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Practising for the listing Principal Technical Program Management. Its requirements are filled in below. When you have an answer you like, paste it with your CV in Career Mirror to see which of the job's skills it shows.
Requirements found
Scheduling Scrum Training Marketing Recruiting (must)
What this posting asks for
Level: Lead / staff — The title says "Principal".
Main responsibilities
- Own highly complex technical programs across teams and pillars, from strategy and early definition through launch and post-production.
- Translate ambiguous business and technical problems into clear requirements, plans, milestones, dependencies and measurable outcomes.
- Own program plans, schedules, resourcing and change management while holding teams accountable for committed deliverables.
- Foresee, manage and mitigate risks across teams and pillars.
- Track cross-team dependencies, identify opportunities to parallelize work, delegate risk ownership and create clear escalation paths.
- Define program success metrics, measure progress against them and communicate results to leadership.
- Own end-to-end technical requirements and bring engineering teams together on system design and architecture.
- Help teams evaluate decisions involving data stores, caching, technical stacks, system boundaries and where business logic should live.
- Lead technical discussions focused on scalability, reliability, availability and long-term maintainability.
- Drive technical trade-off discussions with leaders using sound technical judgment and sufficient technical depth.
Competencies an interviewer will look for
- Technical skill Core
In the posting: “We’re explorers, pursuing society’s most critical safety and justice issues with our ecosystem of devices and cloud software.” · “We're explorers, pursuing society's most critical safety and justice issues with our ecosystem of devices and cloud software.” · “You will own the outcome the program exists to deliver and serve as a trusted partner to product, engineering and senior leadership.”
Show it by: Names the tools, languages or systems used and how; Explains a technical choice and its trade-off. - Communication Core
In the posting: “Define program success metrics, measure progress against them and communicate results to leadership.” · “Own status and strategy communication for your programs and present at MBRs and senior review forums.” · “Build and improve the architecture, process and program documentation required to keep complex programs moving.”
Show it by: Adapts the message to the listener; Gives an example of explaining something clearly in writing or speech. - Teamwork and collaboration Core
In the posting: “You will partner with engineering and product management to drive programs from inception through design, development, deployment and post-production.” · “Partner with business, legal, information security and policy stakeholders early so programs are positioned for long-term success.” · “Work effectively with teams across multiple time zones.”
Show it by: Says what they did inside a team, not only what 'we' did; Shows how a disagreement was handled. - Ownership and accountability Core
In the posting: “Here, you’ll take ownership and drive real change.” · “Here, you'll take ownership and drive real change.” · “You will own the outcome the program exists to deliver and serve as a trusted partner to product, engineering and senior leadership.”
Show it by: Takes a task from start to finish without being chased; Owns a mistake and what was changed after it. - Leadership and mentoring Core
In the posting: “You will own the outcome the program exists to deliver and serve as a trusted partner to product, engineering and senior leadership.” · “Define program success metrics, measure progress against them and communicate results to leadership.” · “Mentor TPMs and educate teams across R&D on strong program management practices.”
Show it by: Describes setting direction or a standard others followed; Names someone they coached and what changed for them. - Customer focus Core
In the posting: “We connect with candor and care, seeking out diverse perspectives from our customers, communities and each other.” · “Because every second counts for our customers, any production outage, functional regression or performance degradation that lasts even a few minutes can have…” · “You stay anchored to the customer outcome.”
Show it by: Puts the customer's need in their own words; Shows a result for the customer, not only for the company. - Planning and organisation Core
In the posting: “Life at Axon is fast-paced, challenging and meaningful.” · “Own program plans, schedules, resourcing and change management while holding teams accountable for committed deliverables.” · “Leaders use your reporting to make decisions and adjust priorities when needed.”
Show it by: Shows how priorities were set when everything was urgent; Mentions deadlines met and how. - Data and analysis Core
In the posting: “You will translate early ideas and proposals into executable plans with clear requirements, milestones, dependencies and success metrics.” · “Define program success metrics, measure progress against them and communicate results to leadership.” · “Help teams evaluate decisions involving data stores, caching, technical stacks, system boundaries and where business logic should live.”
Show it by: Uses a number to describe the situation or the result; Explains what the data showed and what was done with it. - Adaptability and learning Core
In the posting: “As a Principal Technical Program Manager on the Real-Time Operations team, you will own highly complex and ambiguous technical programs that span multiple te…” · “You will identify problems and opportunities before requirements exist, bring structure to ambiguity, build alignment across teams and drive commitments that…” · “Translate ambiguous business and technical problems into clear requirements, plans, milestones, dependencies and measurable outcomes.”
Show it by: Describes learning something new quickly and using it; Shows a change of plan and how they adjusted. - Attention to detail and quality Core
In the posting: “We’re explorers, pursuing society’s most critical safety and justice issues with our ecosystem of devices and cloud software.” · “We're explorers, pursuing society's most critical safety and justice issues with our ecosystem of devices and cloud software.” · “A connection to Axon's values and our mission to tackle public safety's biggest challenges.”
Show it by: Gives an example of an error caught before it caused harm; Names the check or standard they used. - Stakeholder management Core
In the posting: “You will identify problems and opportunities before requirements exist, bring structure to ambiguity, build alignment across teams and drive commitments that…” · “The ideal candidate builds trusted relationships across a wide range of personalities, holds people to their commitments, and has the technical credibility t…” · “Partner with business, legal, information security and policy stakeholders early so programs are positioned for long-term success.”
Show it by: Shows how they aligned people with different goals; Explains how they handled a 'no' from someone senior.
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Practice questions
- Tell me about yourself. Dedicated step-by-step practice.
- If an interviewer asks something improper How to respond to questions about age, family, origin or health.
- Built from this posting (7):
- Walk me through a piece of work where you used your strongest technical skill. What exactly did you do? From this posting
- Tell me about a time you had to explain something complex to someone outside your field. From this posting
- Describe a time you worked with another team to deliver something. What was your part? From this posting
- Tell me about a task you took from start to finish without anyone asking you to. From this posting
- How have you used recruiting in your work? Walk me through one real example. From this posting
- Tell me about a problem you solved using scheduling. From this posting
- Tell me about a time you helped someone on your team get better at their work. From this posting
- This posting reads as Product management: its questions come first.
- Tell me about a product decision you made based on what users told you. Product management
- You have ten feature requests and capacity for three. How do you choose? Product management
- Describe a time you had to say no to a senior stakeholder. Product management
- How do you decide whether a feature you launched worked? Product management
- Tell me about a launch that involved several teams. What was your role? Product management
- A key feature is late and the launch date is fixed. What do you do? Product management
- How do you write requirements so that engineers and designers build the right thing? Product management
- Tell me about a product failure you were responsible for. Product management
- Two managers ask you to book the same room at the same time. What do you do?
- Describe a time you handled an upset customer or colleague.
- Tell me about a time you had several deadlines at once. How did you decide what to do first?
- Give an example of a mistake you caught before it caused a problem.
- Tell me about a time you taught someone how to do something.
- Describe a time you took the lead without being asked.
- Tell me about a time you had to explain something complicated in simple terms.
- Describe a process you improved.
- Do you have any questions for us?
- Why do you want to work here?
- Why is there a gap in your employment? Difficult question
- Why did you leave your last job? Difficult question
- Why are you changing careers? Difficult question
- What is your greatest weakness? Difficult question
- What are your salary expectations? Difficult question
- You seem overqualified for this role. Why do you want it? Difficult question
- Improper-question practice: How old are you? / Do you have children? / Where are you from originally?
- A customer is angry about a delay you did not cause. What do you do?
- How do you keep track of many open customer requests?
- Tell me about a time you could not give a customer what they wanted.
- You find that the inventory count does not match the system. What do you do?
- Tell me about a time a shipment or delivery went wrong.
- How do you make sure safety rules are followed on a busy shift?
- How have you used spreadsheets in your work?
- Tell me about a time you had to enter or check a lot of data accurately.
- Tell me about a sale or agreement you are proud of.
- A prospect says your price is too high. How do you respond?
- How do you keep your pipeline organised?
- Tell me about a technical problem you solved on your own.
- You find a bug right before a release. What do you do?
- Walk me through how you would check whether a report's numbers are right.