Techniques are described for managing execution of programs, such as for distributed execution of a program on multiple computing nodes. In some situations, the techniques include selecting a cluster of computing nodes to use for executing a program based at least in part on data to be used during the program execution. For example, the computing node selection for a particular program may be performed so as to attempt to identify and use computing nodes that already locally store some or all of the input data that will be used by those computing nodes as part of the executing of that program on those nodes. Such techniques may provide benefits in a variety of situations, including when the size of input datasets to be used by a program are large, and the transferring of data to and/or from computing nodes may impose large delays and/or monetary costs.