Senior Program Manager - VA Digital Modernization & AI Program

Overview

LMI is seeking a Senior Program Manager to serve as the highly embedded, day-to-day program leader for a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) digital modernization and artificial intelligence program. This full-time role is the visible prime point of accountability for integrated execution, customer coordination, staffing, subcontractor performance, risk, schedule, quality, financial health, and partner integration.

The Senior Program Manager will lead and coach an approximately 20+ person LMI team plus an integrated subcontractor team spanning program management, human-centered design, data and analytics, clinical informatics, architecture, engineering, governance, quality assurance, change, and adoption. The program operates through an integrated delivery model that connects use-case discovery and prioritization, solution design, piloting, implementation, measurement, and continuous improvement across multiple concurrent workstreams. The Senior Program Manager will ensure these disciplines operate as one coordinated team, with clear priorities, defined accountability, strong cross-functional collaboration, and consistent focus on mission outcomes.

This role also carries an important account-growth responsibility. The Senior Program Manager is expected to build trusted VA relationships, understand evolving mission priorities, identify adjacent needs, connect those needs to LMI capabilities, and partner with market and account leadership to cultivate organic growth. The ideal candidate combines federal program management rigor with strong client presence, business acumen, subcontractor leadership, an appetite for business development, and enough technical fluency to coordinate AI, data, HCD, clinical, security, engineering, and adoption teams. Prior VA experience is highly desired.

LMI is a new breed of digital solutions provider dedicated to accelerating government impact with innovation and speed. Investing in technology and prototypes ahead of need, LMI brings commercial-grade platforms and mission-ready AI to federal agencies at commercial speed.

Leveraging our mission-ready technology and solutions, proven expertise in federal deployment, and strategic relationships, we enhance outcomes for the government, efficiently and effectively. With a focus on agility and collaboration, LMI serves the defense, space, homeland, healthcare, and intelligence sectors-helping agencies navigate complexity and outpace change. Headquartered in Tysons, Virginia, LMI is committed to delivering impactful results that strengthen missions and drive lasting value.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the day-to-day leader for a complex federal program, providing integrated leadership across client delivery, people, partners, financial performance, risk, quality, and strategic priorities.
• Lead, coach, and develop an approximately 20+ person multidisciplinary LMI team and integrated subcontractor team, creating clear accountability while building leadership capability throughout the organization.
• Establish clear expectations for performance, delivery, collaboration, and professional growth; provide regular coaching and feedback and address performance or behavioral concerns directly when needed.
• Maintain visibility across multiple concurrent projects and workstreams, ensuring priorities, resources, schedules, dependencies, risks, and outcomes remain aligned with customer and program objectives.
• Own program operating rhythms, integrated planning, performance reporting, action and decision tracking, escalation paths, and executive-level visibility into program health.
• Manage program financial health, staffing, forecasting, utilization, and resource planning to support a portfolio of $10M or more in annualized value while maintaining strong delivery performance.
• Lead subcontractor and partner integration, including performance management, resource coordination, issue resolution, accountability, and alignment with overall program objectives.
• Build and sustain trusted relationships with VA executives, program leaders, technical stakeholders, and mission partners; understand emerging priorities and translate them into actionable delivery and growth strategies.
• Serve as a strategic advisor to the customer by connecting mission needs with relevant capabilities, identifying opportunities to improve outcomes, and bringing forward informed recommendations rather than simply responding to stated requirements.
• Contribute to the overall growth and operational strategy for the submarket under the guidance of senior leadership, helping shape priorities, investment decisions, capability positioning, staffing strategies, and approaches for expanding LMI's presence in the market.
• Proactively identify and cultivate opportunities for organic growth and adjacent-market expansion, with an emphasis on supporting objectives such as increasing direct labor by approximately 10%, expanding into adjacent submarkets, and increasing the use of program past performance to support future opportunities.
• Leverage strong client relationships and knowledge of the mission environment to identify emerging needs, shape potential solutions, and position LMI to provide additional value before opportunities become formal procurements.
• Partner with LMI market, growth, capture, and service-line leadership on account strategy, opportunity identification, solution development, capture activities, proposals, and client presentations.
• Attend relevant industry conferences, professional forums, VA/federal events, and networking activities to strengthen LMI's visibility, develop relationships across the submarket, understand emerging customer and industry priorities, and build a network of contacts that can support future growth.
• Develop relationships with industry partners, technology providers, subject-matter experts, and other organizations that may strengthen LMI's ability to pursue and deliver future opportunities.
• Connect customer challenges with capabilities across LMI, bringing together technical, analytical, operational, and domain expertise to develop integrated solutions and expand the broader account.
• Anticipate and resolve delivery, staffing, customer, partner, financial, and operational risks before they affect program performance, escalating strategically when senior leadership engagement is needed.
• Develop and deliver executive briefings, program reviews, performance assessments, recommendations, and decision materials for VA and LMI leadership.
• Ensure program activities and deliverables comply with contractual requirements and applicable federal, VA, security, privacy, accessibility, quality, and LMI standards.
• Continuously improve program operations, delivery processes, team effectiveness, and customer outcomes while creating sufficient delegation and leadership depth so the Senior Program Manager is driving the program rather than becoming the program's operational bottleneck.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business, management, public administration, information systems, engineering, health administration, or a related field; advanced degree preferred.
• 12+ years of progressive experience leading complex federal programs, portfolios, or technology-enabled transformation efforts, with demonstrated responsibility for client delivery, staffing, financial performance, risk, schedule, quality, and organizational outcomes.
• Demonstrated experience leading and developing multidisciplinary teams of approximately 20 or more employees, including senior staff, technical specialists, project leaders, and subcontractor or partner personnel.
• Proven ability to serve as a senior client-facing leader and trusted advisor, building durable relationships with executive stakeholders, understanding evolving mission priorities, and translating those priorities into actionable delivery and growth strategies.
• Significant experience supporting federal health, technology, digital modernization, data, or transformation programs, with the ability to operate effectively across business, clinical, operational, and technical stakeholder communities.
• Demonstrated experience managing a large, complex portfolio with $10M or more in annualized value, including forecasting, staffing, utilization, financial performance, resource allocation, and executive-level program reporting.
• Strong people-leadership experience, including setting clear expectations, coaching and developing employees, building future leaders, recognizing strong performance, and addressing performance or behavioral issues directly when necessary.
• Demonstrated success leading in a matrixed, multi-partner environment, including subcontractor management, partner coordination, cross-functional delivery, issue resolution, and accountability for integrated outcomes.
• Strong executive communication and facilitation skills, including the ability to lead senior-level discussions, influence decisions, navigate difficult conversations, present recommendations, and communicate complex issues clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Demonstrated business acumen and experience identifying opportunities to improve program performance, expand client value, and strengthen long-term account positioning.
• Experience contributing to organic growth, capture, account strategy, pipeline development, or solution shaping, including identifying emerging customer needs and connecting those needs to organizational capabilities.
• Ability to operate with significant independence, bring structure to ambiguity, make sound decisions with incomplete information, and balance immediate delivery requirements with longer-term strategic priorities.
• Working knowledge of digital modernization, data and analytics, artificial intelligence, human-centered design, Agile delivery, cloud or low-code technologies, or related emerging technology environments sufficient to lead integrated technical and mission teams.
• Ability to satisfy VA personnel vetting and background investigation requirements applicable to assigned duties and work effectively within VA-approved remote, security, privacy, records, and data-handling environments.

Desired Qualifications:

• Direct Department of Veterans Affairs experience, particularly supporting VHA, VA OIT, Veterans Experience Office, Digital Health, or other VA enterprise organizations. Candidates with established knowledge of VA stakeholders, governance, mission priorities, and organizational dynamics will be especially well positioned for success.
• Demonstrated experience serving as a Program Director, Senior Program Manager, Portfolio Lead, Account Lead, or comparable leader on major VA or federal health programs.
• Experience leading enterprise modernization initiatives that integrate technology, business processes, clinical or operational workflows, customer experience, and organizational change.
• Experience advising senior federal executives on modernization strategy, operational challenges, investment priorities, emerging technologies, or future capability development.
• Demonstrated success in business development and account growth, including shaping multimillion-dollar opportunities, developing win strategies, supporting capture and proposals, cultivating executive relationships, and expanding work within existing clients.
• Experience building and leveraging relationships with industry partners, technology providers, and strategic partners to strengthen delivery capabilities, expand market access, and support future opportunities.
• Experience representing an organization at industry conferences, federal forums, professional associations, and networking events, with an ability to build and maintain a meaningful network across the VA and federal health submarket.
• Experience with AI-enabled solutions, digital health, enterprise data and analytics, customer experience, contact-center modernization, workflow transformation, or other technology-enabled mission modernization.
• Experience contributing to growth objectives such as increasing direct labor, expanding into adjacent market areas, developing reusable past performance, and positioning existing delivery success to support future pursuits.
• Master’s degree in business administration, public administration, healthcare administration, information systems, or a related discipline.
• PMP or PgMP certification strongly preferred. Additional relevant certifications may include SAFe Agilist or SAFe RTE, PMI-ACP, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), ITIL 4, Prosci Change Practitioner, Lean Six Sigma Green/Black Belt, or comparable program, Agile, technology, or change-management credentials.

Target salary range: $180,000-$240,000

Disclaimer: The salary range displayed represents the typical salary range for this position and is not a guarantee of compensation. Individual salaries are determined by various factors including, but not limited to location, internal equity, business considerations, client contract requirements, and candidate qualifications, such as education, experience, skills, and security clearances.

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