Table of contents
1.
Introduction
2.
Technical Program Manager
3.
Why Google 
4.
Skills Required
4.1.
Primary Program Manager Technical Skills
4.2.
Required Managerial Traits
5.
Roles and Responsibilities 
5.1.
Creating Roadmap for the Project
5.2.
Conducting Market Research
5.3.
Acting as a Team Leader
5.4.
Collaborating with Product Owners
5.5.
Tackling Risks
5.6.
Managing Product Vision
6.
Salary and Perks 
7.
Career Path 
8.
Preparation for Interview
8.1.
Important Topics to Cover
9.
Frequently Asked Questions
9.1.
Does technical program manager need coding?
9.2.
What are the major skills required for becoming a technical program manager?
9.3.
Does resume play a vital role in selection? 
9.4.
What is the average salary of a technical program manager at Google in India?
10.
Conclusion
Last Updated: Mar 27, 2024

Technical Program Manager at Google

Author Ayushi Goyal
0 upvote
Career growth poll
Do you think IIT Guwahati certified course can help you in your career?

Introduction

Want to set your career as a Technical Program Manager at a dream company like Google❓ 

No worries‼ it will not be a dream anymore😉😉

In this article, we will be providing a complete guide on becoming a Technical Program Manager at Google, your roles and responsibilities, the skills required, and various other essential things related to the Technical Program Manager role. 

Technical Program Manager

Technical program managers are business professionals who look after one or more projects. There are many advantages of being a technical program manager. The career generally comes with high pay and allows you to make decisions about the project. It has been observed that this job is one of the most satisfying careers, although there are a few downsides - for example, long hours, pressure, tight deadlines, and handling stakeholders.

Before diving into the depth of our topic, let's first discuss why Google is a dream company for most people.❓🤔

Why Google 

“Innovation is the only way to win.”

Along with providing the latest tools and technology to its employees and friendly work culture, Google follows eight innovative principles that make it the most innovative company.

  • Be customer-centric
  • Accept everyone’s ideas
  • Think big, start small
  • Open to everyone to win
  • Be data-driven
  • Have a mission that matters
  • Launch early and iterate
  • Never fear to fail  
     

No doubt that Google has been the dream company for many. Here is a reason behind this:

  1. Work culture: They give their employees the privilege to work on the latest technologies. Also, the company tries to maintain transparency by sharing all possible information with their employees.
     
  2. Learning and growth: Google acknowledge their employee’s right to learn and developed a micro-learning program in which training content is delivered in small chunks directly to peers.
     
  3. Open Sharing: Every employee has the right to share their thoughts and ideas with top management as they treat everyone equally.
     
  4. Flexible timings: Google was the first company to understand the needs of their employees to have flexible working hours to have a greater level of productivity. 
     
  5. Friendly Environment: Employees are permitted to take their pets to their workplace to maintain cheerfulness in the environment.  
     

Let’s discuss about the skills required to be a data analyst at Google.

Skills Required

Primary qualifications of a Technical Product Manager are MBA(Master of Business Administration) in Project Management, Product Management or Computer Science, and an Advanced Diploma in technical product management and development or information technology. 

Experience as a product team member of UI/UX designers, testers, developers, or Junior Technical Product Management is also considered a plus(➕) point.

Primary Program Manager Technical Skills

  • Program Roadmap Development Oversight 
  • Project Management
  • Research
  • Planning and Resource Management
  • Software Development
  • Technical Programming
  • Influencing and Negotiating
  • Data Collection and Management
  • Cloud and Infrastructure
  • Big Picture Thinking and Selling the Vision
  • Stakeholder Management

Required Managerial Traits

  • Effective Leadership 
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Time Management
  • Project Management
  • Audience Affinity
  • Good communication skills
  • Attention to detail

Roles and Responsibilities 

Technical program management is tapering and more focused job role. They are just responsible for a single project iteration. Although the managerial experience gained can be applied to development team management. They need to collaborate with data scientists, senior product managers, technical project managers, senior business analysts, engineering managers, the Chief Product Officer (CPO), and senior technical product managers. 

A few responsibilities that a technical program manager at Google has to work upon on a day-to-day basis are:

Creating Roadmap for the Project

The most crucial role that a technical program manager has to play is to create a roadmap for building a project based on the program vision. The roadmap contains tasks that each team has to work upon and the timeline assigned for the same. Once the roadmap is completed, they have to share it with the rest of the development team. Then they pass this roadmap to the scrum master, who would then give suggestions to make it more efficient.

Conducting Market Research

Conducting market research is also a fundamental part of this job. They need to collect feedback on the company's existing products. They also collect suggestions from their teams and discuss them with stakeholders. The technical product manager works with both customers and product development teams. They often have to find a golden means that appeases both sides. These judgments play a significant role in the success of the product.

Acting as a Team Leader

The success of a technical product manager depends on their ability to create a good network and coordinate with different departments and teams to take everyone towards a single goal. A product manager should lead meetings, rally troops, and organize spreadsheets.

Collaborating with Product Owners

Throughout the development, technical product managers need to communicate regularly with product owners to provide updates and ask about product vision. Having clear communication with each other leads to smooth and efficient product development. 

Tackling Risks

Risk is present everywhere and in every stage of development. The technical program manager foresees these risks and starts developing fortuity plans to overcome them. Also, these plans are discussed and modified according to the company. They need to develop feasible solutions and risk tackling techniques while product development continues.

Managing Product Vision

After developing the product vision, the product manager will bring that vision to life. They need to address any concerns they have and assess the product backlog. It's essential to clarify any borderline case as changing features may be costly and time-consuming. They also believe that the more the communication, the better the product design

Salary and Perks 

According to the data received by reviews of a few Technical Program Managers at Google, we came to know that the salary of a Technical Program Manager at Google is ₹22,37,571 per year in India, which is the average annual salary for employees have 6 to 12 years of experience. Technical Program Manager salaries at Google can range from ₹2,12,947 - ₹47,66,062 per year. 

Technical Program Manager Salary by Location

Location

Estimated Pay

Average Salary

Hyderabad

₹24,84,204

₹2,16,695

San Jose, CA

$1,62,513

$32,985

New York City

$1,46,243

$21,612

San Francisco, CA

$1,59,331

$32,637

 

The salary figures mentioned above are subject to change.

Career Path 

In Techincal Program Manager, you can proceed with your career as a manager or director of Training Program Manager or become a Senior Program Manager as an individual contributor. 

Let’s now discuss how you can prepare because Idowu Koyenikan says,Opportunity does not waste time with those who are unprepared.

You can also check out Data Analyst vs Data Scientist here.

Preparation for Interview

Technical Program Management interview is really challenging. The questions are a bit tricky and cover a wide range of topics. But a good preparation can make it easy for you.  

Before starting your preparation, you need to know the complete interview process, so let's first look at the interview process of a technical program manager at Google. The process takes 4 to 8 weeks on average, including the following steps➡

Step 1: Submit your Resume and Cover letter

Step 2: One to two phone screen interviews 

Step 3: Four to six on-site interviews

Step 4: Recommendation from the Hiring committee

Step 5: Review from Senior Leader 

Step 6: Recommendation from the Compensation committee

Step 7: Review from Senior executive

Step 8: Offer recieved‼😀

Detailed Interview Process:

- The phone screen interview lasts for around 30 minutes. The main aim of this interview is to check whether the essential requirements meet or not. Google may skip this round and direct to the on-site interview round.
 

- On-site interviews take around a day or two in the Google office; two interviews were held in the morning and three after lunch. Each one ends for around 30-45 minutes.
 

- The interviews are very structured, and you will be judged based on four main factors 

  • Knowledge related to the job
  • Leadership skills
  • Cognitive ability
  • Googleyness 
     

- After on-site interviewers share your feedback and grade your answers, all other steps happen behind the scenes. That feedback is reviewed, and the hiring committee and Compensation Committee will give recommendations that they should hire you or not. 

You can start practicing problems asked in Google interview by checking out most asked Google Code Interview Questions in our Problem Lists section.

Important Topics to Cover

While giving your interview, just be relaxed and give answers calmly and confidently.

We wish you all the very best.🤗 

Frequently Asked Questions

Does technical program manager need coding?

Technical Project Managers should have a basic knowledge of HTML(HyperText Markup Language), JavaScript, or CSS(Cascading Style Sheets), which are easy to learn. Knowing these technologies really helps project managers to plan better. 

What are the major skills required for becoming a technical program manager?

Technical program managers need to possess skills like research, prototyping, analysis, A/B testing, and extraction, data collection, and management using Excel.

Does resume play a vital role in selection? 

A resume is the most crucial factor considered before giving an interview. As a result, it is critical that you have a beautiful Resume even before you start looking for work.

What is the average salary of a technical program manager at Google in India?

The average salary of a Technical Program Manager at Google is ₹22,37,571 per year in India. 

Conclusion

In this article, we have extensively discussed the details to become a Technical Program Manager at Google. We have explored salary packages, skills required, roles, and responsibilities of a Technical Program Manager ad also discussed the preparation strategy to prepare yourself for securing this position.  

Also, refer to our Google preparation guideGSOC(Google Summer of Code)STEP programHow to get into Google, Coding Jam Google, Google Kick startGoogle hash code, and other job opportunities at Google. 

Check out the Google Interview Experience to learn about Google’s hiring process.

Refer to our guided paths on Coding Ninjas Studio to learn about Enroll in our courses like competitive programming, data structures, and algorithm in javaPython, and C++machine learningdata analysisdata science, etc. Refer to the mock test and problems available.

Get access to various Test seriesCoding questions, and participate in different Contests.

Take a look at the interview experiences and interview bundle for placement preparations.

If you found the article useful, please do upvote our blog to help other ninjas grow.

Happy Learning Ninja!🧡🙂

Live masterclass