Senior Manager, Project/Program Management (People Leader) - CAI Inventory Solutions PMO

Responsibilities

• Lead, Develop & Retain the Team
• Directly manage 1-2+ Program Managers; owns hiring, onboarding, performance management, and offboarding with full accountability for their effectiveness and output quality.
• Establishes clear performance expectations and conducts regular, candid coaching conversations, addresses performance gaps early and with directness.
• Owns the stakeholder feedback loop for direct reports - proactively solicits input from program sponsors, cross-functional partners, and executive stakeholders to inform development conversations, performance calibration, and visibility for the PM team.
• Creates individualized development plans for each direct report; identifies growth opportunities aligned to their career goals and the evolving needs of the PMO.
• Cultivates a high-trust, psychologically safe team culture where candor, continuous improvement, and ownership are expected norms - not aspirational values.
• Partners with HR and leadership on compensation and promotion decisions for direct reports.
• Models the behaviors and delivery standards expected of the PMO team; leads from the front on executive communication, structured thinking, and accountability.
• Prepare, Manage & Lead Programs
• Leads and manages large, complex enterprise-level programs spanning multiple teams, business units, and integration points outside normal project scope.
• Works on programs that have strategic importance to the business, ensuring alignment to Manheim's overall strategy.
• Understands the long-term strategy of the Business Units (s)he supports and works to ensure the programs and projects within the overall portfolio align to those strategies.
• Translates ambiguous strategies into actionable project plans.
• Proactively identifies when a program scope has drifted from its strategic intent and raises the conversation with executive sponsors - including recommending course corrections, pauses, or stops when warranted.
• Develops a point of view on portfolio trade-offs and brings prioritization recommendations to leadership with clear rationale - does not simply present options and wait for direction.
• Collaborates with executive stakeholders (VPs/Directors) to define program objectives, scope, deliverables, and timelines; ensures programs are tied to CAI strategic priorities.
• Ensures business cases, KPIs/OKRs, and benefits tracking models are in place and actively maintained throughout the program lifecycle.
• Develops comprehensive program plans including resource allocation, critical path, dependency management, and risk mitigation strategies.
• Establishes right-sized governance (SteerCos, risk councils, decision frameworks, escalation paths) that reduces decision latency and unblocks dependencies.
• Drives decision-making across programs; champions adoption of common metrics that link delivery outputs to financial and business outcomes.
• Leads retrospectives across programs to harvest learnings, codify playbooks, and evolve PMO templates and standards.
• Initiates and leads process improvement ef

Benefits

Additional Information

Company Cox Automotive - USA Job Family Group Business Operations Job Profile Sr Lead Project / Program Manager Management Level Sr Manager - Non People Leader Flexible Work Option Hybrid - Ability to work remotely part of the week Travel % Yes, 25% of the time Work Shift Day

Your Match

How well this role fits your profile.

Company Intel

What employees say

Worked at Cox Automotive? Share your experience