Technical Product Manager – IT Operations & Security - Federal
Overview
The Technical Product Manager – IT Operations & Security serves as the primary delivery lead for the Operations workstream of a large federal technology program. This workstream encompasses approximately 15 active and planned initiatives spanning infrastructure modernization, secrets and privileged access management, and application enhancements required to comply with agency-wide technology mandates.
Projects within this workstream span a diverse technology environment, including Linux and Windows server infrastructure, Oracle databases, Salesforce, MuleSoft integrations, and AWS Lambda-based serverless components. The Technical Product Manager does not need to be a hands-on engineer in each of these technologies, but must be technical enough to understand their role in the environment, ask informed questions of technical leads, evaluate staffing needs and candidate qualifications against them, and factor their complexity and interdependencies into roadmap, staffing, and cost decisions.
This role owns the roadmap and prioritization of the Operations portfolio, working hand-in-hand with the VA Operations lead to sequence work based on return on investment, risk, dependencies, and mandates originating from other parts of VA. At any given time, 3-4 projects are in flight, requiring the Product Manager to balance active delivery with forward planning, staffing, and stakeholder management.
The Technical Product Manager builds and maintains a trusted, collaborative relationship with the VA Operations lead, translating client priorities into an actionable roadmap and staffing plan. This individual is technical enough to evaluate resumes and assess the qualifications of infrastructure, security, and DevSecOps engineers proposed for project staffing, and is comfortable partnering with technical leads to validate approach and level of effort.
The role also contributes directly to business development by helping shape cost proposals for new Operations projects, bringing forward lessons learned, estimating assumptions, and staffing models from prior engagements. Success requires strong program and project management discipline, the judgment to manage cross-portfolio impacts on the broader program's other technology products, and the interpersonal skill to keep a demanding federal client, delivery teams, and internal leadership aligned.
Key Functions
- Serve as the primary point of contact and relationship owner with the VA Operations lead, building trust and a collaborative working partnership.
- Maintain and continuously refine a prioritized roadmap across approximately 15 Operations projects, incorporating ROI, risk, technical dependencies, and VA-wide mandates.
- Facilitate prioritization discussions with the VA Operations lead, providing data-driven recommendations and clearly articulated trade-offs.
- Manage 3-4 concurrent in-flight projects (e.g., infrastructure upgrades, CyberArk/secrets management implementation, application compliance enhancements) from initiation through delivery.
- Oversee delivery of projects across a mixed technology environment, including Linux and Windows servers, Oracle databases, Salesforce, MuleSoft, and AWS Lambda, coordinating with the technical leads and engineers responsible for each platform.
- Assess staffing needs for upcoming and in-flight projects; screen and evaluate resumes and candidate qualifications for infrastructure, security, and DevSecOps engineering roles.
- Partner with technical leads and delivery teams to validate proposed solutions, staffing plans, and estimates before they are committed to the client.
- Support development of cost proposals and rough order of magnitude (ROM) estimates for new Operations projects, incorporating lessons learned, actuals, and staffing models from prior work.
- Identify, track, and manage risks, issues, and dependencies across the Operations portfolio and communicate impacts proactively to the VA lead and program leadership.
- Coordinate with other product/workstream leads on the program to manage cross-portfolio impacts and shared resource or infrastructure dependencies.
- Own project-level reporting, including status, burn rate, schedule, and risk reporting to both VA stakeholders and internal program leadership.
- Maintain and refine the Operations backlog in Jira (or equivalent), including epics, features, and user stories, in partnership with technical leads.
- Support onboarding and ramp-up of new project staff, ensuring clear understanding of scope, priorities, and VA operating norms.
- Contribute to continuous improvement of program processes for roadmapping, estimating, and delivery based on lessons learned.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree and 7 years of relevant experience managing technology products and/or projects.
- An additional 2 years of experience with an Associate's Degree.
- An additional 4 years of experience with a high school diploma.
- Demonstrated experience managing infrastructure, security, or IT operations-focused technology projects (e.g., cloud migration, identity/access or secrets management, network or systems upgrades).
- Working familiarity with enterprise technology environments comparable to this program's stack, such as Linux and Windows server administration, relational databases (e.g., Oracle), Salesforce, integration platforms (e.g., MuleSoft), and AWS serverless services (e.g., Lambda) — sufficient to plan, staff, and manage projects involving these technologies without requiring hands-on engineering expertise.
- Experience building and maintaining a product/project roadmap and prioritizing a multi-project portfolio based on ROI, risk, and stakeholder input.
- Experience managing multiple concurrent projects (3 or more) with competing timelines, dependencies, and resource constraints.
- Experience reviewing technical resumes and assessing candidate qualifications for infrastructure, security, or engineering roles, in partnership with technical leads.
- Experience contributing to cost proposals, estimates, or statements of work, including incorporating lessons learned from prior projects.
- Strong working knowledge of Agile delivery practices and tools such as Jira and Confluence.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with demonstrated ability to build trusted relationships with client stakeholders.
- Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to manage ambiguity and shifting priorities.
- Ability to assess and communicate the impact of decisions across a broader program of related technology products.
Preferred Qualifications or Skills
- Experience supporting the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) or other federal government clients.
- Familiarity with CyberArk or other Privileged Access Management (PAM) and secrets management platforms.
- Direct experience managing or delivering projects involving Salesforce, MuleSoft, Oracle databases, or AWS Lambda/serverless architectures.
- Experience navigating VA (or other federal agency) technology mandates, compliance requirements, or ATO processes.
- PMP, CSM/PSM or equivalent project/product management certification.
- Experience with cost estimation, basis of estimate (BOE) development, or federal proposal support.
- Background in infrastructure, cloud (e.g., AWS), network, or security engineering prior to moving into product/program management.
- Experience managing subcontractor or vendor relationships in support of project delivery.
- Familiarity with DevSecOps practices and CI/CD or infrastructure-as-code concepts.
Position Details
- Employment type: Full-Time, W2
- Location: 100% Remote (US-based)
- Hours: 40 hours/week with availability during core business hours of 8am–5pm ET
- Start date: ASAP
- Eligibility: Must be eligible to obtain a Public Trust clearance
- Salary: $145,000 – $165,000, commensurate with experience
Compensation: $145K-165K
