Digital Program Management Sr Manager

About the role

The Freeman Company is a global leader in events, on a mission to redefine live for a new era. With a data-driven approach and the industry’s largest network of experts, The Freeman Company’s insights shape exhibitions, exhibits, and events that drive audiences to action. The integrated full-service solutions leverage a 99-year legacy in event management as well as new technologies to deliver moments that matter.

We are seeking a Digital Program Management Senior Manager to lead how our Digital Commerce organization plans, governs, and delivers its portfolio of programs. Reporting to the VP, Digital Program Management, you will run the Commerce delivery practice day to day, including governance, the Commerce operating model, tooling, reporting, and risk management, while personally leading several of our highest-priority, revenue-driving programs. This is a player-coach role. You'll direct contract program resources, act as the VP's delegate with senior leaders across Product, Merchandising, Strategic Planning & Analysis, and Technology, and help build a delivery model where experienced teams manage their own work with strong tools and AI support rather than layers of oversight. The ideal candidate has led both programs and people, brings structure without bureaucracy, and is excited to redefine how program management gets done with AI.

Responsibilities

• Leadership & Practice Management
  • Lead, coach, and direct contract program and project managers; set clear expectations, allocate them across programs based on priority and capitalization eligibility, and hold them accountable for quality and outcomes.
  • Partner with the VP, Digital Program Management to translate Commerce strategy and priorities into a delivery roadmap, operating rhythm, and quarterly plans.
  • Serve as the VP's delegate in portfolio reviews, steering committees, and cross-functional leadership forums, representing the delivery practice with credibility and sound judgment.
  • Mentor the Sr. Digital Program Manager and contributors across Commerce and our partner teams, raising program management capability throughout the organization.
  • Build the foundation for a growing team, including role expectations, onboarding, playbooks, and development paths that allow the practice to add full-time staff over time.
  • Manage contractor sourcing, statements of work, budgets, and time tracking in partnership with Finance and Procurement, ensuring capital expenditure (CapEx) compliance.
• Governance & Operating Model
  • Design, implement, and continuously improve the Commerce operating model, including intake, prioritization, program tiering, stage gates, decision rights (RACI), and planning cadence across Commerce and Technology teams.
  • Run the portfolio governance rhythm, including regular portfolio reviews with Commerce leadership and steering committees for the most critical programs.
  • Right-size governance to the work: light-touch for self-managed efforts and more structure for revenue-critical, cross-team programs.
  • Own RAID (risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies) standards and the portfolio-level risk view, ensuring significant risks have owners, mitigation plans, and timely escalation.
  • Define and track delivery KPIs that show the health, predictability, and business value of the portfolio.
• Program Delivery
  • Personally lead two to four of the most complex, cross-functional, revenue-driving programs end to end, owning integrated plans, dependencies, vendors, and executive communication.
  • Oversee delivery health across a portfolio of more than a dozen programs, stepping in to course-correct where work is off track.
  • Define success metrics and value baselines for priority programs, and report on value realized, not just milestones met.
  • Adapt across waterfall, agile, scrum, kanban, and hybrid approaches based on what each initiative needs rather than strict adherence to any single methodology.
• Tooling, Reporting & AI Enablement
  • Own the program management toolset, including Adobe Workfront configuration standards, templates, data quality, and roadmap, partnering with IT on administration and integrations.
  • Own portfolio reporting, including weekly executive status, leadership presentations, and dashboards, generated from the system of record rather than assembled by hand.
  • Lead the adoption of AI and automation in program management by identifying, piloting, and scaling assistants and agents that reduce manual effort in status reporting, meeting follow-up, RAID management, and intake.
  • Enable peer teams to manage their own projects through a self-service toolkit of templates, playbooks, training, and AI assistants, coaching without micromanaging.

Requirements

• 13+ years of progressive program and project management experience leading digital, technology, or transformation programs at enterprise scale, including at least 3 years leading people, or a program management practice.
• Demonstrated success designing or improving governance, intake, and portfolio management processes, and personally delivering complex, multi-workstream initiatives end to end.
• Direct experience in a lead role within Scaled Agile is highly preferred.
• Experience operating in a large-scale enterprise environment is strongly preferred.
• Experience with e-commerce or customer-facing digital platforms (e.g., Salesforce Commerce Cloud) and enterprise