Senior Technical Program Manager, Cost Management

About the Role 

This role offers the exciting opportunity to leverage your technical expertise and leadership skills to drive programs that enhance our products, applications, platforms, and ultimately, the experiences of millions of customers, shoppers, and partners. As a Senior Technical Program Manager for Cost Management at Instacart, you will be at the forefront of driving R&D Cost management initiatives enabling us to hit our Financial targets. You will fully own programs, working closely with cross-functional teams in Engineering, Product Management, Data Science, Design, Corporate Finance and others to define requirements, manage execution, mitigate risks, and deliver on time with high quality outcomes. We are looking for driven individuals who thrive in a fast-paced engineering environment, are passionate about quality and improving team performance, and feel comfortable making decisions on scope and technical trade-offs as well as building executive-level narratives. You are able to operate independently and work proactively with various teams across the organization. 

Join us in leading the digital transformation of the grocery industry and delivering innovative, next-generation experiences to our customers.

About the Team 

The Technical Program Management team is an integral part of the Instacart Engineering organization. We bring teams together to tackle big problems and lead Instacart’s products, platform, and operational excellence forward. Our work and its impact span the multi-sided marketplace, from connecting customers with coupons and deals for their favorite brands, unlocking new ways to shop for and deliver groceries, to evolving our ML/AI and data infrastructure at Instacart, and more. We are trusted to deliver on Instacart’s strategy at scale, unravel dependencies, and promote the strong collaboration and communication that enables teams across the company to achieve more together.

ABOUT THE JOB

• Lead execution of programs delivering on the cost management strategy for R&D with a high degree of ambiguity, complexity, and visibility demonstrating a strong sense of urgency, efficiency, and ownership.
• Work closely with Engineering, Product, Corp Finance and other cross-functional leaders to set clear goals and  success criteria for teams related to our vendor spend. 
• Create team-level budgets, gather technical inputs required for critical Accounting and Tax deliverables and develop program management improvements to influence cost strategy for R&D. Previous experience in managing complex multi-org budgets and/or programs end-to-end is useful.
• Own clear and effective communication with stakeholders, ensuring alignment on and awareness of priorities, risks, and changes. 
• Foster a culture of teamwork and shared goals, creating a collaborative team environment and driving the right level of process to ensure efficiency and high quality delivery within the program team.
• Contribute broadly to Instacart’s success by suggesting and driving organization-wide initiatives.

ABOUT YOU

Minimum Qualifications

• 5+ years of work experience post-graduation in a technology field or strategic finance role, preferably as a technical program or project manager, product manager, strategic financial analysis, or related technical/analytical discipline.
• A strong communicator with the ability to distill multiple streams of information, convey priorities and risks, and build a narrative for stakeholders.
• A strong sense of ownership and intellectual curiosity to understand executional and technical problems in depth, identify potential issues and offer actions to prevent them.
• Excellent collaborator and motivator, able to bring a team together to align and deliver on a common goal. Can build trust and partnerships with senior Engineering, Finance and Product leaders.
• Growth mindset - seeks and is receptive to actionable feedback and growth opportunities.
• Takes accountability seriously; can operate independently to deliver responsibilities and milestones on time and within budget.
• Self-motivated and thrives in a fast-paced environment.
• Bachelor's degree in a finance, technology or analytical discipline.

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated ability to solve complex business challenges by facilitating  accurate and timely financial models, analysis, and recommendations that have impact (e.g., financial savings, operational improvements).
• Experience creating and improving scalable reporting including automated cost-focused scorecards and/or dashboards.
• Experience working with cloud/infrastructure cost reporting and modeling. 
• Experience working with reporting tools (e.g.,: SQL, Mode, Adaptive).
• Experience with program management processes/tools/approaches to deliver company outcomes reliably and efficiently.