Senior Program Manager

About Ancestry:
When you join Ancestry, you join a human-centered company where every person’s story is important. Ancestry®, the global leader in family history, empowers journeys of personal discovery to enrich lives. With our unparalleled collection of more than 40 billion records, over 3 million subscribers and over 23 million people in our growing DNA network, customers can discover their family story and gain a new level of understanding about their lives. Over the past 40 years, we’ve built trusted relationships with millions of people who have chosen us as the platform for discovering, preserving and sharing the most important information about themselves and their families.
We are committed to our location flexible work approach, allowing you to choose to work in the nearest office, from your home, or a hybrid of both (subject to location restrictions and roles that are required to be in the office- see the full list of eligible US locations HERE). We will continue to hire and promote beyond the boundaries of our office locations, to enable broadened possibilities for employee diversity.
Together, we work every day to foster a work environment that's inclusive as well as diverse, and where our people can be themselves. Every idea and perspective is valued so that our products and services reflect the global and diverse clients we serve. 
Ancestry encourages applications from minorities, women, the disabled, protected veterans and all other qualified applicants. Passionate about dedicating your work to enriching people’s lives? Join the curious.

Ancestry is looking for a Senior Program Manager to join our Program Management Office (PgMO) and support our Family History Product and Engineering teams. Our Program Managers work closely with product managers, engineers, designers, marketers, world-class scientists, and others as needed to ensure the timely delivery of a series of innovative, cross-functional products and features. As a Senior Program Manager within the Ancestry PgMO team, you will help the team improve coordination, predictability, and transparency and identify and overcome delivery roadblocks in a complex, cross-functional execution environment. The ideal candidate will demonstrate program management experience and capacity in a multi-disciplinary environment. You will play a huge part in aligning teams and achieving success on mid to large-scale initiatives for Ancestry.

Key responsibilities are to:

• Lead cross-functionally, driving collaboration (UI Design, Product, Engineering, Marketing, Finance, Legal, Science) to improve feature delivery and overall execution.

• Ensure timely product and feature delivery by creating and managing processes that improve predictability, identify dependencies early, and promote efficient agile teamwork to address and eliminate impediments.

• Ensure stakeholders understand key dependencies, trade-offs, and impacts on program delivery .

• Provide clear visibility into initiative status, risks, and business impact to support informed decision-making.

• Align and optimize resources across teams with a clear understanding of requirements enabling them to meet overall program goals and timelines.

• Oversee and coordinate with marketing on product launch plans.

• Continuously refine program management and business processes to improve efficiency, improve behaviors, and drive standardization.

Qualifications (Who You Are):

• Experience: 5 years or equivalent experience in program management or related fields, including diverse backgrounds and experiences. Proven track record of leading cross-functional teams to successfully deliver and launch features and products.

• Agile Methodologies: Familiarity with Agile practices or other project management methodologies are a plus; relevant certifications are a plus.

• Relationship Building: Effectively develops and maintains relationships with diverse stakeholders across the organization to ensure smooth integration of new processes and programs.

• Adaptability: Flexible and adaptable in response to changing business needs while maintaining work-life balance.

• Communication Skills: Ability to communicate clearly in various formats, adapting style to suit diverse audiences. Effectively conveys complex concepts and sets clear expectations. Creates open communication channels among stakeholders, communicates progress in a data-driven manner. Develops clear messaging for internal audiences.

• Leadership: Fosters collaborative leadership, empowering teams in both formal and informal settings, to lead, challenges the status quo, and ensure customer experience remains top of mind. Independently addresses misalignments across teams, leveraging leadership and relationships to build consensus.

• Strategic Vision: Contributes to and collaborates on program vision and strategic direction. Develops and refines programs that align with overarching business goals.

• Domain Expertise: Demonstrates a solid understanding of program dynamics and the ability to learn and adapt across contexts. Understands managing programs end-to-end and demonstrates sound judgment in prioritization and trade-offs.

• Project Coordination: Regularly coordinates feature launches and technical planning with product management, engineering, marketing, and other teams.

• Stakeholder Engagement: Secures and aligns buy-in for goals, evaluates competing priorities, and drives multiple diverse teams and stakeholder engagement through effective execution with minimal supervision.

• Problem-Solving/Analytical: Demonstrates strong problem-solving abilities through analytical and creative approaches. Ability to deliver results efficiently. Proactively identifies dependencies and gaps, resolves issues/impediments, and builds consensus among teams.

• Motivation and Growth: Proactively seeks opportunities for growth and improvement within team and organizational contexts. Displays a growth mindset and a desire to expand knowledge, innovate and improve.

• Influence and Coaching: Shares knowledge and supports the development of peers and less experienced team members. Identifies opportunities for improvement and challenges outdated assumptions as an effective mentor.

Additional Information:

Ancestry is an Equal Opportunity Employer that makes employment decisions without regard to race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, mental or physical disability, medical condition, military or veteran status, citizenship, marital status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. In addition, Ancestry will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities.

All job offers are contingent on a background check screen that complies with applicable law. For San Francisco office candidates, pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, Ancestry will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Ancestry is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at Ancestry via-email, the Internet or in any form and/or method without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of Ancestry. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by Ancestry as a result of the referral or through other means.