Program Manager, Strategic Program Execution

Description

JOB TITLE: Program Manager, Strategic Program Execution

Competency: Project Management, Execution Excellence, Stakeholder Alignment and Global Collaboration

Manager: President Lely North America

HR Responsibility: No direct reports, leads through and with others,

Key Accountability: Responsible for program execution, delivery, coordination, budget management, risk management, and stage-gate readiness. Steering group will guide strategic direction, portfolio priorities, commercialization decisions, and final go/no-go decisions.

Key Relationships: Lely North America Cluster, Lely International, Business Teams, Development Partners, Farms, Lely Centers

FLSA Status: Exempt

Summary:

Lely is seeking a highly accomplished Program Manager to lead the development and execution of a critical growth initiative within North America. This role will be responsible for leading the execution, coordination, and delivery of a large-scale, cross-functional strategic development program.

Ideal candidates will have experience leading the development and commercialization of agricultural technologies, automation systems, machinery, robotics, or other complex physical products in partnership with engineering and product development teams.

Working within a strategic framework established by the Steering Group, the Program Manager will translate program objectives into actionable plans, coordinate workstreams across North America and global stakeholders, manage program performance, and drive successful delivery through product development, field validation, and commercialization readiness. Strategic direction, major investment decisions, and commercialization ownership remain with strategic leadership and the respective business teams.

Reporting to senior leadership, this individual will provide program leadership across multiple disciplines, aligning business strategy, product development, operations, customer engagement, engineering teams, and external partnerships to deliver transformative outcomes.

This is a unique opportunity for a seasoned program leader who thrives in complex environments, can create structures where none exists, and has a proven track record of leading the development, validation, and deployment of complex physical products, agricultural technologies, automation systems, robotics, or integrated hardware/software solutions. This program leader will be largely responsible for aligning farmers, business leaders, development teams, and strategic stakeholders around a shared vision and coordinating execution at scale.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Program Execution and Delivery Leadership

· Lead execution of the large- scale dairy program within the strategic vision, objectives, and governance framework established by the strategic leadership.

· Translate strategic direction into detailed execution plans, workstream objectives, milestones, and measurable deliverables.

· Develop and maintain the integrated master program plan across all participating workstreams.

· Act as the bridge between development teams, partner farms, Business Teams, and North American stakeholders to ensure coordinated execution.

· Coordinate program resources and identify capability gaps, making recommendations for resourcing decisions.

· Drive accountability for deliverables, timelines, and dependencies across all participating functions.

· Ensure alignment between North American execution activities and global program objectives.

Portfolio and Delivery Management

· Own and maintain the integrated master program schedule, including dependencies, critical paths, and resource requirements.

· Establish and maintain operating rhythms, reporting structures, and program controls.

· Prepare and facilitate stage-gate reviews and executive reporting packages.

· Ensure all required evidence, documentation, and recommendations are available for go/no-go decisions.

· Monitor scope, schedule, budget, resource utilization, and program performance.

· Administer change control processes and assess impacts to scope, timing, cost, and risk.

· Escalate strategic trade-offs and decision points to strategic leadership.

Strategic Stakeholder Alignment and Cross-Functional Leadership

· Build and maintain strong working relationships with stakeholders across Lely North America and Lely International to ensure alignment, transparency and Program momentum.

· Serve as a key connector between strategic leadership, business teams, development teams, partner farms and external stakeholders.

· Coordinate activities across technical, operational, product development, digital, commercial, and business team workstreams.

· Facilitate collaboration and issue resolution among multiple teams and stakeholders.

· Surface conflicts, resource constraints, and strategic trade-offs requiring leadership decisions.

· Ensure information flows effectively between development teams, partner farms, Lely Centers, and Business Teams

External Partner & Development Farm Coordination

· Maintain strong working relationships with development partner farms, external vendors, consultants, and implementation partners.

· Coordinate day-to-day program activities with external stakeholders.

· Manage progress, deliverables, and communications within agreed program structures.

· Ensure field validation activities are executed effectively and lessons learned are integrated into program planning.

· Serve as the primary operational liaison between Program and development partners.

Risk, Resources and Financial Management

· Manage the program budget, forecasting process, and financial tracking mechanisms.

· Monitor expenditures and provide variance reporting and recommendations.

· Maintain the program risk register, including mitigation plans, owners, and escalation paths.

· Identify operational, technical, financial, and execution risks and drive mitigation activities.

· Escalate strategic risks and investment decisions to strategic leadership.

· Provide regular program performance reporting to leadership.

Validation and Stakeholder Feedback

· Lead field validation efforts with development partner farms and stakeholders.

· Gather operational feedback and validation data.

· Translate field learnings into actionable recommendations for Business Teams and Proposition Management.

· Ensure customer and stakeholder feedback is incorporated into development priorities where appropriate.

· Support, but do not own, commercialization planning and market launch decisions

What we are looking for: Candidate Profile

Education and/or Experience

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Agriculture, Agribusiness, Product Development, Business Industrial technology, or a related field.

With:

· 7-10+ years of experience leading complex cross-functional programs, product development initiatives, or strategic business programs.

· Demonstrated success leading the development, validation, implementation, or launch of physical products, machinery, equipment, automation systems, robotics, or integrated hardware/software solutions.

· Experience working directly with product development, engineering, manufacturing, testing, validation, and commercial teams throughout product lifecycle.

· Proven experience leading programs from concept development through field validation, pilot deployment, commercialization readiness, and implementation.

· Demonstrated success delivering large scale programs involving multiple stakeholders, workstreams, and dependencies.

· Experience coordinating technical, operational, commercial, and development activities, in complex environments.

· Experience working with matrixed global organizations.

· Experience collaborating with geographically dispersed development teams, including European based engineering, innovation, or product development teams, strongly preferred.

· Dairy, agriculture, AgTech, livestock systems, farm equipment, agricultural automation, robotic