Technical Program Manager, Principal

Technical Program Manager, Principal

The Technical Program Manager, Principal within the IT Payer Applications team is responsible for end-to-end oversight, governance, and successful delivery of a portfolio of related projects aligned to strategic business objectives. Reporting to the Director or VP, the Principal Program Manager operates at the intersection of business strategy, technical execution, and cross-functional stakeholder management.

This role translates Stellarus's goals into actionable program roadmaps, defines operating models, and establishes scalable governance frameworks to drive consistency, transparency, accountability, and measurable outcomes.

The Technical Program Manager partners with Product, Engineering, Operations, Finance, Security, and executive leadership to manage scope, timelines, risks, dependencies, resources, budgets, and key performance indicators.

This role leads strategic planning, program execution, change management, process optimization, communications, executive reporting, and continuous improvement across complex, high-impact initiatives. Success requires strong leadership, technical acumen, data-driven decision-making, Agile delivery experience, and the ability to influence teams without direct authority in a fast-paced, matrixed environment.

Our leadership model is about developing great leaders at all levels and creating opportunities for our people to grow – personally, professionally, and financially. We are looking for leaders that are energized by creative and critical thinking, building and sustaining high-performing teams, getting results the right way, and fostering continuous learning.

Responsibilities

In this role, you will

Program Strategy & Planning

• Define and drive the overall program vision, goals, and success criteria aligned with business and technology strategy
• Translate enterprise strategy into executable program roadmaps and multi-year plans
• Provide guidance on technical decisions, implement new processes or tools, and optimize engineering productivity
• Develop scalable program structures, governance models, and delivery frameworks
• Build and maintain integrated program plans covering scope, schedule, cost, and dependencies
• Establish measurable KPIs and success metrics across initiatives

End-to-End Program Execution

• Own delivery of complex, cross-functional programs from initiation through closure
• Oversee multiple interdependent projects, ensuring alignment, sequencing, and milestone tracking
• Drive execution against committed timelines, budgets, and outcomes
• Ensure readiness across systems, processes, people, and operations for major releases or transformations
• Identify and proactively resolve delivery blockers and execution risks

Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Leadership

• Lead coordination across business, IT, operations, finance, compliance, and external partners
• Act as the central point of accountability across matrixed teams where ownership may be distributed
• Build strong relationships with executive sponsors and senior stakeholders
• Facilitate decision-making, escalation resolution, and alignment across leadership forums
• Drive collaboration across internal teams, vendors, and external stakeholders

Change Management & Adoption

• Lead organizational change management strategies to ensure successful program adoption
• Drive communication plans, stakeholder engagement, and user readiness efforts
• Identify adoption barriers and implement mitigation strategies
• Partner with business teams to ensure smooth transition to new processes, tools, or operating models

Qualifications

Your Knowledge and Experience

• Requires a Bachelor's degree in IT, Engineering, Healthcare Administration, or related field
• Requires a minimum of 10 years of technical program management or related experience
• Proven track record of working on complex enterprise programs across multiple teams and multi-year timelines
• Strong expertise in end-to-end technical program delivery, including planning, execution, governance, and closure
• Demonstrated ability to manage cross-functional dependencies, critical paths, and multiple interdependent workstreams
• Experience working in matrixed organizations with distributed ownership and aligning diverse stakeholders
• Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence and drive alignment among senior stakeholders
• Excellent communication skills, including executive-level reporting and translating technical concepts into business language
• Proven experience in driving organizational change management, user adoption, and enterprise readiness for major transformations
• Strong analytical, risk management, and problem-solving skills with the ability to navigate ambiguity and make data-driven decisions
• Ability to develop business cases & perform cost-benefit analysis and ROI

Hybrid

This role requires employees to be in-office based on our hybrid workplace model, balancing purposeful in-person collaboration with flexibility. For most teams, this means coming into the office two days each week.

Employees living more than 50 miles from an office location will work with their manager to determine in-office time based on business need.

About Us

About Stellarus and the Ascendiun Family of Companies

Stellarus, launched in January 2025, is designed to scale innovative healthcare solutions that support customers in creating a health care experience deserving of their family, friends, and neighbors. Stellarus is part of a family of organizations that is overseen by a nonprofit corporate entity named Ascendiun.

The Ascendiun Family of Companies also includes Blue Shield of California and its subsidiary, Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan and Altais, a clinical services company.

Stellarus' vision is to empower its customers to create a healthcare experience that is worthy of their family, friends, and neighbors. Stellarus' objective is to offer innovative, modern, scalable solutions that challenge the health care status quo. This very closely aligns with Blue Shield of California's vision by using innovation to improve quality, affordability, and experience for members.

To achieve our mission, we foster an environment where all employees can thrive and contribute fully to address the needs of the various communities we serve. We are committed to creating and maintaining a supportive workplace that upholds our values and advances our goals.

Our Values

At Stellarus, our core values of agility, trust, drive, courage and service shape our approach to developing innovative product offerings.

Our Workplace Model

We believe in fostering a workplace environment that balances purposeful in-person collaboration with flexibility - providing clear expectations while respecting the diverse needs of our workforce. Our workplace model is designed around intentional in-person interaction, collaboration, connection, creativity and flexibility:

• For most teams, this means coming into the office two days per week.
• Employees living more than 50 miles from an office location, out of state employees, and employees in certain member-facing roles should work with their manager to determine in-office time based on business need.
• For employees with medical conditions that may impact their ability to work in-office, we are committed to engaging in an interactive process and providing reasonable accommodations to ensure their work environment is conducive to their success and well-being.

The Company reserves the right to require more presence in the office based on business needs, and requirements are subject to change with periodic reviews.

Physical Requirements

Office Environment - roles involving part to full time schedule in Office Environment. Based in our physical offices and work from home office/deskwork - Activity level: Sedentary, frequency most of work day.

Please click here for further physical requirement detail.

Equal Employment Opportunity

External hires must pass a background check/drug screen. Qualified applicants with arrest records and/or conviction records will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with Federal, State and local laws, including but not limited to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regards to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, protected veteran status or disability status and any other classification protected by Federal, State and local laws.

Skills

Agile Programming Methodologies, Analysis Skills, Budgeting, Business Case, Business Skills, Business Strategy, Change Management, Clinical Medicine, Communication Skills, Continuous Improvement, Cost Benefit Analysis, Cross-Functional, Customer Acquisition, Customer Experience, Customer Support/Service, Executive Relationships, Federal Laws and Regulations, Finance, Financial Compliance, Functional Programming Languages, Health Plan, Healthcare, Healthcare Administration, Information Technology & Information Systems, Leadership, Management Strategy, Matrix Management, Medical Conditions, Metrics, Multitasking, Nonprofit, People Management, Performance Metrics, Problem Solving Skills, Process Improvement, Product Development, Product Engineering, Product Programs, Program Planning, Project Tracking, Project/Program Management, Quality Management, Return on Investment (ROI), Risk Management, Scalable System Development, State Laws and Regulations, Strategic Planning, Technical Delivery, Technical Leadership, Technical Strategy, Work From Home

About the Company

Blue Shield of California