify and remove bottlenecks that impact delivery timelines, team efficiency, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Facilitate release planning and operational readiness, ensuring clear alignment on milestones, rollout plans, and change management activities.
• Partner with product and engineering leaders to evolve SDLC practices in support of AI-enabled development, including faster prototyping, iterative experimentation, AI-assisted development workflows, and accelerated testing practices.
• Help define program governance and delivery guardrails for initiatives involving AI, automation, or intelligent workflow capabilities.
• Ensure delivery plans account for modern development needs such as continuous learning loops, test-and-learn cycles, validation checkpoints, and post-release monitoring.
• Define and track program health metrics, business outcomes, adoption indicators, and execution performance to support data-driven decisions and continuous improvement.
• Support teams in adopting new tools, workflows, and operating models that improve speed, quality, and scalability across the product development lifecycle.
• Communicate clearly and effectively with stakeholders at all levels, from individual contributors to executive leadership.

• 8+ years of experience leading complex, cross-functional technology programs from planning through launch and post-release optimization.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Information Systems, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Proven experience managing programs across the full software development lifecycle.
• Strong understanding of program management fundamentals, including dependency management, risk mitigation, release planning, stakeholder alignment, and governance.
• Demonstrated ability to understand business and technical concepts, manage tradeoffs, and escalate risks appropriately.
• Experience partnering with technical, operational, and business stakeholders to drive alignment and delivery across the organization.
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills, with the ability to communicate effectively across all levels of the business.
• Experience with Jira, Confluence, Jira Service Management, and Microsoft Office tools.
• Familiarity with modern software delivery practices, including Agile and hybrid methodologies, experimentation frameworks, and continuous improvement models.
• Experience working in environments adopting AI-enabled workflows, automation, or modernized SDLC practices is strongly preferred.
• Experience in real estate, digital marketplace, fintech, or related industries is a plus.
• Scrum certification or equivalent Agile delivery experience preferred.

• Improved predictability and transparency across strategic programs.
• Faster delivery through better cross-functional coordination and decision-making.
• Stronger release readiness and lower execution risk.
• Adoption of more modern, scalable delivery practices across teams.
• Effective integration of AI-enabled workflows into planning, execution, and continuous improvement.

This is an opportunity to help shape how Auction.com delivers strategic initiatives in a rapidly evolving technology landscape. You will play a key role in improving execution, influencing operating models, and helping teams adopt more modern, AI-enabled ways of working across the product development lifecycle.