Appko

Location: 100% Remote (Europe, Eastern Europe, or Latin America) Schedule Requirement: Must provide daily overlap with US Pacific Coast headquarters until 1:00 PM PST.

• For Europe/Eastern Europe: This requires a shifted "late" schedule, typically concluding between 10:00 PM and 11:00 PM local time.
• For LatAM: This aligns well with standard business hours, typically concluding between 3:00 PM and 6:00 PM local time.

About the Role

We are seeking a dynamic Senior Lead Jira Administrator and Technical Program Manager (TPM) to engineer, scale, and govern a complex Atlassian environment supporting ~1,000 users.

This is not a standard ticket-taking administration role. This position requires a strategic TPM mindset to lead our Jira Admin Support Team, acting as the primary partner for our System Engineering groups and the broader organization. You will sit at the intersection of team management, strategic platform roadmapping, and hands-on technical architecture.

A heavy focus of this role involves architecting a custom End-to-End (E2E) testing framework within Jira—managing Requirements, Verification, and Execution workstreams—while utilizing Test Driven Development (TDD), Groovy/Python scripting, and advanced CI/CD automation.

Key Responsibilities & Ownership

Strategic Ownership & Program Management

• Team Management: Lead, mentor, and manage the daily operations of the Jira Administration support team, overseeing resource allocation, workload distribution, and KPIs. Ensure technical execution aligns with business goals.
• Strategic TPM: Act as the primary technical program manager for the Atlassian ecosystem, partnering closely with System Engineering, Product, and PMO stakeholders to translate complex business needs into scalable Jira solutions.
• Roadmap & Governance: Drive the long-term Atlassian strategy, establishing rigorous governance models for workflows, permissions, and change management processes.
• Agile Delivery: Own the prioritization and delivery of platform initiatives. Track project progress, manage escalations, and coordinate major system changes or migrations with zero business disruption.
• Platform Product Ownership: Act as the ultimate owner of the Atlassian ecosystem. Define the long-term roadmap, governance models, and best practices for the toolchain.
• Cross-Functional Orchestration: Serve as the primary technical bridge between the Jira Support Team and internal stakeholders (DevOps, System Engineering, Product, and Security).
• Agile Delivery: Own the rollout of platform initiatives, tracking project progress, managing escalations, and ensuring seamless delivery of system upgrades or integrations.

Development, Architecture & Automation

• E2E Test Framework Architecture: Maintain and continuously enhance a custom testing hierarchy within Jira, ensuring seamless data flow across Requirements, Verification, and Execution workstreams.
• Advanced Scripting: Utilize Groovy and ScriptRunner to develop complex backend workflow functions, behaviors, and listeners that extend native Jira capabilities.
• API & CI/CD Integration: Design custom automation using Python and Jira REST APIs to integrate Jira deeply with downstream systems and DevOps tools (specifically Jenkins and CI/CD pipelines).

• Data Automation: Automate the ingestion of external testing results into the Jira hierarchy and engineer reliable data extraction methods for organizational reporting.

   

System Administration, Operations and Automation Strategy

• Instance Health: Oversee the daily performance, health, and configuration of the production Jira instance.
• Complex Configuration: Manage advanced customizations including permission schemes, notification schemes, screen configurations, and intricate workflow logic.
• Marketplace Ecosystem: Evaluate, install, configure, and manage the lifecycle of third-party Atlassian marketplace apps.
• Security & Compliance: Ensure strict adherence to security, audit, and data governance requirements related to Jira access and administration.
• E2E Test Framework Design: Architect and oversee the maintenance of a custom testing hierarchy that maps the entire Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) from Requirements to Execution.
• Integration Architecture: Design the technical requirements for integrating external tools (e.g., Jenkins, CI/CD pipelines, and automation scripts) with the Atlassian ecosystem using REST APIs.
• Data Flow & Automation: Define the logic for automating the ingestion of testing component results into the system and extracting structured data for organizational reporting.
• Technical Problem Solving: Distill complex, highly technical workflow challenges into clear architectural solutions for your administration team to execute.

Qualifications & Technical Skills

Core Technical Requirements

• Jira Administration: 5+ years of experience managing enterprise-grade Jira and Confluence environments (Data Center or Cloud).
• Scripting & Data Knowledge: Expert-level proficiency in Groovy (for Jira backend/ScriptRunner) and Python (for external REST API automation). While you won't write production code daily, you must be able to read and understand scripting languages (Python, Groovy, or JavaScript) and database queries to effectively guide your engineering team. 
• Testing & Hierarchy Tools: Deep understanding of Software End-to-End (E2E) testing lifecycles, Test Driven Development (TDD), and proficiency with Jira Structure (ALM Works) or similar hierarchy management tools.
• Integration Ecosystem: Hands-on experience integrating Jira with CI/CD and DevOps tools (e.g., Jenkins).

• Data & Reporting: Experience querying databases and extracting data for external reporting.

   

Consulting & Leadership Skills

• Technical Program Management: Proven experience managing technical projects, driving agile delivery, and managing a team of administrators or engineers.
• Problem Solving: The ability to distill complex, highly technical Atlassian architecture into clear, actionable solutions for non-technical business stakeholders.

• Radical Ownership: A strong history of taking autonomous ownership over instance health, prioritizing workload effectively, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement within a team.

   

Preferred (Bonus) Qualifications

• Certifications: Active Atlassian Certified Professional (ACP-100/ACP-600 or Cloud equivalents).
• Specialized Tooling: Prior experience with Jama Software or TestRail.
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Education: B.S. or higher in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.