Transition Program Manager - Dallas, TX

Description

The Transition Program Manager (4 Months Contract) leads end-to-end transition and mobilization activities in aviation environments—from pre–go-live planning through post-launch stabilization—across multiple airport locations and service lines. This role ensures operational readiness, staffing alignment, training execution, stakeholder coordination, and risk escalation to deliver stable service performance without disrupting mission-critical airport/airline operations.

 

You will partner closely with internal teams (Operations, Service Desk/NOC, HR, Procurement, Customer Success) and external partners (e.g., ITO and customer stakeholders) to align timelines, expectations, governance, and stabilization of KPIs.

 

What will you do?:

Transition Leadership & Operational Readiness

• Lead transition execution from pre–go-live through stabilization across all impacted airport locations and operational sites.
• Build and maintain a detailed Transition & Operational Readiness Plan with milestones, dependencies, owners (RACI), and cutover/stabilization timelines.
• Drive readiness validation, including “go/no-go” criteria, cutover runbooks, and operational checklists.

Cross-Functional & Vendor Coordination

• Coordinate across Airport Operations, Airline/Station Operations, Service Desk/NOC, HR, Procurement, Field Services, and Customer Success to ensure alignment and execution.
• Partner with Cognizant and customer stakeholders to maintain clear expectations, scope integrity, and timeline alignment.
• Ensure transition execution accounts for aviation operating realities (peak periods, blackout windows, access constraints, and 24/7 coverage models).

Staffing, Onboarding, Training & Knowledge Readiness

• Ensure staffing plans, onboarding workflows, and training programs are in place and aligned with service expectations and operational coverage needs.
• Drive role-based training readiness across service teams (Service Desk, Field Services, airport support teams) to reduce go-live risk and improve time-to-productivity.
• Validate that knowledge artifacts are complete and accessible (SOPs, KB articles, escalation paths, known issues, and support playbooks).

Risk, Issue Management & Stabilization

• Own transition RAID (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies) log and act as escalation point for risks, issues, and gaps.
• Establish stabilization metrics (incident trends, SLA attainment, response/resolution, backlog burn-down, customer experience indicators).
• Lead stabilization governance (daily/weekly rhythms as needed) and ensure clean handoff into steady-state operations.

Governance, Reporting & Communication

• Establish consistent communication and reporting cadence, including dashboards, readiness reporting, and executive updates.
• Identify where processes and communications need tightening; drive continuous improvement and standardization across locations.
• Ensure clear ownership, reporting structure, and escalation paths are embedded into steady-state operations.

 

Key Deliverables

• Executed transition plan across all relevant airport sites and service lines
• Operational readiness validated at go-live (staffing, onboarding, training, knowledge, access, escalation)
• Defined governance model: ownership, reporting structure, and escalation paths
• Documented processes and playbooks to support ongoing operations
• Stabilized service delivery and successful handoff to steady-state teams

Requirements

What will you bring to ESP?

• 10–12+ years of experience in operational transitions, mobilizations, service implementations, or program delivery in complex environments
• 5+ years leading multi-stakeholder, multi-workstream programs with executive visibility
• Demonstrated success managing cross-functional dependencies across Operations, IT/service delivery, HR, Procurement, and customer teams
• Strong program governance skills: roadmap planning, RAID, stakeholder management, reporting cadences, and escalation leadership
• Ability to operate confidently in fast-paced, high-impact environments where operational continuity is critical

Preferred Qualifications (Aviation-Focused)

• Experience in aviation, including airport operations, airline station operations, aviation services, or airport/airline IT support environments
• Familiarity with IT service delivery practices (Service Desk/NOC, field services, incident/problem/change concepts, SLA management)
• Experience working with large outsourcing or delivery partners (e.g., ITO) and managing service transition expectations
• Track record of building transition playbooks and standard operating procedures across multiple sites

 

If you are….

Motivated to develop your career in Operations support, supported by a strong learning and development culture, you are passionate about delivering service excellence and like the variety of end user environments we should connect and explore.

What we will offer:

 

Personal & Professional Development

Within a learning and development culture, we offer unlimited access to a wealth of professional and personal training so that you may develop your career.  We will guide all employees to both specific technologies and client environment training and compliment with recommended learning journeys via our L&D system, that cater to helping you reach career goals or objectives — whether you want to become a knowledge expert in your field or apply your skills to another division.

 

Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging

We are unconditionally inclusive in the way we work and celebrate individual uniqueness. We know diverse backgrounds are valued and succeed here.

 

Salary: 

We offer a competitive range based upon suitability or experience.

 

Benefits:

Medical, dental, & vision plan

 

Who are we:

ESP Global Services has been providing customized 24/7 Global IT support solutions since 1992, expertly managed by a dedicated service delivery team, we offer day-to-day support via teams of on-site engineers or responsive visiting engineers, and multi-lingual service desk coordination that’s manages over 1,000 tickets a day for more than 200 customers.

 

Our ability to deliver customer-centric, targeted, and tailored IT support solutions is a natural fit for the complex needs of the fast-paced and evolving aviation industry. We developed technology-based solutions to address the high emphasis on meeting extremely short service levels spread across large campus areas with strict security controls. Supporting equipment for airports and airlines in many locations worldwide, has led to an IT support approach that applies equally to any global business with multiple international locations, wide campuses, and demanding security requirements. Plus, our spares, repairs, and logistics service enables us to deliver intelligent end-to-end IT hardware lifecycle management anywhere in the world.

 

We are global community of exceptional people passionately working together with one shared vision. We uphold the highest standards of ethics, compliance, and security. We are fully ITIL-aligned and ISO-accredited for Environment, Information Security, Business Continuity, IT Service Management, and Occupational Health and Safety, and have privacy built by design into all our systems.

 

Our vision and ethos have stood the test of time and we aim to exceed expectation and delight customers every time and our values are integral to the way we work together.

 

Join a team that prioritizes excellence—our ISO 9001 certification reflects our commitment to quality and superior customer service.

 

ESP Global Services is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer committed to diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other factor protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.