Sr. Staff, Technical Program Management

About Databricks

At Databricks, we are passionate about enabling data teams to solve the world's toughest problems, from making the next mode of transportation a reality to accelerating the development of medical breakthroughs. We do this by building and running the world's best data and AI infrastructure platform so our customers can use deep data insights to improve their business. Founded by engineers, and customer obsessed, we leap at every opportunity to solve technical challenges, from designing next-gen UI/UX for interfacing with data to scaling our services and infrastructure across millions of virtual machines. And we're only getting started.

The Role

As the enterprise software landscape shifts from standard software-as-a-service to autonomous intelligence, Databricks is leading the charge by fundamentally transforming how an AI company runs itself. We are seeking a Sr. Staff Technical Program Manager (L7) to lead a high-impact internal incubator within our Corporate Engineering organization. Operating as a strategic, hands-on technical leader and a manager of a lean team of 3 to 4 TPMs , you will bridge the gap between internal infrastructure and cutting-edge product engineering. Your primary mission is to build Databricks' first-party agentic application platform designed to architect, deploy, and scale internal AI tools and autonomous digital agents. By driving this mission, you will eliminate corporate reliance on third-party vendors and vendor software, replacing legacy SaaS with native, highly scalable solutions built directly on top of the Databricks platform.

In this role, you will act as a premier thought leader redefining the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) through the lens of artificial intelligence. You will partner directly with our CIO, Corporate Engineering VPs, R&D Operations, and cross-functional product teams to establish the operational connective tissue necessary to move sophisticated tools from initial concept to full Go-To-Market (GTM) readiness. This is not an administrative management role; it is an elite technical execution seat where you will architect the systems that turbocharge internal operations and unlock entirely new capabilities for thousands of Databricks employees worldwide.

The Impact You’ll Have

• Drive the Agentic AI Mission: Lead the end-to-end strategy, execution, and deployment of an internal agentic platform, transitioning the enterprise from a legacy third-party RFP culture to a high-velocity, in-house building culture.
• Redefine the AI-Augmented SDLC: Serve as a thought leader to fundamentally re-engineer the software development lifecycle, working alongside PMs, TPMs, and SWEs to embed GenAI and intelligent automation into core operational workflows.
• Scale Massive Cross-Functional Initiatives: Orchestrate large-scale, highly complex programs across multiple business units, including sophisticated corporate security-hardening programs and enterprise-wide platform migrations.
• Deliver Measurable Operational Leverage: Own business and technical outcomes by establishing rigorous metrics, managing observability, and evaluating system ROI to continuously improve platform adoption, employee NPS, and organizational value.
• Empower and Manage an Elite Team: Provide high-impact technical mentorship and leadership to a team of 3–4 TPMs, scaling their technical execution and championing distributed systems excellence.

What We're Looking For

Minimum Qualifications

• 10+ years of technical program management experience leading highly complex, company-wide technical transformations within hyper-growth SaaS, cloud infrastructure, or Tier-1 technology environments.
• Proven people management experience overseeing lean teams of high-performing TPMs while remaining deeply technical and maintaining a "hands-on leader" archetype.
• Deep architectural and systems fluency, with a strong technical background and the ability to comfortably navigate complex engineering discussions involving distributed systems, large-scale data infrastructure, and environments like Scala.
• Demonstrated experience in structural change management, specifically driving a cultural shift from software procurement (RFPs) to native product building, engineering design, and fit-gap analysis.
• Exceptional executive presence and communication skills, with a track record of driving clarity out of extreme ambiguity and aligning VP- and C-level stakeholders on engineering trade-offs.
• Data-driven analytical mindset with an ability to leverage data analytics (SQL, Python, or data notebooks) to map system boundaries, quantify performance metrics, and establish program KPIs.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct experience deploying GenAI, Large Language Models (LLMs), or autonomous agent-based capabilities inside enterprise platforms or customer-facing production workflows.
• Deep familiarity with the Databricks ecosystem (Lakehouse architecture, Unity Catalog, Mosaic AI, Delta Lake) or equivalent large-scale data and AI platforms.
• Experience guiding products through a full incubation lifecycle, successfully transitioning internal IT enterprise tooling into highly reliable, commercialized software assets ready for market.