🎯 What "Executive-Level" Actually Means in Delivery

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Featured Job Listings

🏆 Top Picks of the Week (Hand-Picked, High-Impact Roles)

🔹 Sr. Director, Program Management
Company: IDG (International Data Group)
Location: Remote (USA)
Apply: Apply here

IDG is a global leader in tech media, data, and marketing services. This Sr. Director role leads enterprise-wide initiatives across brands like Computerworld, CIO, and TechHive. You’ll steer complex programs that transform how organizations access and use technology insight. Ideal for a senior program leader fluent in media and digital transformation.

🔹 Vice President, Program Management
Company: Revolution Medicines
Location: Remote (USA)
Apply: Apply here

Revolution Medicines is a clinical-stage precision oncology company that’s redefining the future of RAS-addicted cancers. This VP will lead program management for a dynamic pipeline, guiding cross-functional teams and ensuring strategic execution across research and development efforts. Ideal for a delivery executive who thrives in science-driven, high-growth environments.

🔹 Vice President, Global Program Management
Company: Genpact
Location: Remote (USA)
Apply: Apply here

Genpact is a global professional services firm driving digital transformation. The VP of Global Program Management leads enterprise-wide transformation programs for Fortune 500 clients, overseeing complex, multi-region implementations across finance, supply chain, and technology. Ideal for a delivery exec with global program chops.

🔹 VP, Client Delivery
Company: Ensemble Health Partners
Location: Remote (Nationwide)
Apply: Apply here

Ensemble Health Partners delivers RCM services for hospitals and health systems. This VP role manages strategic client delivery and operational performance across multiple accounts. If you know revenue cycle, client success, and leading large-scale delivery teams, this is a high-impact role at a fast-growing health tech firm.

C🔹 Sr. Director of Change Management
Company: 3M Health Care
Location: Maplewood, MN (Hybrid/Remote options)
Apply: Apply here

This senior role at 3M Health Care will lead global change initiatives, supporting a multi-year transformation post-spinout. Candidates should bring enterprise-scale change leadership experience, ideally within healthcare or regulated industries. The company is undergoing major strategic pivots—this role is central to that journey.

🔹 Vice President, Program Implementation
Company: Sandy Hook Promise
Location: Remote (USA)
Apply: Apply here

Sandy Hook Promise is a national nonprofit focused on preventing gun violence through education and advocacy. As VP, you’ll oversee all program implementation across schools and community partners, scaling evidence-based interventions. Ideal for mission-driven delivery leaders with experience in education, public health, or nonprofit ops.

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Bots Take the Wheel

Auto-Escalate Blockers Before They Become Fires

The Problem: By the time a critical blocker hits your radar, it's already burned 3 days of engineering time and missed a milestone.

The Fix: Automate blocker detection and escalation so nothing falls through the cracks.

Real Use Cases:

1. Jira Automation: Auto-Escalate Stale Tickets

   • Logic: If a ticket is in "In Progress" for >5 days with no comments, automatically transition it to "Blocked" and tag the team lead + program manager

   • How: Jira Automation → Scheduled trigger → Check last updated date → Transition status + Add watchers + Send Slack notification

   • Impact: Reduces time-to-resolution for blockers by 40% (per Atlassian's 2024 State of Teams report)

2. Slack + Asana: Daily Blocker Digest

   • Logic: Every morning at 9 AM, scan all active Asana tasks tagged "Blocked" and post a threaded summary to #delivery-status with owners tagged

   • How: Zapier → Schedule by Zapier (daily 9 AM) → Asana "Search Tasks" (filter: status = blocked) → Format message → Post to Slack channel

   • Impact: Forces real-time visibility and accountability. Teams using this see 25% faster blocker resolution (Asana case study, 2024)

3. ServiceNow: Auto-Create Incident Tickets for High-Risk Delays

   • Logic: If a project task is overdue by 3+ days and flagged as "High Priority," auto-generate a ServiceNow incident and assign to the escalation team

   • How: ServiceNow Flow Designer → Scheduled script execution → Query task table (due date < today - 3 days, priority = high) → Create incident record → Notify stakeholders

   • Impact: Prevents silent failures. Organizations using this report 30% fewer missed SLA violations (ServiceNow Now Platform data, 2024)

TL;DR: Stop playing whack-a-mole with blockers. Let bots surface them early so you can spend your energy solving problems, not hunting for them.

Visionary Voices 

📝 Jackie Bavaro, Former Head of Product at Asana

Jackie Bavaro didn't just build products—she built the playbook for how modern product teams operate. As the former Head of Product at Asana, she led the charge in transforming how organizations think about work management, shipping features that directly influenced how 150,000+ companies collaborate daily.

But here's what makes Jackie different: She's obsessed with the invisible infrastructure of product delivery. Not just what ships, but how teams decide what to ship, how they prioritize ruthlessly, and how they build cultures where the best ideas win—regardless of who's in the room.

Before Asana, Jackie spent years at Google and Microsoft, where she honed her ability to scale products from 0 to millions of users. She's the kind of leader who can zoom from 30,000-foot strategy to granular execution details without missing a beat. Her superpower? Making complexity simple.

On Decision-Making:
"The best PMs don't just ship features—they change how teams think about their work. You're not building a product. You're building the scaffolding for how people make decisions every day." (Source: Lenny's Podcast, Episode 94)

On Career Growth:
In her co-authored book Cracking the PM Interview, Jackie breaks down what separates good product managers from great ones. Spoiler: It's not about having all the answers. It's about asking better questions and building frameworks that scale beyond you.

She's particularly vocal about the career transitions that nobody talks about—the messy middle between being a high-performing IC and stepping into leadership. Her advice? Stop optimizing for being right. Start optimizing for making your team better at being right.

On Building Product Operations:
Jackie was one of the early evangelists for Product Operations as a distinct discipline. At Asana, she championed the idea that great products aren't just about great product managers—they're about building systems that let PMs focus on the right problems. Under her leadership, Asana formalized product ops frameworks that companies like Stripe, Slack, and Notion have since adopted.

What You Can Learn From Her:

1. Frameworks over firefighting – Jackie is known for building repeatable systems that let teams move faster with less chaos

2. Influence without authority – She's a masterclass in getting buy-in across engineering, design, and exec teams

3. Hiring for potential – Her interview frameworks focus on problem-solving ability, not resume pedigree

Where to Learn More:

• Cracking the PM Interview (Book) – Co-authored with Gayle Laakmann McDowell, this is the PM bible

• Jackie's LinkedIn – She shares thoughtful takes on product leadership and career growth

Why She Matters to Delivery Professionals:
If you're a TPM, Implementation Manager, or Product Ops lead, Jackie's work is directly relevant to you. She's proven that delivery excellence isn't just about executing faster—it's about building the operating system that makes great execution inevitable.

Her frameworks for cross-functional collaboration, prioritization, and operational rigor are gold for anyone trying to move from "getting things done" to "building systems that get things done."

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Professional Development

📚 Decoding "Executive-Level" Performance

What Most People Think Executive-Level Means:

• Bigger scope

• More direct reports

• Fancier titles

• Strategic (whatever that means)

What It Actually Means: You stop being evaluated on what you deliver and start being evaluated on how you shape what the organization delivers.

Let me break that down.

1. Executive-Level Means Enterprise Impact, Not Project Impact

ICs and managers are measured by project outcomes: "Did we ship on time? Did the product work?"

Executives are measured by enterprise outcomes: "Did this move revenue? Did it strengthen our competitive position? Did it unlock the next phase of growth?"

Example: A TPM ships a new payment integration on time. Great. An executive asks: "How does this accelerate our path to $100M ARR?" If you can't answer that, you're not thinking at the right altitude.

Data Point: According to McKinsey's 2024 research on executive effectiveness, 68% of newly promoted VPs fail within the first 18 months because they continue optimizing for execution instead of enterprise value creation.

2. You're Judged on Judgment, Not Just Execution

At the executive level, there's no playbook. You're making calls with incomplete data, competing priorities, and high stakes.

Leadership wants to see:

• Can you make the right tradeoff when there's no clear answer?

• Can you see around corners?

• Can you simplify complexity for others?

Example: Your eng team wants to rebuild the platform. Sales wants 10 new features. Finance wants cost cuts. An executive doesn't just "align stakeholders"—they make a call, communicate the logic, and own the outcome.

3. Executive Presence ≠ Confidence

Let's kill this myth: Executive presence is not about being the loudest voice in the room.

It's about:

• Clarity: Can you distill a 40-slide deck into 3 key points?

• Credibility: Do people trust your judgment because you've earned it?

• Calm: Can you stay steady when everything's on fire?

Real Talk: If you're still rehearsing your exec updates 10 times, you're not ready. Execs trust their thinking enough to speak off-the-cuff because they've internalized the business model, the strategy, and the tradeoffs.

4. You Build Systems, Not Just Deliver Projects

ICs execute. Managers scale execution. Executives build the machine that executes without them.

Ask yourself:

• If you left tomorrow, would your org collapse?

• Have you documented your decision-making frameworks?

• Are you creating repeatable processes or heroically firefighting?

Data Point: According to Harvard Business Review's 2023 study on leadership transitions, executives who systematize early have 3x higher team retention and 2x faster time-to-impact.

5. Self-Assessment: Where Do You Stand?

Rate yourself honestly (1 = Never, 5 = Always):

• I can explain how my work connects to company revenue/growth in 2 sentences or less

• I make decisions with 70% of the information I'd like to have

• I spend more time coaching others than doing the work myself

• When I present to leadership, I lead with the business outcome, not the project plan

• I proactively kill projects that no longer serve the strategy

• My team can make good decisions without me in the room

• I say "no" more than I say "yes"

Scoring:

• 30-35: You're thinking like an executive. Keep going.

• 20-29: You're in the messy middle. Time to shift your focus.

• Below 20: You're still optimizing for delivery. That's okay—but know that's the gap.

6. The Invisible Bar

Here's the hardest part: No one will tell you exactly when you've crossed the threshold.

You'll know you're there when:

• Leaders ask for your input before decisions are made, not after

• You're invited to strategy sessions, not just status meetings

• People reference your thinking in rooms you're not in

TL;DR: Executive-level isn't about doing delivery at a bigger scale. It's about understanding the business deeply enough that your delivery work becomes a strategic lever. If you're still thinking in terms of "my projects," you're not there yet. Start thinking in terms of "enterprise outcomes I influenced."

How I can Help

Wanna chat IRL? Connect with me on LinkedIn and we can set up some time.

The Delivery Career Decoder shows why you’re already qualified for more—and how to prove it.

I love feedback. If you have topics you want to see? Or thoughts or ideas on how to serve the community better, please hit reply or email [email protected].

Until next time,

The Business of Delivery

Quiet moves. Bold Careers.