Principal Technical Program Manager – Retail Technology
Location: Vancouver, BC
Work Model: Hybrid – 3 Days Onsite
Role Summary
We are seeking a Principal Technical Program Manager (TPM) to define and lead the global technology portfolio supporting Merchandise Planning, Forecasting, Sizing, and Allocation systems.
This is a senior strategic leadership role responsible for connecting business strategy with enterprise-scale technology architecture and execution. The ideal candidate will have deep experience in retail technology, merchandising, planning, allocation, supply chain, forecasting, and large-scale technology transformation.
The role will lead multi-year transformation programs, platform modernization, enterprise migrations, technical standardization, and cross-functional initiatives involving Engineering, Product, Data Science, and business leadership.
Key Responsibilities
Portfolio Strategy & Governance
- Define and drive the 3–5 year technology roadmap for Merch Planning, Forecasting, Sizing, and Allocation.
- Own strategic alignment, governance, investment planning, and delivery across large enterprise technology portfolios.
- Align technology roadmaps with business milestones, merchandising cycles, and global go-to-market requirements.
Strategic Business & Technology Leadership
- Partner with senior business and technology leaders to translate business priorities into scalable technology solutions.
- Drive measurable improvements across pre-season planning, assortment, sizing, buy quantities, forecasting, and in-season allocation.
- Lead complex business and technology trade-off decisions involving automation, forecasting accuracy, planner overrides, and operational responsiveness.
Architecture & Platform Modernization
- Lead enterprise platform modernization and architectural decision-making.
- Drive integrations across planning platforms, data warehouses, proprietary applications, and AI/ML services.
- Experience with platforms such as Anaplan, Snowflake, AWS/GCP, data pipelines, and AI/ML solutions is highly valued.
- Establish technical evaluation frameworks for build-vs-buy, modernization, deprecation, and platform investment decisions.
Program Delivery & Operating Model
- Design and scale delivery models across large engineering and program management organizations.
- Establish execution standards covering backlog readiness, dependency management, resource allocation, and cross-team coordination.
- Drive continuous improvement in delivery predictability, software quality, and operational readiness.
Cross-Functional Leadership
- Act as the strategic program owner connecting Merchandising, Allocation, Engineering, Data Science, Product Management, and business teams.
- Identify and mitigate complex dependencies across forecasting engines, sizing systems, allocation platforms, and financial systems.
- Establish enterprise-level data quality and integrity standards.
Incident & Reliability Leadership
- Lead executive-level response to critical production incidents affecting global planning and allocation systems.
- Drive root-cause analysis, post-mortems, and permanent remediation.
- Establish and enforce reliability standards and SLAs for business-critical systems.
Executive Communication & Mentorship
- Develop executive-level roadmaps, business cases, status reports, and technology investment recommendations.
- Communicate complex technical and data-science concepts to senior business stakeholders.
- Mentor Senior and Staff-level TPMs and program managers and help establish scalable program management practices.
Required Qualifications
- 15+ years of progressive experience in Technical Program Management, Engineering Leadership, Enterprise Architecture, or related technology leadership roles.
- 5+ years operating at Principal, Director, or equivalent senior leadership level.
- Proven experience leading large enterprise technology portfolios within:
- Retail Technology
- Merchandising
- Merchandise Planning
- Allocation
- Supply Chain
- Forecasting
- Experience leading large, matrixed Engineering, Product, and Data Science organizations.
- Strong understanding of:
- Forecasting models
- Inventory optimization
- Size-curve profiling
- Allocation algorithms
- Data-driven planning systems
- Proven ability to influence senior business and technology stakeholders.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with Anaplan or enterprise planning platforms.
- Experience with custom allocation engines or legacy planning system modernization.
- Strong knowledge of Snowflake, AWS/GCP, ETL/ELT, and streaming data platforms.
- Experience implementing AI/ML forecasting and optimization models at enterprise scale.
- Experience in global omnichannel retail, apparel, merchandising, or high-volume logistics environments.
Education
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Operations Research, MIS, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
