Technical Program Manager

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.