Program Manager III – Reviews

Are you passionate about helping travelers across the globe find the best destinations, accommodations, flights, activities and provide feedback as reviews, traveler photographs and ratings? Do you like to be part of a journey to make sense of the massive data sets Expedia users are supplying and help generate valuable insights via sentiment analysis, topic modeling, and other ML based curation algorithms?

Expedia Group recognizes our success is dependent on the success of our people. We are a global travel platform, made up of the most knowledgeable, passionate, and creative people in our business. Our brands recognize the power of travel to break down barriers and bring the world within reach – that responsibility inspires us to be the place where exceptional people want to do their best work, and to provide them the tools to do so.

Whether you're applying to work in engineering or customer support, marketing or lodging supply, Product or Program at Expedia Group we act as one team, working towards a common goal; to bring the world within reach. We relentlessly strive for better, but not at the cost of the travelers. We act with humility and optimism, respecting ideas big and small. We value diversity and voices of all volumes. We are a global organization but keep our feet on the ground, so we can act fast and stay simple. Teams also have the chance to give back on a local level and make a difference through our corporate social responsibility program, Expedia Cares. If you have a hunger to make a difference with one of the most loved brands in the world and to work in the dynamic travel industry, this is the job for you.

‘Reviews’ team brings smiles with millions of travelers, and we help them to choose the right destination, right product with the help of fellow traveler generated context (text and images). We try to bridge the service gaps and help Expedia and Expedia’s Partners to provide best in class traveler experience.

Our team is looking for a Program Manager, who can demonstrate their deep technical knowledge, loves solving real-world business problems and dedication to innovative thinking to ensure Expedia’s programs line up well with leadership’s plans and timelines. Working across the Product and Technical organization multi-functional teams and be a part of reshaping how our customers use our features from beginning to end. This person will be accountable for driving the delivery of business solutions that improve business processes, surface measurable insights, and support executive decision-making along with a strong desire to grow Expedia's next generation technology stack. Someone who has the ability of finding innovative ways to prove out hypotheses and provide paths to iterative improvements concentrating on delivering value along the way.

Joining our team provides the unique challenge and opportunity to build new products for Expedia Group and bring value to our customers through those exciting features.

What you’ll do:

• Establish strategy & direction of execution within a program, producing project schedules and critical path

• Independently run sophisticated technical projects or assist in the management of these projects

• Drive multiple initiatives with a similar focus area as a program to accomplish a central goal

• Develop detailed project plans and lead all implementation processes, including prioritization, progress tracking, supervising change control process, testing, documentation, training, and timely delivery within budget constraints

• Running agile ceremonies as a scrum master and the development process in conjunction with several internal partners

• Ensure project portfolio data and key attributes, e.g. estimates, assignments, and tasks are current and relevant, including regular reporting to and sync-ups with internal product, portfolio, and engineering teams

• Able to communicate project expectations to team members and customers in a timely and clear fashion

• Balance trade-offs between cost/schedule versus business benefit

• Provide thought leadership to the team on massive-scale application issues such as reliability, serviceability, and performance

• Support and follow the Expedia Software Development Lifecycle and actively advance standard methodologies (e.g. Agile/Scrum, Continuous Delivery)

• Ensure your team delivers high quality & on-time products and continuously innovates to improve engineering efficiency

• Drive evolution of standards and design patterns with industry standard methodologies and new technology to enhance the product, quality, and system performance

• Drive program and system architecture discussions to identify a suitable quality solution to the business requirement

• Work closely with the Sr. Manager or Director in Program Management and help in process improvement and organizational structure

• Obtain senior management approval for the program by presenting the program scope. Oversee regular project status/quality meetings and reports

• Keep management well advised on a timely basis on project or program progress, status, and/or concerns for each assignment. Review project metrics and facilitate project scorecard development to ensure enterprise-wide program success

• Develop program communication plans and demonstrates effective communication to the executive management team, and project team(s)

• Establish alliances with other departments by recognizing dependencies to assess potential partnership and commitment to the program

• Creating and Finetuning Software development Process to improve the efficiency of our teams

• Being an enabler between developer team and other stakeholders

• Leverages experience to anticipate risks in advance of impacts

• Manage external and inter-team dependencies, and coordinate timelines for all dependency deliverables to minimize time to market

• Takes a whole systems approach to analyze issues and implements holistic solutions by ensuring that linkages between structure, people, process, and technology are made

• Seek and implement continuous improvements into all project processes, including Agile / Kanban development methodologies, to empower teams and measure progress

• Partner with technologists across all EG to collaboratively solve customer and partner problems

• Collaborates with Product Managers, Technology Leaders & other stakeholders to prioritize milestones to achieve desired outcomes and objectives

• Coordinate work performed by development staff and internal customers and/or external partners, including defining project requirements, performing feasibility and needs and/or impact assessments

• Lead communications and relationships, document and communicate the progress of project including implementation, timelines, issues, successes, and risks

Who you are:

• Bachelor’s degree in project management/execution field; or equivalent related professional experience

• An advanced degree is a plus

• Comfortable in a technical environment and be an owner/liaison between the technology and product teams

• Self-starter and natural problem-solver; love working with our internal & external Customers; intrinsically motivated and technology savvy

• An effective communicator, comfortable sharing highly technical information with users across all levels of an organization

• Able to work cross-functionally across Product manager, architects, engineers, Dev Ops teams, to resolve technical, procedural, and operational issues

• Demonstrated experience in program management role and ability to juggle multiple projects & programs simultaneously

• At least 3 years of program / project / portfolio management experience is desired

• Years of program management experience in a professional technology organization (preferably ecommerce or travel domain is a big plus)

• Experience as a manager, leading program management teams or equivalent experience in leading teams

• High degree of competency with program management including program planning, tracking dependencies, schedules, status communication and risk identification

• Hands on Experience working in Agile/Kanban development

• Excellent oral/written communication skills

• Demonstrated maturity, judgment, negotiation, and analytical skills

• Strong people management skills and ability to successfully work with internal partners across the organization

• Passionate about project management and effective teamwork.

• Strong verbal and written communication skills, active listening skills, and the ability to present technical information clearly to a diverse audience

About Expedia Group 

Expedia Group (NASDAQ: EXPE) powers travel for everyone, everywhere through our global platform. Driven by the core belief that travel is a force for good, we help people experience the world in new ways and build lasting connections. We provide industry-leading technology solutions to fuel partner growth and success, while facilitating memorable experiences for travelers. Expedia Group's family of brands includes: Brand Expedia®, Hotels.com®, Expedia® Partner Solutions, Vrbo®, trivago®, Orbitz®, Travelocity®, Hotwire®, Wotif®, ebookers®, CheapTickets®, Expedia Group™ Media Solutions, Expedia Local Expert®, CarRentals.com™, and Expedia Cruises™.  

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Expedia is committed to creating an inclusive work environment with a diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, disability or age.