Senior Director, Engineering PMO

Calix is seeking a highly experienced Senior Director to lead the Products Organization’s Program Management Office (PMO), overseeing Technical Program Managers (TPMs), Release Management, and Portfolio Managers. This leader will drive the successful execution of critical, cross-functional programs and ensure the seamless delivery of products and services for broad technology markets including Cloud services, network routers, home gateways and fiber-based optical equipment. The Senior Director will be responsible for establishing robust processes, driving program execution, and aligning business and technical teams to deliver against the company’s strategic goals.

Key Responsibilities

1. Leadership & Team Development:

• Lead and inspire a team of Technical Program Managers, Release Managers, and Portfolio Managers to foster a culture of collaboration, technical excellence, and accountability.

• Hire, mentor, and develop program management talent, ensuring alignment with business and engineering needs.

• Implement best practices for cross-functional team management, stakeholder engagement, and agile methodologies.

2. Program & Portfolio Management:

• Oversee large-scale, highly complex technical programs spanning cloud software, networking hardware, and embedded systems.

• Establish PMO governance frameworks, ensuring consistency in program execution, risk management, and resource planning.

• Drive cross-functional program delivery, integrating software development, hardware engineering, cloud operations, and QA/testing teams.

3. Release Management Oversight:

• Lead end-to-end release management, ensuring the efficient rollout of cloud-based software, firmware, and network hardware.

• Collaborate with engineering, DevOps, product management, and quality assurance teams to establish CI/CD pipelines, release gates, and rollback mechanisms.

• Define automated testing strategies, blue-green deployments, and versioning methodologies for seamless software and hardware updates.

4. Strategic Alignment & Execution:

• Partner with CTO, CPO, and other senior leaders to align the program portfolio with business objectives and technology roadmaps.

• Drive execution of cloud migration initiatives, SD-WAN solutions, fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) deployments, and network infrastructure scaling.

• Establish a data-driven approach to track program milestones, dependencies, and KPIs.

5. Cloud & Networking Expertise:

• Ensure program alignment with cloud-native architectures, microservices, containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), and API-driven integrations.

• Oversee programs involving hybrid/multi-cloud deployments (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure), ensuring security, scalability, and cost optimization.

• Drive the implementation of software-defined networking (SDN), network function virtualization (NFV), and edge computing solutions.

• Work closely with network engineering teams to ensure seamless integration between cloud services, networking hardware, and customer-facing platforms.

6. Risk & Issue Management:

• Establish automated monitoring, anomaly detection, and incident management processes for tracking risks across programs and releases.

• Implement robust failure recovery strategies, security best practices, and regulatory compliance frameworks (SOC2, NIST, ISO 27001).

• Facilitate technical post-mortems and implement continuous improvement processes to enhance program reliability and execution.

7. Budget & Resource Management:

• Manage a multimillion-dollar portfolio across programs, ensuring optimal resource allocation and cost efficiency.

• Develop data-driven forecasting models for program staffing, hardware procurement, and cloud infrastructure scaling.

8. Metrics & Reporting:

• Develop real-time dashboards and AI-driven analytics to track release schedules, software quality, and operational performance.

• Provide executive-level reporting on program progress, risk factors, and business impact.

Technical Qualifications

Required:

• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in engineering, Computer Science, Business, or a related field. Master’s degree or MBA preferred.

• 15+ years of experience in technical program management with at least 5-10 years in senior leadership roles in networking and cloud technology sectors.

• Industry Expertise: Deep experience in high-tech networking, cloud infrastructure, or related industries. Strong knowledge of networking technologies, cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud, Azure), and large-scale software releases.

• Strong background in cloud-native architectures using AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure.

• Expertise in DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, and automation tools (Jenkins, GitLab CI, ArgoCD, Spinnaker, Terraform, Ansible).

• Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, Helm, and cloud orchestration frameworks.

• Proficiency in SDN, NFV, and cloud-based network security models (zero-trust, SASE).

• Familiarity with Agile (Scrum/Kanban/SAFe) and software development lifecycle methodologies.

• Technical Leadership: Strong background in managing technical programs with expertise in Agile, DevOps, and SDLC. Proven track record of leading release management functions in a fast-paced, technology-driven environment.

• Communication & Stakeholder Engagement: Excellent communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills. Ability to manage relationships with executives, engineers, and cross-functional teams.

• Problem-Solving & Decision-Making: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to resolve complex challenges and make strategic decisions quickly.

• Preferred:

• • Experience with AI/ML-driven network optimization and predictive analytics for cloud operations.

• • Familiarity with observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, ELK stack) for real-time monitoring of networks and cloud environments.

• • Knowledge of IoT and smart home networking protocols (Zigbee, Matter, MQTT).

• • Understanding of regulatory compliance frameworks (FCC, GDPR, HIPAA, FedRAMP).

• • Certifications: PMP, PgMP, SAFe Agilist, AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect.

#LI-Remote

Compensation will vary based on geographical location (see below) within the United States. Individual pay is determined by the candidate's location of residence and multiple factors, including job-related skills, experience, and education.

For more information on our benefits click here.

There are different ranges applied to specific locations. The average base pay range (or OTE range for sales) in the U.S. for the position is listed below.

San Francisco Bay Area Only:

All Other Locations: