Senior Principal of Technical Program Management (Research & Development)

Role overview

Join Twilio as a Senior Principal Technical Program Manager (Research & Development). You will lead a portfolio of strategic, complex, cross-disciplinary technical programs that accelerate R&D’s business impact, set program strategy, drive executive alignment, and deliver high-impact outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Define program strategy and roadmap for multi-year, cross-organizational technical programs that shape the future of Twilio’s platforms.
• Architect end-to-end execution frameworks, including:
  • global sequencing logic
  • multi-tier governance
  • architectural integration patterns
  • enterprise-grade operational success metrics
• Build the organizational “operating system” for high-stakes programs:
  • establish standards for cross-functional collaboration
  • ensure clear ownership across siloed domains
• Drive execution for programs involving hundreds of engineers, anticipating integration risks and failure modes.
• Influence technical direction at senior levels and steer programs through complex technical pivots.

Requirements

• 12+ years leading massive-scale technical programs in distributed systems / software engineering within high-growth environments.
• Demonstrated ability to master ambiguity and create effective execution structures amid shifting specifications, technologies, and market demands.
• Executive influence: translate highly technical challenges into strategic business narratives and build consensus among senior executives.
• Architectural fluency in:
  • cloud-scale infrastructure
  • API-first design
  • distributed systems
• Operational rigor: build and scale operational readiness frameworks with self-service tools and metrics/OKRs/KPIs across large R&D organizations.
• Experience leading “company-bet” transformations, e.g. major cloud migrations or foundational platform re-architectures.
• Domain expertise in global-scale communications (Telephony, SMS, CPaaS) and/or high-throughput distributed platforms.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering (or equivalent practical experience).

Nice to haves

• Master’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering or related field.
• 5+ years technical program management experience at hyperscalers or Fortune 100 cloud/infrastructure software companies.