Product Operations & Governance Manager

Overview

At ST Engineering iDirect , we’re reshaping the future of global connectivity. As a leader in satellite communications, our groundbreaking technology empowers customers to grow, innovate, and transform their networks. Here, your skills and passion meet our vision and expertise to create something extraordinary. If you're ready to tackle technology’s biggest challenges and redefine how the world connects, the most exciting chapter of your career awaits. With ST Engineering iDirect , the sky isn’t the limit—it’s just the beginning!

The Principal Product Operations Manager leads portfolio-level governance across product platforms, strategic subcontractors, lifecycle transitions, and modernization or migration activity. The role connects Product Management, Engineering, Quality, System Architecture, TAC/Support, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, Procurement, Legal, Sales, PMO/Programs, and customer-facing teams so that scope, functional ownership, dependencies, milestones, acceptance evidence, risks, and decisions remain explicit.

The successful candidate combines the operating rigor of a senior program leader with Principal-level systems thinking. This is an enterprise-governance assignment—not day-to-day project management. Subcontractor project managers and internal functional leaders remain accountable for producing and executing their plans. The Principal POM reviews, challenges, integrates, governs, escalates, and communicates the enterprise view while improving frameworks when recurring execution patterns demand it.
Responsibilities

- Integrate and challenge the plans, status, risks, dependencies, decisions, and commitments produced by subcontractor PMs and accountable internal functions. Maintain the enterprise plan of record and leadership view; drive closure of cross-functional gaps without taking over day-to-day project management.

- Serve as the enterprise governance interface to subcontractor program and project managers. Review and challenge supplier reports, performance, risks, obligations, milestones, acceptance evidence, changes, and forecasts; integrate enterprise reporting and support SOW updates or negotiations with Procurement, Finance, Legal, Engineering, and Product.

- Embed modernization and migration into normal lifecycle and portfolio governance. Lead cross-functional planning, readiness, dependency, decision, and risk integration while accountable functions define and execute product, technical, deployment, logistics, training, support, cutover, and customer deliverables.

- Provide cross-functional portfolio governance for Dialog, PEBL, and D9100. Integrate the functional view of sustaining work, defects, obsolescence, supportability, customer commitments, modernization, migration, and EOL/EOS; Engineering retains detailed EPM and technical execution responsibility.

- Coordinate evidence-based readiness through INIT, CAP, Release, and EOL stages. Integrate scope, schedule, effort, assumptions, and dependencies into an approved baseline; assure that changes are visible, assessed, approved, and traceable.

- Maintain an enterprise risk, issue, dependency, and decision view. Escalate early with a clear thesis, business impact, options, recommendation, owner, and required decision date.

- Ensure Jira, Jama, SPM, Confluence/SharePoint, Power BI, and applicable ERP/CRM records support a reliable execution picture. Treat material discrepancies as execution defects; partner with system owners rather than assuming solution-architecture ownership.

- Identify recurring execution failure modes and translate them into measurable improvements to templates, cadences, controls, KPIs, and handoffs. Recommend framework changes through POG governance and drive adoption across assigned programs.

Qualifications
Required qualifications

- Typically 10+ years of progressively responsible experience in product operations, technical program management, supplier governance, portfolio execution, or a com