Program Manager

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Why Bixal?

Bixal is a consulting company headquartered in Fairfax, VA, working alongside governments and organizations to help them deliver better services and experiences to the communities they serve. Using evidence-based knowledge and technology, Bixal empowers clients to deliver on their missions more effectively by fostering a culture of learning and continuous improvement.

Our values:

• People-First: Emphasizing the importance of people in all aspects of work.

• Collaboration and Transparency: Valuing teamwork and open communication.

• Growth Mindset: Encouraging innovation and continuous improvement.

• Creating Lasting Impact: Focusing on meaningful outcomes and positive change.

About the role:

We are seeking an experienced Program Manager to lead delivery of data.CMS.gov, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) open data platform, which hosts more than 170 data products used by researchers, policymakers, providers, and the public. As the primary strategic and delivery lead, you will own the product roadmap, run a cross-functional agile team of 15 to 25 people, and serve as the main partner to the CMS Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics (OEDA) and data owners across eight CMS components. You will guide the platform's next phase positioning data.CMS.gov as the single destination for CMS public data. This role suits a leader with deep CMS and open data experience who can turn stakeholder priorities into measurable results.

This is afull-time position contingent on contract award with a defined performance period of a nine month base period and four option years .

You’ll have the opportunity to join a project that directly supports Bixal’s mission of improving how government serves people. While the project has a defined timeline, we believe in open communication and proactive career support. You’ll be kept informed of contract status - and we’ll be here to help you grow into what’s next, whether within this project or beyond it.

Location:

This role can work remotely from anywhere in the USA with occasional travel to CMS headquarters in Baltimore, MD. You must be legally authorized to work in the US. Bixal does not provide visa sponsorship.

Compensation:

The salary range for this role is $120,000 - $130,000. In the spirit of transparency, most offers tend to land near the midpoint of the range. We make compensation decisions thoughtfully, considering your experience, the skills you bring, and our commitment to internal equity. Fairness and transparency are core to how we operate.

Responsibilities:

• Lead and manage a cross-functional delivery team, and scale staffing as optional tasks and surge support are authorized.

• Own the product strategy and rolling roadmap, prioritize the backlog by desirability, feasibility, and viability, and update the roadmap at the start of each Program Increment (PI).

• Lead the agile cadence: two-week sprints, three-sprint PIs, planning, demos, retrospectives, and the Scrum of Scrums.

• Oversee all task order management, including project and sprint planning, financial tracking, and estimate at completion.

• Produce the Monthly Status Report covering accomplishments, risks, QASP performance, financials, velocity and staffing. Produce the Project Status Dashboard to provide visibility into progress, defects and risks at all times, drawing on live Jira and Confluence data.

• Develop and maintain the QASP, and report performance against its metrics and the SOO key results.

• Identify risks, blockers, and dependencies early and bring them to CMS with a proposed path forward.

• Serve as the primary point of contact for CMS, including the COR and CO and Product Owners.

• Coordinate with the Office of Communications and over eight CMS data-owning components, and onboard new data owners as needed.

• Plan and deliver at least 10 new data product releases per contract year.

• Oversee help desk operations, user communications, outreach, and presentations for CMS leadership.

• Apply open data standards and strengthen data and content governance through standard guides and editorial workflows.

• Coordinate with other CMS contractors in cross-contractor forums as directed by the COR.

• Lead transition-in activities to ensure a continuity of services, reaching full operational capability within six months, and deliver the Transition-Out Plan 90 days before the end of performance.

• Other relevant duties as assigned and qualified/trained to perform.

Qualifications:

• Master's degree in management, public administration, IT, or a related field.

• Minimum 10 years of relevant program or project management experience.

• Minimum 4 years on open data projects, with demonstrated expertise in DCAT-US 3.0 [RF1] .

• Minimum 4 years working directly with CMS programs or data.

• Experience managing cross-functional teams, with the ability to lead 15-25 people.

• Deep knowledge of Agile product management principles, including sprint planning, backlog management and release planning.

• Familiarity with Jira, Confluence, Slack, and GitHub.

• Ability to oversee all aspects of task order management, including reporting, sprint planning, and project planning.

• Experience facilitating stakeholder engagement across multiple CMS components and data owners.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including briefing government leadership.

• This position requires the ability to obtain and maintain a favorable Public Trust determination in support of a federal government contract.

Nice to have:

• PMP, SAFe, Certified ScrumMaster, or equivalent agile certification.

• Experience with Drupal-based public websites or large public data platforms.

• Familiarity with CMS security and ATO processes, Section 508, and WCAG 2.1 AA.

• Experience with hosting migrations or website consolidation projects.

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How We Support Our Team:

• Flex hours

• 401K with matching incentive

• Parental Leave

• Medical/dental/vision benefits

• Flex Spending Account

• Company provided short-term disability and life insurance

• Commuter benefits

• Paid Time Off (PTO)

• 11 Paid holidays

Our company is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all individuals and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local anti-discrimination laws. Employment decisions are based on merit, qualifications, and business needs.