Technical Program Manager

At Encore Corporate Travel, we believe the best things happen when people care deeply, think differently, and have the courage to challenge what's possible.

We're an independent, woman-owned travel management company with 40 years of experience and a bold vision for the future. We're evolving into an intelligence company that scales care, combining the power of AI and automation with the human ingenuity, relationships, and judgment that have always set us apart.

Our ambition goes beyond making existing processes faster. We're reimagining how work gets done, removing repetitive tasks and unnecessary complexity so people can focus on what they do best: solving problems, creating, connecting, and caring for others.

Our culture is built on three values: Agility, Care, and Grit. We embrace change, look out for one another, and don't shy away from difficult challenges. We give people the freedom to experiment, the support to grow, and the opportunity to help shape what comes next.

We're building a different kind of company, and we're looking for people who want to build it with us.

The opportunity

What if technology could give people more time to do the work that matters most?

That's the thinking behind Encore's 90/10 vision: using AI and automation to reduce the work surrounding people's contributions, creating more room for creativity, judgment, and human connection.

We're looking for an experienced Technical Program Manager to help turn that vision into reality.

You'll manage the full technology program and all associated projects across platform development, from new capabilities and enhancements to integrations, migrations, and other technical initiatives. You'll own end-to-end delivery, from intake and planning through implementation, release, and closure, coordinating dependencies and commitments across the program.

This is not a traditional project management role. It combines program leadership, technical fluency, and hands-on familiarity with modern AI-assisted development. You'll work at the intersection of business strategy, technology, and execution, connecting teams, challenging assumptions, and helping turn promising ideas into reliable solutions that deliver measurable value.

You'll also play an important role in how we scale AI-assisted development. We're interested in what's possible, but equally committed to getting it right. You'll bring hands-on familiarity with modern AI coding tools, sound technical judgment, and the curiosity to explore new approaches without compromising quality, security, or long-term value.

You'll work closely with business owners, architects, software developers, infrastructure, and security teams. You'll have the autonomy to improve how we work, the confidence to hold stakeholders accountable, and the determination to see complex initiatives through.

We're looking for someone who brings structure to ambiguity, enjoys solving problems, and believes technology should make people's lives better.

What you will be doing and owning

- Manage all projects within the program and across platform development, including new capabilities, enhancements, integrations, migrations, and related technical initiatives. Drive each project from initiation through delivery and closure, ensuring alignment with program objectives and the approved platform roadmap.
- Own the intake gate and readiness review process. Return incomplete requests for clarification and ensure business objectives, ownership, scope, and acceptance criteria are validated before development begins.
- Partner with business owners and architects to translate business processes into AI-ready specifications. Coordinate required security and privacy reviews.
- Apply AI tools to refine specifications, explore code, and create exploratory prototypes. Coordinate developer-led prototyping and implementation, ensuring assumptions are tested and outputs receive appropriate technical review.
- Maintain an integrated program plan and individual project plans with clear scope, owners, milestones, dependencies, and release dates. Manage competing priorities and shared capacity across projects, challenge estimates with technical leads, and escalate trade-offs affecting program commitments.
- Hold business stakeholders accountable for requirements, decisions, and user acceptance testing (UAT). Agree deadlines, track sign-off, and escalate missed commitments against established service levels with clear recommendations.
- Provide leadership with concise, reliable reporting on progress, blockers, delivery risks, resource constraints, and decisions needed. Maintain clear ownership and follow actions through to resolution.
- Coordinate production readiness, including testing evidence, business acceptance, training, support arrangements, and operational handover. Confirm required approvals and ownership of outstanding issues before release.
- Partner with development leadership to improve workflows for AI-assisted delivery. Account for review effort, integration, security, maintainability, and testing when assessing readiness; distinguish exploratory prototypes from production-ready solutions.
- Follow delivery through to adoption and business outcomes. Review usage, client feedback, defects, and rework with business owners, Customer Success, and account managers, and recommend improvements based on value.
- Continuously improve intake, decision-making, handoffs, and release processes. Use automation and reporting tools where they strengthen these workflows and reduce unnecessary administrative work.

What success looks like

- Requests enter development with validated business rules, clear acceptance criteria, and accountable owners, reducing ambiguity and avoidable rework.
- Business decisions and UAT sign-off occur within agreed deadlines, with blockers identified early and escalated effectively.
- All projects within the program and across platform development have clear plans, accountable owners, and delivery commitments. Teams and leadership have a consolidated view of progress, dependencies, risks, and decisions.
- AI development practices improve delivery effectiveness while maintaining technical quality, human review, and clear release controls.
- Releases are adopted and deliver measurable business value, with feedback and defect trends informing subsequent improvements.

Why Encore?

At Encore, you'll find the stability of an established company with the ambition and agility to keep reinventing what's possible.

We're not simply adopting new technology. We're reimagining the relationship between people and technology, building an organization where intelligence and automation create more room for human creativity, judgment, and care.

As an independent company with our own technology platform, we have the freedom to experiment, make decisions, and build solutions around the needs of our people and clients.

You'll join a team that values curiosity, encourages initiative, and isn't afraid to challenge convention. You'll have the opportunity to help shape how we work, how we innovate, and how we deliver on a vision that puts people at the center of technological progress.

Curious about where we're headed? Read our CEO's vision for the future of work: https://encoretravel.com/blogs-and-insights/the-90-10-vision

If you're energized by complex challenges, believe technology should make people's lives better, and want to help build what's next, we'd love to meet you.

Requirements

What you'll bring

- 7+ years of experience in technical program management, software delivery leadership, or a related role, with demonstrated success delivering complex initiatives across business and technology teams.
- Practical experience using AI coding assistants or agents, such as Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or equivalent tools, to explore repositories, write or modify code, develop prototypes, debug issues, and run tests.
- Working knowledge of large language models (LLMs), prompt and context engineering, context windows and token limits, agentic coding, specification-driven development, repository instructions, reusable agent skills, and Model Context Protocol (MCP).
- Strong understanding of the software development lifecycle, APIs, databases, integrations, pull requests, code review, and CI/CD. Ability to assess AI-generated output and discuss technical risks and estimates with development leads.
- Experience managing multiple concurrent projects within a technology program, with ownership of project plans, scope, milestones, dependencies, risks, release commitments, and operational handover.
- Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, including holding senior leaders to decisions and commitments and resolving competing priorities. Clear written and verbal communication in French and English.
- Evidence of staying current with AI development practices through hands-on evaluation, with the judgment to distinguish useful capabilities from unproven productivity claims.

Additional skills

- A background in software development, solutions architecture, systems administration, or technical operations.
- Experience with enterprise migrations, identity and access initiatives, third-party integrations, and GitHub Enterprise or equivalent delivery platforms.
- Familiarity with travel technology, data governance, security and privacy requirements, and the use of adoption data and client feedback to improve technology outcomes.