Principal, Technical Program Management (Research & Development)

See yourself at Twilio

Join the team as Twilio’s next Principal, Technical Program Management within Research & Development (R&D). 

About the job

Twilio is the world’s leading customer engagement platform empowering developers to build modern communication applications and experiences designed to be trusted, simple and smart. Twilio is looking for a Principal, Technical Program Management to help direct a portfolio of strategic, complex, and multidisciplinary programs that significantly accelerate R&D's business impact. You'll set program strategy and lead program teams to successfully deliver business, operational, and technical improvements across Engineering & Product organizations. 

As a trusted strategic advisor, you will play a critical role in driving alignment, setting priorities, and delivering high-impact programs that advance strategic initiatives. The Principal, Technical Program Management in R&D is highly visible and requires a strong balance of strategic insight, execution excellence, and cross-functional leadership. You will navigate seamlessly between big-picture planning and hands-on delivery to ensure key initiatives move forward in a dynamic, scaled agile environment. You'll also be expected to adapt your program portfolio proactively in response to evolving business needs and organizational complexity. Your expertise in your domain areas is regarded as expert level and authoritative, both within R&D and across the company.

Responsibilities

In this role, you’ll:

• Lead high-impact, cross-org technical programs: Direct the execution of programs spanning multiple products and platforms characterized by significant technical complexity and executive visibility. You are the primary driver for aligning engineering teams toward a unified delivery goal.
• Define and drive the execution strategy: Establish the sequencing, governance models, and integration approaches for large-scale initiatives. You move beyond a project plan to define the launch readiness criteria and operational success metrics that ensure a high-quality release.
• Align cross-org delivery and dependencies: Manage the execution roadmap across Product and Engineering teams. You proactively surface technical tradeoffs, resourcing gaps, and critical decision points, providing data-backed recommendations to leadership.
• Partner on technical approach and risk: Collaborate deeply with senior engineers and architects to validate integration patterns and operational risks. You ensure that execution plans reflect real-world system constraints, failure modes, and security requirements.
• Establish ownership and accountability: Implement clear ownership models (such as RACI or DRI) across organizations. You navigate conflicting priorities between teams to maintain momentum and ensure clear lines of responsibility.
• Anticipate platform-wide impacts: Ensure that critical non-functional requirements—such as observability, supportability, billing implications, and GTM readiness—are integrated into the program lifecycle a