Senior Manager, Technology Transformation.
Function
Digital Technology
Reports to
Director, Technology Transformation
Location
Florenceville, NB / Toronto, ON / Remote.
Employment type
Contractor
Travel
Manager’s Notes:
Contract Duration: 1 year.
Work Arrangement: Preference is for the candidate to work 3 days per week onsite in either Toronto or Florenceville.
Target Start Date: Ideally first week of November.
Top Priority / Must-Have: The key requirement is someone who has hands-on experience leading and executing a similar technology transformation. They need someone who has actually implemented this type of transformation, not just provided strategy or advisory support.
Current State of Transformation: The design phase has already been completed. The successful candidate will be responsible for building on that design, driving the transformation forward, and updating/refining the design where required during implementation.
Consulting Background: Big 4 experience would be highly desirable, particularly someone with Technology Strategy & Transformation experience. However, the primary focus remains on finding someone with strong, relevant hands-on transformation experience.
Industry Background: CPG, food, or manufacturing experience is a nice-to-have rather than a requirement. Candidates from other large-enterprise environments can be considered if they have led comparable technology transformation initiatives.
Position summary
This role will lead the design and execution of our client transition from a project-centric Digital Technology organization to a product-based operating model. This role will own the product, platform, and service taxonomy; standardized Product Owner, Product Manager, and Scrum Master roles; and the governance and accountability structures needed to move all DT portfolios onto a consistent, outcome-driven operating model by the end of F27.
The role partners closely with DT portfolio leaders, HR/Talent, Finance, Enterprise Architecture, and the owners of two sibling F27 initiatives (Agile Ways of Working Expansion and Value Definition and Realization Framework) to design, pilot, and scale the model without duplicating the work. It combines deep experience in product operating model transformation, agile at scale, organizational design, governance, funding models, and change leadership.
Note for the Recruiter: The profile of the candidate needs to be calibrated to the experience, qualifications, and delivery track record typical of a Manager in a top-tier consulting firm's Technology Strategy & Transformation practice; someone who has led this kind of operating model transformation for a large enterprise client, not just studied it.
Scope and Key Partnerships
- DT SLT and Portfolio Directors across Agriculture, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Finance, HR, Growth, Procurement, Data & Analytics, AI, Infrastructure & Operations, and Cybersecurity.
- HR/Talent: for role charters, leveling guides, job descriptions, and transition plans.
- Finance / IT Finance: for portfolio-based funding model and capitalization treatment.
- Enterprise Architecture and PMO: for taxonomy governance and change-control.
- Agile Lead: for joint role-to-ceremony design.
- Value Definition and Realization Framework team: for joint role-to-value-case design.
Key responsibilities
Product operating model strategy and design
- Ratify product, platform, and service definition criteria for DT, and lead portfolio-by-portfolio value-stream mapping workshops to build and decide a product taxonomy with a named owner per product.
- Design future-state governance, portfolio management, funding, and operating rhythms, integrated with existing Enterprise Architecture and portfolio governance processes.
- Establish frameworks, standards, playbooks, and adoption roadmaps (role charters, RACI, Definition of Ready/Done, PI planning templates) to enable consistent implementation across portfolios.
- Partner with DT SLT and business stakeholders to build and sustain alignment around the product transformation vision and business outcomes.
Transformation leadership
- Own the implementation roadmap end to end: from the current-state assessment and taxonomy ratification through pilot launch in two lead portfolios and full-scale rollout across all remaining DT portfolios.
- Lead the Product Definition Working Groups and run the pilot-portfolio launch and scale sequencing.
- Identify organizational impacts, risks, dependencies, and mitigation strategies, and maintain the program RAID log.
- Drive alignment across Portfolio/Products, Engineering, Finance, Architecture, PMO, and Business leadership teams, and facilitate executive decision-making and governance discussions.
Role Standardization and Product management coaching
- Creates role descriptions with explicit, non-overlapping accountabilities for Product Owner, Product Manager, Delivery/Program/Project Manager, Scrum Master, Engineering Lead, and Capability Manager, directly resolving today's pattern of Product Owners also carrying delivery-management responsibilities.
- Run the role assessments by portfolio and build individual transition plans in partnership with HR/Talent.
- Guide leaders on the transition from project funding to fixed-capacity, portfolio-based product funding.
- Coach Executives, Directors, and Managers on product-based ways of working, backlog management, and value-based prioritization.
- Support implementation of Portfolio planning, Quarterly business reviews, and Roadmap Co-creation processes with regional and global Business Partners.
Organizational design and Capability development
- Advise on product organization structures (pod / product / portfolio team), role definitions, capability models, and career pathways, partnering with HR/Talent on job architecture.
- Support workforce planning and resource mapping to target-state product teams across all DT portfolios.
- Identify capability gaps and recommend solutions through hiring, training, coaching, or organizational redesign.
- Help establish product management and product leadership capability across DT, including the Capability Manager model for engineering disciplines.
Change Management and Stakeholder Engagement
- Develop executive communications and a change-adoption strategy.
- Build strong relationships across senior leadership and functional stakeholders, and act as a trusted advisor to both technology and business leaders.
- Facilitate workshops, leadership sessions, and transformation forums, and run the quarterly team-satisfaction-with-role-clarity survey.
- Monitor adoption for early signs of titles changing without accountabilities, funding, or team composition changing (“product washing”), and intervene before it shows up in the charter metrics.
Required qualifications
Education
- Bachelor's degree in business, engineering, computer science, or a related field, required.
- Master's degree (MBA or MSc in a related field such as innovation management, organizational design, or technology strategy) preferred.
Experience
- 8–12+ years of progressive experience in technology strategy, operating model transformation, product management, agile transformation, or enterprise transformation.
- Demonstrated, hands-on experience personally leading at least one large-scale transition from project-based delivery to a product operating model in a global or multi-national enterprise, not solely advisory or framework design.
- Experience establishing product organizations, product portfolios, governance frameworks, and product/portfolio-based funding models.
- Experience implementing Agile, Scrum, SAFe, Lean Portfolio Management, or similar frameworks at scale.
- Experience leading organizational change initiatives involving multiple business and technology teams.
- Experience working directly with executive leadership and influencing senior stakeholders, including facilitating executive-level workshops (value-stream mapping, organizational design, governance design).
Preferred qualifications
- Experience within large global enterprises undergoing digital transformation, ideally in a consumer packaged goods, food & beverage, or similarly complex manufacturing environment.
- Consulting background at the Manager level or above within a top-tier management or technology consulting firm's Technology Strategy & Transformation or Operating Model practice (e.g., Deloitte, McKinsey, BCG, Accenture, Kearney, Slalom), leading client-facing operating model or product transformation engagements.
- Experience building or scaling product management organizations from the ground up.
- Experience implementing portfolio-based funding and value realization frameworks, ideally in coordination with a Finance partner.
- Experience with organizational design and operating model development, including job architecture and role-leveling work with HR/Talent.
- Relevant certifications such as SAFe Program Consultant (SPC) or SAFe Agilist, Certified Scrum Product Owner/Master, ICAgile Certified Professional, or an equivalent program/change management certification (e.g., PMP, Prosci).
Critical competencies
Strategic leadership
- Systems thinker capable of connecting business strategy to organization design and execution.
- Ability to translate vision into actionable transformation plans with concrete milestones and owners.
- Strong executive presence and leadership capability.
Influencing and communication
- Outstanding communication, facilitation, and storytelling skills.
- Ability to influence without authority across complex stakeholder environments.
- Comfortable presenting to executive leaders and steering committees.
Transformation execution
- Able to move seamlessly between strategy development and hands-on execution.
- Strong program and change leadership skills; able to manage ambiguity and competing priorities.
- Comfortable being measured against hard quarterly delivery commitments, not just design artifacts.
