Technical Program Manager

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by 👋

We're looking for a Staff Technical Program Manager to join our Product & Technology Operations team and own how we build the Product Development Lifecycle (PDLC) into a shared execution model across Product, Engineering, and Design.

You will own how work flows from idea to impact across the organization - one language for how work moves, one set of metrics leaders can trust, and one standard for what "good" looks like at every stage of PDLC.

This is a founding role for the function. You'll define the model, align stakeholders around it, and prove out its value as you build.

What you’ll be doing:

Define the execution model

• Design a PDLC framework that works across Product, Engineering, and Design and across all Lightspeed products.

• Define what good looks like at each stage of PDLC, including the artifacts, checkpoints, and exit criteria teams should use.

Build the measurement system

• Establish metrics that give leaders a trustworthy, holistic view of how work is flowing and where it's getting stuck.

• Design the framework so it measures the system and surfaces bottlenecks, not individual performance.

• Build in exception tracking so blocked or off-track work is visible early.

Drive adoption

• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Design leaders across every vertical to align on the model and earn genuine buy-in and adoption.

• Navigate real differences across verticals and business units without forcing false consistency where it doesn't make sense.

• Bring structure to ambiguity - resolve open questions as they surface rather than waiting for a perfect spec.

Build an AI-first PDLC

• Define what humans own versus what AI agents own at each stage of PDLC, keeping judgment, accountability, and anything irreversible or customer-facing with humans.

• Partner with Engineering to identify where AI agents can accelerate delivery, build pilots, and measure their ROI and impact on speed.

• Ensure human checkpoints are genuine decisions, not rubber stamps, as adoption scales.

Evolve the model

• Treat the framework as a living system - review it periodically and adjust based on what's actually working.

• Report on program health and progress to senior leadership.

What you need to bring:

• Experience designing or significantly evolving a delivery framework, execution model, or program management system - not just operating one someone else built.

• Experience leading cross-functional organizations through operational change, including turning skepticism into genuine adoption.

• A track record of building measurement systems from ambiguous or inconsistent data, and knowing which problems to solve first versus defer.

• Experience partnering with Engineering on applied AI or automation, including how to evaluate and measure whether it's actually accelerating delivery, not just novel.

• Strong executive communication skills - able to represent program health, risk, and trade-offs credibly to senior leadership.

• Demonstrated ability to influence and align senior stakeholders across Product, Engineering, and Design without formal authority over them.

• Comfort operating with significant ambiguity and independently structuring a path forward rather than waiting for direction.

• As a global company with employees and clients outside of Quebec, fluency in English as a working language is required for this position

You'd Be Great At This Role If You...

• Enjoy building something from a blank page rather than optimizing an existing system.

• Can hold a strong point of view on "what good looks like" while staying open to what the data and teams tell you.

• Get energized aligning stakeholders with different views, perspectives, and backgrounds.

• Think in systems and flow, not individual tickets or teams.

We know that people are more than what’s on their CV. If you’re unsure that you have the right profile for the role... hit the ‘Apply’ button and give it a try!

Be a changemaker

You’ll enjoy:

• A flexible work environment that empowers you to do your best work

• A culture that celebrates performance

• The chance to make an impact in a team that’s big enough for career growth, but lean enough to make your voice heard

• Career-defining opportunities

Plus benefits designed to keep you happy, healthy and fulfilled.

• Flexible paid time off and remote work policies

• Equity options, because this is your company too

• Contributions to your pension plan. Your future matters

• Training opportunities to grow your skills and career

• Health and wellness credit so you feel your best

• Time off to volunteer and give back to your community

• Interest groups, employee led networks, social committees to sponsored sports teams

• Computer purchase program to get your personal Macbook

• Enhanced parental leave to support growing families

Fuel your growth. Find your people.

At Lightspeed, your growth is our priority. We invest in you with continuous learning opportunities, global mobility and benefits designed to support you—all within a driven, diverse and inclusive team that’s passionate about empowering our communities

Please note that we ask applicants to disclose any criminal convictions, and we conduct criminal record checks as part of our hiring process for this role.

At Lightspeed, we carefully consider a wide range of factors when determining compensation, including your skill set, qualifications, experience, and market data. These considerations can cause your compensation to vary. We reasonably expect the total compensation for this position to be in the range of $150,000 TO $180,000 CAD. Lightspeed also provides a variety of employee benefits including, but not limited to, medical, dental, wellness, life and disability insurance, RRSP plan and match, paid parental leave top-up, and paid time off.

Please note that this compensation information is solely for candidates hired to perform work within Ontario (update to BC if posted in Vancouver) and reflects the amount Lightspeed is willing to pay at the time of this posting. This role represents an existing vacancy at Lightspeed. Lightspeed uses artificial intelligence–enabled tools to support certain aspects of the recruitment process; all hiring decisions are made by our recruiting and hiring teams.

To all recruitment agencies: Lightspeed does not accept unsolicited agency resumes. If we have not directly engaged your company in writing to supply candidates for a specific vacancy, Lightspeed will not be responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

Lightspeed is a proud equal opportunity employer and we are committed to creating an inclusive and barrier-free workplace. Lightspeed welcomes and encourages applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.

Where to from here?

Obviously, this has to be mutually beneficial: we want you to step into a role you love, and we want to offer you a place you’re proud to come to every day. For a glimpse into our world check out our career page here.

Lightspeed is building communities through commerce, and we need people from all backgrounds and lived experiences to do that. We were founded in 2005, in Montreal’s gay village and our original members were all part of the LGBTQ+ community. The ethos of our business has been about inclusion from the very beginning, and we strive to provide a workplace where everyone belongs.

Who we are:

Powering the businesses that are the backbone of the global economy, Lightspeed's one-stop commerce platform helps merchants innovate to simplify, scale, and provide exceptional customer experiences. Our cloud commerce solution transforms and unifies online and physical operations, multichannel sales, expansion to new locations, global payments, financial solutions, and connection to supplier networks.

Founded in Montréal, Canada in 2005, Lightspeed is dual-listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: LSPD) and Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: LSPD). With teams across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, the company serves retail, hospitality, and golf businesses in over 100 countries.

Lightspeed handles your information in accordance with our Applicant Privacy Statement.

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by 👋

We're looking for a Principal Technical Program Manager to join our Product & Technology Operations team and own how we manage, optimize, and scale cloud, vendor, and AI spend across the organization.

You will define the FinOps strategy itself - not just run an existing cost program, but decide what gets optimized, in what order, and why. Cloud and vendor cost management has an established playbook that we want to scale and automate; AI spend does not. You'll be defining and building FinOps for AI, while also evolving existing practice into a more automated system.

This is a very senior technical IC role. You'll bring enough technical depth to build or directly shape the automations, dashboards, and optimization recommendations yourself, and enough strategic judgment to influence how leadership thinks about cost trade-offs and how we partner with Finance, Procurement and other functions on all things vendor management and optimizations.

What you’ll be doing:

Define the FinOps strategy

• Own the strategy for cloud, vendor, and AI cost management across the organization - not just the execution of an existing roadmap.

• Continuously reassess what to optimize, in what order, and why, based on where spend and risk are actually concentrated.

• Build the framework for managing AI cost, an area with no established industry playbook yet.

Drive cost optimization with technical depth

• Analyze cloud usage, vendor contracts, and AI spend to identify inefficiencies and develop strategies to reduce unnecessary cost.

• Build or directly shape the dashboards, automations, and monitoring systems that make cost visible and actionable, at a technical depth equivalent to a Senior Engineer.

• Propose specific technical optimizations, not just process recommendations, and know when a suggestion requires deeper engineering partnership.

• Apply hands-on experience building and automating with AI, not just directing others to do it.

Lead the program across the organization

• Oversee and in some cases execute multiple cost-optimization initiatives simultaneously.

• Own the reporting structure - cost attribution, monitoring, and alerting - and use it to tell leadership a clear, trustworthy story about spend and savings.

• Partner with FP&A to define and establish key cost metrics giving leadership a sharper financial lens on cost efficiency.

• Manage cross-functional dependencies, risk, and change across SRE, Engineering, Data, FP&A, and Procurement teams.

Influence at the executive level

• Bring insights on feasibility, timelines, risk, and cost trade-offs directly to senior and executive stakeholders, shaping decisions that affect real budget and infrastructure choices.

• Balance centralized cost management standards with the autonomy individual business units need to operate effectively.

• Proactively surface issues and advocate for change across products and teams, rather than waiting to be asked.

Mentorship

• Partner with Delivery Ops leadership on TPM career development, best practices, and the foundation of the broader TPM function.

• Mentor other TPMs, helping raise the technical and strategic bar across the team.

What you need to bring:

• Experience owning both the strategy and execution for a cloud, vendor or AI cost optimization program - not just executing one someone else designed.

• Deep knowledge of the AI vendor landscape - pricing models, contract structures, and the specific optimization levers and nuances that differ from traditional cloud cost management.

• Technical depth in cloud architecture, cost management, and optimization techniques strong enough to build or directly evaluate dashboards and automation yourself.

• Experience navigating an area with no established playbook, building the framework as you go rather than applying a known model.

• A track record of running large, cross-organizational programs spanning multiple business units.

• Strong executive communication skills - able to translate complex technical and cost trade-offs into decisions leadership can act on.

• Demonstrated ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive change across an organization without formal authority over them.

We know that people are more than what’s on their CV. If you’re unsure that you have the right profile for the role... hit the ‘Apply’ button and give it a try!

Be a changemaker

You’ll enjoy:

• A flexible work environment that empowers you to do your best work

• A culture that celebrates performance

• The chance to make an impact in a team that’s big enough for career growth, but lean enough to make your voice heard

• Career-defining opportunities

Plus benefits designed to keep you happy, healthy and fulfilled.

• Flexible paid time off and remote work policies

• Equity options, because this is your company too

• Contributions to your pension plan. Your future matters

• Training opportunities to grow your skills and career

• Health and wellness credit so you feel your best

• Time off to volunteer and give back to your community

• Interest groups, employee led networks, social committees to sponsored sports teams

• Computer purchase program to get your personal Macbook

• Enhanced parental leave to support growing families

Fuel your growth. Find your people.

At Lightspeed, your growth is our priority. We invest in you with continuous learning opportunities, global mobility and benefits designed to support you—all within a driven, diverse and inclusive team that’s passionate about empowering our communities

Please note that we ask applicants to disclose any criminal convictions, and we conduct criminal record checks as part of our hiring process for this role.

To all recruitment agencies: Lightspeed does not accept unsolicited agency resumes. If we have not directly engaged your company in writing to supply candidates for a specific vacancy, Lightspeed will not be responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

Lightspeed is a proud equal opportunity employer and we are committed to creating an inclusive and barrier-free workplace. Lightspeed welcomes and encourages applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.

Where to from here?

Obviously, this has to be mutually beneficial: we want you to step into a role you love, and we want to offer you a place you’re proud to come to every day. For a glimpse into our world check out our career page here.

Lightspeed is building communities through commerce, and we need people from all backgrounds and lived experiences to do that. We were founded in 2005, in Montreal’s gay village and our original members were all part of the LGBTQ+ community. The ethos of our business has been about inclusion from the very beginning, and we strive to provide a workplace where everyone belongs.

Who we are:

Powering the businesses that are the backbone of the global economy, Lightspeed's one-stop commerce platform helps merchants innovate to simplify, scale, and provide exceptional customer experiences. Our cloud commerce solution transforms and unifies online and physical operations, multichannel sales, expansion to new locations, global payments, financial solutions, and connection to supplier networks.

Founded in Montréal, Canada in 2005, Lightspeed is dual-listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: LSPD) and Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: LSPD). With teams across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, the company serves retail, hospitality, and golf businesses in over 100 countries.

Lightspeed handles your information in accordance with our Applicant Privacy Statement.

About the role

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end product strategy, roadmap and outcomes for the Data Tasks platform.
• Translate data buyer requirements into scalable collection, annotation and quality-control workflows.
• Design the full product journey across both sides of the platform: enterprise buyers and task contributors.
• Build capabilities for task creation and distribution, contributor onboarding, payouts, data submission, validation, labelling and dataset delivery.
• Define the right balance between building internal capabilities, using external platforms and working with specialised partners.
• Establish product metrics across demand, supply, data quality, unit economics and contributor experience.
• Run discovery and experiments to improve acquisition, activation, task completion, retention and payout experience.
• Work closely with Commercial, Engineering, Data, Operations, Legal, Privacy, Information Security and market teams.
• Ensure the platform can support multiple data types, including audio, text, images, video and multimodal data, across different countries and use cases.

Qualifications

• Significant product management experience, including ownership of complex products at Staff, Principal or equivalent level.
• Proven experience building and scaling a new product or platform from an early stage.
• Strong systems thinking and the ability to design end-to-end products involving multiple users, workflows and operational processes.
• Experience with B2B platforms, marketplaces, crowdsourcing, data products, AI/ML infrastructure or workflow products.
• Strong commercial judgement and the ability to connect customer needs, product decisions and unit economics.
• Ability to work with enterprise customers and translate technical or specialised requirements into scalable product solutions.
• Strong analytical skills and experience defining metrics, running experiments and making decisions under uncertainty.
• Ability to operate independently, bring clarity to ambiguity and influence senior stakeholders without relying on formal authority
• Fluent English and clear written and verbal communication skills.

• Experience with AI training data, data collection, annotation, model evaluation or quality-assurance systems.
• Experience building two-sided marketplaces or products involving distributed contributor networks.
• Experience launching products across emerging markets and adapting them to local payment, legal and operational constraints.

Benefits

• Help us challenge injustice by creating fair choices for millions of people across 47 countries.
• Develop your professional skills with access to mentoring, career consulting, and learning programs.
• Collaborate with teams around the world and gain international experience through our Global Talent Exchange Program.
• Engage in company-wide challenges, awards, sports activities, employee-led social impact and volunteering projects.
• Work alongside people who take initiative, speak openly, and challenge themselves to grow.
• Improve your language skills through co-financed courses and internal speaking clubs.
• Annual salary from 90 700 EUR gross.