Program Manager / Senior IT Project Manager

About the Role

We are seeking a highly experienced Program Manager / Senior IT Project Manager to support the successful delivery of large and complex technology programs and projects for a public-sector client. The selected candidate will manage projects through the full Project Management Lifecycle, including initiation, planning, iterative development, continuous testing, execution, control, and closeout.

This role will serve as a primary technical point of contact for the customer and will coordinate across multiple workstreams, including infrastructure, SaaS/PaaS/on-premise environments, applications, quality assurance, change management, and customer service support. The position requires a strong background in leading concurrent initiatives, managing executive communications, and delivering projects using both Agile and waterfall methodologies.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage relationships with stakeholders, business leaders, project teams, vendors, and service providers.
• Lead the planning and delivery of large-scale IT programs and complex implementation projects.
• Provide thought leadership for software and/or hardware system implementations, IT applications, business processes, and systems processes.
• Manage daily project execution, including defining deliverables, tracking schedules, managing sprints, and maintaining project backlogs.
• Lead teams through all phases of the System Development Life Cycle, using Agile, waterfall, or hybrid delivery approaches.
• Develop and maintain project plans, resource plans, communication plans, program metrics, dashboards, and delivery analytics.
• Identify project risks, issues, dependencies, decisions, and action items, and communicate them clearly to stakeholders.
• Prepare executive-level status updates and steering committee communications.
• Align project objectives with business and stakeholder priorities.
• Coordinate internal communications and support resource management activities as needed.
• Direct, motivate, and collaborate with cross-functional project teams to ensure timely and high-quality delivery.
• Support project closeout activities and other duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience managing and implementing concurrent IT initiatives of varying size and complexity.
• Minimum of four individual multi-year project implementation experiences.
• Demonstrated success leading initiatives in an Agile methodology environment.
• Strong knowledge of the full project management lifecycle and SDLC.
• Experience managing large, complex technology implementations involving applications, infrastructure, QA, change management, and customer support.
• Proven ability to lead teams, motivate staff, build trust, encourage collaboration, and provide timely written and verbal feedback.
• Strong executive communication skills, including the ability to prepare steering committee materials and present project status to senior stakeholders.
• Proficiency with:
  • Microsoft Office Suite
  • Microsoft Project
  • Microsoft Visio
  • Atlassian Jira
  • Confluence
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Business, Finance, or a related field.
• Active certification required: PMP, PMI-ACP, Scrum Master, or other Agile certification.

Preferred Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a senior-level project/program manager with a strong consulting mindset, excellent communication skills, and experience delivering public-sector or enterprise IT programs. They should be comfortable working with executives, technical teams, vendors, and business users, while keeping projects on schedule and aligned to customer objectives.

Work Requirements

• Must be local to the DC/Maryland/Virginia area.
• Must be willing and able to work onsite in Washington, DC 3 days per week.
• Onsite requirements may be subject to change.
• Candidate must be willing to participate in in-person interviews, if required.