Sr. Manager, Technical Program Management

Be essential at Cars Commerce

At Cars Commerce, we’re fanatical about simplifying everything about car buying and selling. We do right by our customers and consumers to better connect the industry with simplified and tierless technology to enhance, measure and drive local automotive retail. Whether through our No.1 most recognized marketplace, Cars.com, our industry-leading digital experience, Dealer Inspire, our trade and appraisal technology, AccuTrade, or our new Cars Commerce Media Network, Cars Commerce is essential for success in the automotive industry.  

No one ever travels alone here: at its core, Cars Commerce is collaboration. In fact, it’s built into the very fabric of our shared values. We like to say we Rise Together – putting people at the center of what we do, from consumer to customer to community. Life at Cars Commerce makes it easy when we share the ethos to be Open to All, encouraging open-minded communication because we know diverse thinking yields better outcomes. But critical to our success is Caring to Challenge and Taking Ownership, fueling a competitive spirit in a respectful environment where we think about tomorrow but act today. At our foundation, we have integrity, Doing the Right Thing, even when it’s hard. It’s our shared commitment to these values that makes Cars Commerce a place where growth becomes not only possible, but downright unavoidable.

But don’t take our word for it. As a U.S. News & World Report Best Company to Work For in 2024, we're obsessive about the employee experience. We are among the top 20% being declared “Best” of our industry based on six critical factors that are important to employee wellbeing, like quality of pay, benefits, work life balance and more.

About The Position:

Dealer Inspire is a certified provider of multiple products and services within many automotive OEM programs. These certifications allow for franchise dealer enrollments and contribute significantly to the market penetration of products and revenue generated. The role of Technical Program Manager is a vital contributor towards the successful management of work to maintain these OEM program affiliations.

The Technical Program Manager will work in direct relationships with OEM clients to manage the work request pipeline, facilitate discovery sessions, triage new work, and troubleshoot issues. This role will be the technical point of contact and will collaborate and interact closely with an OEM Program Manager to service the program’s needs. The Technical Program Manager will also coordinate and build strong relationships with internal technical teams executing the work pipeline, ensuring the successful implementation and high-quality delivery of tasks. OEM program pipelines include both routine maintenance efforts as well as the introduction of more complex integrations and large-scale projects requiring the Technical Program Manager to set expectations, establish priority, understand desired outcomes and manage a project plan and roadmap to ensure smooth execution.

The primary goals of the Technical Program Manager are to capture and execute OEM program tasks with consideration towards overall program health, service level agreements, and program priorities balanced against internal operating costs, business objectives, and other priorities. The ideal candidate is a self-starter with excellent communication and organizational skills, the ability to build strong relationships and influence decision makers, apply a high level of business acumen and client management, and can demonstrate the technical skills needed to understand the scope of complex projects.

Essential Job Functions:

• Manage task intake from OEM clients including triaging requests, leading scope gathering exercises, capturing desired outcomes, defining a budget, and setting clear expectations.
• Work with cross-functional teams to further refine scope, assign resources, create project plans, and timeline for larger tasks. Understand the dependencies that exist between teams.
• Maintain oversight into all routine maintenance and support tasks for assigned programs. Monitor process from backlog through delivery, focused on the prioritization, timeliness, and quality of work delivered against established SLAs. Able to utilize the appropriate SDLC process given the timeline, scale, and complexity of a project.
• Responsible for communicating updates and maintaining accurate status assessments on project progress to OEM clients and internal business stakeholders.
• Establish close working relationships with technical counterparts within the OEM program in order to streamline communicati