Program Manager, Strategic Initiatives - Missoula

About Us: Blackfoot Communications reliably connects business of all sizes across the nation using the latest telecommunication technology in voice, network, and managed services. With focus on strong connections, we also provide dedicated account management with a goal to get to know our clients so we can help advise on the best solution.

What We Offer: We offer opportunities in the telecommunications and technology sectors with positions in Western Montana and Eastern Idaho. Blackfoot is proud to offer a competitive salary and a fantastic benefits package that includes; comprehensive medical benefits plan, LTD, life insurance, an outstanding retirement pension plan plus a 401k plan that includes employer match, along with other employer paid benefits. We are proud to have received awards and recognition that highlight our strong company culture. These include "Employer of Choice" from the Missoula Job Service Employer's Council, "Top Tech Employer" from the Montana High Tech Business Alliance, and the "Heart Award" from the United Way of Missoula County in recognition of our ongoing community efforts.

Job Summary: This position is responsible for driving the execution of cross-functional strategic initiatives across the business, including network expansion and field deployments, customer migrations, systems implementations, and internal process improvements. The Program Manager, Strategic Initiatives owns the execution cadence, project controls, and transparent reporting required to move key initiatives forward on time and with quality.

Work includes building and maintaining delivery plans, coordinating stakeholders across departments, surfacing and resolving risks and dependencies, and ensuring leadership has timely, accurate status, decisions needed, and clear next steps. Success requires strong facilitation, disciplined follow-through, and the ability to influence outcomes across the organization.

Essential Job Duties and Responsibilities:

• Own and maintain the strategic initiatives portfolio: intake, scope definition, sequencing support, and alignment with executive sponsors and functional leaders.
• Translate initiatives into actionable delivery plans including milestones, workstreams, resourcing assumptions, dependencies, and acceptance criteria.
• Drive weekly execution cadence: facilitate delivery reviews, workstream check-ins, and action tracking; ensure next steps, owners, and due dates are explicit.
• Maintain disciplined project controls (schedule, RAID log, decision log, action items, and change control) to keep delivery predictable and auditable.
• Publish concise initiative reporting for leaders and stakeholders (progress, health, wins, risks, decisions needed, and upcoming milestones).
• Proactively identify and manage cross-department dependencies; coordinate sequencing and handoffs to prevent delays and rework.
• Escalate blockers and risks early with clear options, tradeoffs, and recommendations; drive timely decisions and follow-through.
• Coordinate cutovers, migrations, and high-impact changes, including communications planning, readiness checks, and go/no-go gates.
• Partner with operational owners to ensure effective handoff into steady-state operations (documentation, training, runbooks, support readiness, and ownership clarity).
• Lead post-implementation reviews and lessons learned; implement improvements to templates, cadence, and delivery standards.
• Standardize and continuously improve PMO practices, tooling, and reporting methods to increase organizational velocity and clarity.
• Support planning cycles by providing visibility into initiative load, capacity assumptions, and delivery risk.

Additional Job Duties and Responsibilities:

• Perform other duties and responsibilities as required to fulfill job function or as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

Knowledge of:

• Program/project management methodologies and delivery controls.
• ISP/telecom and MSP delivery concepts such as field deployments, service activation, customer migrations, maintenance windows, and cutovers is a plus.
• Cross-functional operating models and how to coordinate work across Network, Field Ops, IT, NOC, Service Delivery, Customer Care, and Sales/Provisioning.
• Change management and stakeholder communication practices for high-impact customer and internal transitions.
• Common collaboration and reporting tools (Microsoft 365/Teams/SharePoint) and project tools (Smartsheet, MS Project, Jira, ServiceNow, or equivalent).
• Sufficient technical fundamentals to coordinate technical stakeholders and interpret risk.

Skill to:

• Facilitate meetings that produce decisions, clarity, and action; keep teams aligned and moving.
• Build clear plans, timelines, and executive-ready updates that drive accountability.
• Influence without direct authority; negotiate priorities, sequencing, and resourcing with multiple stakeholders.
• Identify risk early and present practical options, tradeoffs, and recommendations.
• Create and maintain organized documentation, dashboards, and status reporting as a single source of truth. 
• Maintain composure and effectiveness under pressure, ambiguity, and tight deadlines

Ability to:

• Manage multiple concurrent initiatives and shifting priorities while maintaining delivery discipline.
• Communicate effectively, in writing and verbally, with executives, peers, and frontline teams.
• Analyze information, identify bottlenecks and patterns, and drive corrective action.
• Work independently with sound judgment and partner effectively across diverse teams.
• Travel locally as needed for field deployments, site visits, and stakeholder sessions.
• Work in a safe and effective manner.

Education and Experience:  

Any combination equivalent to the following education and experience that would provide the required knowledge, skills and abilities would qualify. A typical way to obtain the knowledge, skills and abilities would be: Bachelor’s degree in business, information systems, engineering, or related field and/or four (4) to seven (7) years of progressive project or program management experience in telecom, ISP, MSP, or related technology environments.

Professional certifications are desirable.