Agile Program Manager

Toptal, a premier global network connecting top-tier freelance talent with businesses, is currently seeking an experienced Agile Program Manager to join their fully remote team. This is a strategic and highly operational role designed for an individual who excels at managing complexity across multiple cross-functional workstreams. Instead of simply reporting on status, the successful candidate will actively own the delivery lifecycle, ensuring that roadmap goals are achieved through predictable and coordinated execution.

About the role

As an Agile Program Manager, you will serve as the bridge between high-level business strategy and the daily technical execution of the development teams. You will be expected to guide three or more Agile teams—whether they utilize Scrum, Kanban, or hybrid methodologies—to meet shared quarterly objectives. This role requires a hands-on approach where you are responsible for maintaining the cadence of work, managing risks, and ensuring that internal stakeholders have a clear, honest view of the program’s health at all times.

Your primary focus will be on driving clarity within ambiguous environments, establishing structures where none exist, and fostering an atmosphere of accountability across various departments, including engineering, product, and design.

The core of this position involves facilitating complex workflows and ensuring the seamless delivery of digital products. Key responsibilities include:

• **Program Planning:** Orchestrating quarterly and Program Increment (PI) planning sessions, managing capacity, and overseeing release cycles.
• **Dependency Management:** Proactively identifying and mapping dependencies between teams to remove blockers and escalate issues before they impact the delivery timeline.
• **Facilitation:** Running essential program-level ceremonies, such as Scrum of Scrums and system demos, ensuring that these meetings result in actionable decisions rather than just status updates.
• **Stakeholder Alignment:** Communicating delivery health, velocity trends, and objective progress to both technical teams and executive leadership.
• **Backlog & Strategy:** Partnering closely with Product Managers and Owners to ensure that the work being performed remains aligned with core business value.
• **Continuous Improvement:** Coaching teams and leaders on Agile principles and refining existing workflows to improve delivery efficiency.

What they're looking for

To succeed in this role, you must be a seasoned professional with a deep understanding of scaling frameworks and project management life cycles.

• **Experience:** A minimum of 8 years in project or program management, with at least 5 of those years specifically dedicated to leading Agile delivery in a multi-team environment.
• **Agile Expertise:** Practical experience with scaling frameworks like SAFe, LeSS, or Scrum@Scale is essential. You must be comfortable working with industry-standard tooling like Jira (including Jira Align), Azure DevOps, or similar platforms.
• **Communication:** Exceptional written and verbal English skills, with the capability to translate complex technical blockers for an executive audience.
• **Remote Proficiency:** Proven ability to thrive in a distributed, international team environment where cross-timezone collaboration is the norm.
• **Strategic Mindset:** Experience in SaaS, data, or digital product delivery is highly valued, particularly if you have navigated the complexities of regulated industries.

For South African professionals, a role of this calibre with a global organisation like Toptal represents an opportunity to earn in foreign currency while operating from a local home office. Roles requiring this level of strategic oversight and scaled Agile expertise typically command competitive remuneration packages in the local market, often attracting those who have progressed from Senior Scrum Master or Delivery Manager positions. Success in this path often leads to roles in Portfolio Management, Agile Coaching, or Head of Delivery positions within the growing South African tech sector.

• 8+ years of experience in program or project management, with at least 5 years leading delivery in Agile environments.
• Proven track record managing multi-team programs (not just single-team Scrum) from planning through release.
• Deep, practical knowledge of Scrum and Kanban, plus experience with at least one scaling framework (SAFe, LeSS, Scrum@Scale, or similar).
• Strong command of Agile tooling such as Jira, Jira Align, Azure DevOps, Rally, or equivalent, including building dashboards and program-level reporting.
• Excellent facilitation skills: you can run a 50-person planning event as comfortably as a tense 1:1 escalation.
• Clear, concise written and verbal communication in English, with the ability to tailor the message for engineers and executives alike.
• Experience working with distributed or remote teams across time zones.
• Comfort operating with ambiguity: you can stand up structure where there is none and adapt it as the program evolves.
• Nice to Have: Agile or program management certifications such as SAFe RTE, SAFe SPC, PMI-ACP, PgMP, PMP, CSM/CSP, or ICAgile.
• Experience with Agile transformations or introducing scaled frameworks into an organization.
• Background in software, SaaS, data, or digital product delivery.
• Familiarity with OKRs and value-stream or portfolio management.
• Experience in regulated industries (financial services, healthcare, insurance, public sector) where Agile delivery coexists with compliance requirements.
• Budget and vendor management experience on programs with multiple delivery partners.