Intuit is one of the largest software companies in the world, responsible for popular products like TurboTax, QuickBooks, Mint, and Credit Karma. For those looking to take their career to the next level within a rapidly growing tech company, an Intuit program manager job can be an excellent opportunity.
As an Intuit program manager, you’d be responsible for the execution, monitoring, and success of various projects and programs across the company. It’s a challenging role that requires strong leadership, communication, and organizational skills.
In this post, we’ll break down what an Intuit program manager job entails, the day-to-day responsibilities, qualifications needed, and tips for standing out as a candidate.
What Does an Intuit Program Manager Do?
At a high level, an Intuit program manager is accountable for the delivery of one or more projects, programs, or product initiatives according to a defined scope, timeline and budget. Some key duties of the role include:
Planning and coordination – Developing project plans, timelines, budgets, and resource requirements. Coordinating cross-functional teams, vendors, and stakeholders.
Risk management – Identifying potential risks, developing mitigation plans, and ensuring issues are addressed proactively.
Resource management – Securing funding, assigning tasks, allocating resources (people, equipment, etc.), and managing budgets.
Status reporting – Tracking progress, reporting status regularly to leadership, and communicating changes that impact timelines, budgets or scope.
Issue resolution – Identifying and resolving blockers, delays or other issues impeding progress. Escalating appropriately when needed.
Quality assurance – Ensuring workstreams meet standards for quality, usability, accessibility and performance.
Stakeholder management – Communicating with customers, partners, executives and other stakeholders to understand requirements and manage expectations.
The specific programs and projects will vary based on the company’s initiatives and needs, but the objectives are consistent – deliver on time, on budget, and according to requirements.
A Day in the Life of an Intuit Program Manager
No two days are ever exactly the same, but here’s a glimpse into what a typical day may look like:
Morning standup – Meet with team leads for a 15-minute status update on each workstream, identify roadblocks, and discuss upcoming priorities.
Resource allocation – Review team capacity and reassign tasks/resources as needed based on updated forecasts. Address any urgent issues requiring more bandwidth.
Status report preparation – Pull together updates on timeline, budget, risks for the weekly executive report. Highlight accomplishments and areas needing support.
Partner meeting – Align initiatives and timelines with an external vendor contributing deliverables. Discuss dependencies and address concerns.
Testing oversight – Check-in with QA to review test plans and results for an upcoming release. Identify deficiencies needing rework.
Risk assessment – Review program risks with leadership and present mitigation options for high priority issues. Gain approval for contingency plans.
User research – Shadow customer interviews to capture feedback on new features. Refine requirements based on insights.
Team sync up – Address questions and obstacles in a daily standup. Provide updates on company priorities and realign focus areas as needed.
Document updating – Maintain project plans, requirements docs, risk logs and other materials to support execution and decision making.
Every Intuit program manager will undertake custom tasks depending on their specific programs. But the routine is centered around coordination, communication, issue resolution and ensuring on-track delivery.
Qualifications for an Intuit Program Manager Role
To qualify for a program manager position at Intuit, you’ll typically need:
- 5+ years of experience managing complex projects and multi-disciplinary teams.
- A bachelor’s degree in business, engineering or a related field (an advanced degree can boost candidacy).
- Expertise in agile project management methodologies like Scrum, Kanban, etc.
- Strong communication, collaboration and stakeholder management abilities.
- Experience coordinating projects in fast-paced tech environments.
- Understanding of software development lifecycles and processes.
- Budgeting and financial management proficiency.
- Ability to adapt to changing priorities and problem-solve on the fly.
- Deep organizational and multi-tasking skills with attention to detail.
- Experience preparing reports, tools like Jira, and spreadsheets like Excel.
Additional qualifications that separate candidates include experience managing programs of similar size/complexity to Intuit’s initiatives, Certified Scrum Master or PMP certifications, and a proven track record of successful program delivery.
Tips to Stand Out for an Intuit Program Manager Role
Here are some steps you can take to boost your candidacy for an Intuit program manager job:
Leverage your network – Reach out to Intuit employees on LinkedIn to learn more about open roles and referrals. Many roles are never posted publicly.
Customize your resume – Highlight relevant qualifications, metrics showcasing impact, and Intuit-like terminology in your resume and cover letters.
Showcase programs led – Quantify accomplishments, highlight challenges overcome, and document ROI on your resume. Consider an online portfolio too.
Get certified – Earning a PMP, CSM, or other project management certification demonstrates aptitude for the role.
Understand Intuit’s products – Research TurboTax, QuickBooks, Mint and others to speak knowledgeably about how you’d support them.
Tailor your interviewing – Prepare Intuit-specific examples showcasing skills for common interview questions. Practice behavioral interviews too.
Explore temp/contract options – Consider shorter term roles to “try before you buy” and prove yourself as a full-time hire candidate.
Stay active online – Engage thoughtfully on LinkedIn groups, contribute content, and selectively connect with Intuit employees.
Career Growth as an Intuit Program Manager
For talented program managers, Intuit offers meaningful opportunities for career development and progression over time. Some potential next steps include:
- Senior program manager – Expanding scope and oversight to multiple concurrent strategic initiatives.
- Program director – Taking ownership of a product line or business unit’s entire program portfolio.
- Agile coach – Sharing expertise to help optimize delivery methodologies across teams.
- Product manager – Transitioning to own a specific offering’s vision, roadmap and success.
- Department management – Overseeing a group of program/project managers and their workstreams.
- Strategy consulting – Leveraging multi-industry experience to help advise leadership decisions.
- Higher education – Earning an advanced degree part-time to open additional qualifications.
Intuit actively cultivates in-house talent and supports continuing education. Be proactive seeking stretch assignments, build visibility through impactful delivery, and express interest in leadership development opportunities. An Intuit program manager career can take you far with dedication to growth.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Intuit program manager jobs provide exciting opportunities to take ownership of initiatives critical to the company’s innovation.
With strong leadership, coordination and issue resolution abilities, the role serves as an engaging career path for advancing technical project management expertise within a premier tech brand.
Focusing on relevant experience, customizing qualifications, utilizing networks, and demonstrating long-term ambition can help aspiring program managers land and excel in these impactful Intuit roles.