The Team:
You will join the Global Technical Program Management Team In Celonis Engineering. We are a team of former engineers, product leaders, and startup founders who sit at the intersection of Product, Engineering, and Design with the mission to drive complex cross-functional programs. 

We are looking for a Staff Technical Program Manager to join us as the founding member of our Technical Program Management function in India. This is a rare "0 to 1" opportunity and as the first TPM in our rapidly expanding India Engineering hub, you will not just run programs, you will architect the operating system for how engineering is operating.

You will act as the strategic bridge between our India-based innovators and our global teams based in Munich, Madrid, New York, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area. We value radical clarity, technical depth, and the ability to bring calm to chaos. As the anchor for the India region, you aren't stepping into someone else's shoes; you are here to design them.

The Role:

As a Staff TPM, you operate at the intersection of strategy and execution. You will partner directly with Engineering Directors and Senior Product Leaders to drive mission-critical initiatives that span Infrastructure, Data, and Core Platform services.

The work you’ll do:

• Strategic Program Management: Lead high-impact Process Intelligence programs (Data Integration, Task Mining, GenAI). You will drive full-stack initiatives and influence roadmaps to deliver core product capabilities.
• Architect the Foundation: Define the "operating system" for the India hub. You will implement scalable frameworks for Quarterly Planning and roadmap operations, turning ad-hoc execution into predictable engines.
• Global Strategic Bridge: Act as the connective tissue between India Engineering and Global Leadership. You will align cross-domain strategies (Infra, Data, Apps) and translate high-level business goals into concrete execution plans.
• Technical Authority: Drive technical rigor by contributing to Engineering, Product and Design by establishing technical programs. You will challenge architectural assumptions and manage trade-offs to ensure reliability and scale in distributed systems.
• Risk Management: Tame ambiguity by identifying "unknown unknowns" early. You will design mitigation strategies for complex, undefined problem spaces before they become blockers.
• Mentorship & Velocity: Raise the bar for engineering excellence. You will mentor leads, coach new TPMs, and relentlessly automate process friction to accelerate delivery.

The qualifications you need:

• 10+ years of experience in Technical Program Management, Engineering Management, or Senior Software Engineering (ideally 7+ years in cloud-based software companies).
• "First on the Ground" DNA: You have experience of working in environments where the path isn't clear. You are comfortable creating structure out of ambiguity.
• Technical Fluency: You have a background in software development or systems architecture. You can confidently discuss API contracts, microservices, and database scaling with Staff Engineers and contribute to technical design discussions.
• Global Operator: You have managed complex programs across multiple time zones and geographies. You know how to build influence without being in the same room and can synthesize complex status updates for Executive Leadership.
• Strategic Problem Solving: You can take a vague, ambiguous problem statement ("We need to migrate X") and break it down into a clear, execution-ready roadmap with milestones and owners.