Happiest Minds Technologies - Senior Engineering Manager

Here's a revised version of the job description tailored for a Technical Program Manager (TPM) role while retaining the focus on Databricks, technical leadership, delivery, and stakeholder management.

Technical Program Manager ? Data Engineering & Databricks

Key Responsibilities

Program Leadership & Delivery Management

• Own end-to-end delivery of Databricks and data engineering initiatives, ensuring projects are delivered on time, within scope, and meet quality expectations.
• Define program plans, milestones, dependencies, and delivery roadmaps in collaboration with engineering and business stakeholders.
• Drive execution across multiple workstreams, proactively identifying risks, resolving blockers, and ensuring predictable delivery.
• Establish governance processes, delivery metrics, and reporting mechanisms to improve execution and transparency.
• Act as the primary point of accountability for program outcomes, delivery commitments, and cross-functional coordination.

Technical Program Management

• Partner with solution architects and engineering leads to ensure technical solutions align with business objectives and platform standards.
• Translate business requirements into clear technical execution plans for engineering teams.
• Facilitate architecture, design, and technical review discussions to ensure alignment with enterprise standards and best practices.
• Track technical dependencies, implementation risks, and integration requirements across teams.
• Ensure effective planning for production readiness, release management, and operational support.

Engineering Excellence & Quality

• Work closely with engineering leadership to drive adoption of engineering best practices for Databricks development, including:
  • Modular and reusable solutions
  • Testing and validation strategies
  • CI/CD and deployment processes
  • Monitoring, observability, and operational excellence
• Ensure code reviews, design reviews, and quality gates are incorporated into delivery processes.
• Monitor delivery quality and drive continuous improvement to reduce defects, rework, and production issues.

Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with Product, Engineering, Data Platform, Architecture, and Business teams to align priorities and execution plans.
• Communicate program status, risks, dependencies, and mitigation plans to technical and executive stakeholders.
• Facilitate decision-making by providing visibility into trade-offs, resource constraints, and delivery impacts.
• Manage expectations across internal teams, vendors, and external partners.

Vendor & Team Management

• Lead delivery across offshore and distributed engineering teams and vendor partners.
• Establish clear expectations around ownership, accountability, quality, and delivery.
• Coordinate work across multiple teams while ensuring alignment with program objectives.
• Drive continuous improvement in delivery processes, engineering practices, and team effectiveness.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, and proactive problem-solving.

Risk, Governance & Process Improvement

• Identify delivery, technical, and operational risks early and implement mitigation strategies.
• Establish program governance frameworks, including RAID logs, change management, and dependency tracking.
• Define and monitor KPIs related to delivery performance, quality, and operational excellence.
• Drive process improvements that increase delivery predictability and stakeholder confidence.

Required Skills & Experience

Technical Expertise

• Strong understanding of modern data engineering platforms and cloud-based data solutions.
• Experience working with Databricks, including:
  • Delta Lake
  • Databricks Jobs and Workflows
  • Data ingestion and transformation pipelines
  • Performance optimization and operational best practices
• Solid understanding of:
  • Apache Spark / PySpark
  • SQL
  • Modern data architecture and data engineering patterns (batch, streaming, CDC, incremental processing)
• Experience working with enterprise-scale data platforms and analytics solutions.
• Ability to engage effectively with architects and engineering teams on technical design and implementation.

Program & Delivery Management

• Proven experience managing large-scale technical programs involving multiple engineering teams.
• Experience leading offshore or distributed engineering teams and vendor engagements.
• Strong project and program management skills with experience in Agile delivery methodologies.
• Demonstrated ability to manage competing priorities, dependencies, risks, and stakeholder expectations.
• Experience driving execution across cross-functional technical initiatives.

Leadership

• Strong leadership skills with the ability to influence without direct authority.
• Proven ability to improve delivery discipline, engineering collaboration, and operational efficiency.
• Excellent decision-making, prioritization, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to lead through ambiguity and drive teams toward measurable outcomes.

Professional Skills

• Excellent communication and presentation skills with both technical and executive audiences.
• Strong stakeholder management and relationship-building capabilities.
• Ability to balance technical understanding with business priorities.
• Highly organized with strong planning, coordination, and execution skills.

What Success Looks Like

• Successful delivery of complex Databricks and data platform initiatives with predictable outcomes.
• High-quality program execution with reduced delivery risks, defects, and rework.
• Strong collaboration across engineering, product, architecture, and business teams.
• Improved delivery governance, transparency, and stakeholder confidence.
• Effective management of vendors and offshore teams with clear ownership and accountability.
• Continuous improvement in delivery processes, engineering practices, and operational excellence.

Engagement Expectations

• This is a hands-on Technical Program Management role requiring active involvement in planning, execution, governance, and delivery.
• The individual is expected to work closely with architects and engineering teams to ensure successful execution of technical programs.
• Responsible for driving program outcomes rather than individual technical implementation.
• Accountable for delivery excellence, stakeholder communication, risk management, and cross-functional coordination across Databricks and data engineering initiatives.