Director, Program Management Office

The Voleon Group•Berkeley, CA

1d•$250,000 - $300,000

About The Position

Voleon is a technology company that applies state-of-the-art AI and machine learning techniques to real-world problems in finance. For nearly two decades, we have led our industry and worked at the frontier of applying AI/ML to investment management. We have become a multibillion-dollar asset manager, and we have ambitious goals for the future. Your colleagues will include internationally recognized experts in artificial intelligence and machine learning research as well as highly experienced finance and technology professionals. The people who shape our company come from other backgrounds, including concert music performances, humanitarian aid, opera singing, sports writing, and BMX racing. You will be part of a team that loves to succeed together. In addition to our enriching and collegial working environment, we offer highly competitive compensation and benefits packages, technology talks by our experts, a beautiful modern office, daily catered lunches, and more. The Director of the Program Management Office (PMO) will build and scale a PMO that drives delivery and successful outcomes as Voleon experiences rapid growth. This role focuses on improving how work gets planned, prioritized, and deliveredâwhile strengthening alignment across our Research and Engineering teams during a period of significant expansion.

Requirements

10+ years in program, portfolio, or delivery leadership roles, with at least 5 years of people management experience
Proven experience building or scaling a PMO in a hyper-growth environment (startup scale-up or high-growth division)
Demonstrated ability to design organizational structures, career ladders, and leadership layers, including experience with geographically distributed teams
Hands-on expertise with execution and delivery frameworks, such as Agile methodologies, particularly Scrum, including experience adapting frameworks for different organizational contexts and operating at scale
Experience with setting up and driving adoption of modern project management and productivity tools (Jira, Confluence, Smartsheet, Excel/Google docs, genAI) to support prioritization, resourcing and delivery insights
Strong human-centric leadership skills, including coaching, mentoring, and advocating for team with senior leadership
Proven ability to influence across levels and functions without formal authority, with high emotional intelligence
Bachelorâs degree in a technical field

Responsibilities

Build & Scale the PMO
Establish scalable, lightweight standards for planning, delivery, and reporting that improve consistency and outcomes without slowing teams down
Adapt delivery models, processes, and tooling to support increasing organizational size, complexity, and geographic distribution
Strategic Partnership & Execution
Partner with executive leadership to translate strategic goals into executable programs and projects
Establish visibility into priorities, capacity, dependencies, risks, and delivery progress
Define and operationalize meaningful metrics to improve predictability, transparency, and decision-making
Lead and evolve operational practices in scaled environments while adapting frameworks to organizational context
People Leadership
Build, lead, and develop a high-performing team of Technical Program Managers and Program Managers, including hiring, coaching, mentoring, and succession planning
Advocate for PMO capacity, workload, and professional development with senior leadership
Create an environment of psychological safety, continuous improvement, and shared ownership during periods of growth and change
Organizational Influence & Change Leadership
Navigate and align stakeholders with differing priorities and opinions, driving clarity and decisions with diplomacy and conviction.
Communicate clearly with executives about progress, risks, trade-offs, and required decisions
Lead organizational change thoughtfully, challenging existing processes when they no longer serve the organization while respecting what works