Senior IT Project Manager

Collinwood is assisting our client, one of the world's most beloved charitable organizations, in it's effort to engage a Senior IT Project Manager. In this role, you will own the end-to-end delivery of large-scale, cross-functional IT initiatives with enterprise impact.

What you will be doing:

Strategy, Planning and Governance

• Aligns funding and resource requirements and project objectives with broader technology and business strategies in collaboration with Business Solutions Managers
• Defines project scope, goals, and deliverables that support business objectives in collaboration with senior leadership and stakeholders
• Develops detailed project plans - which may span multiple workstreams and vendors - including timelines, milestones, resource allocation, and risk mitigation strategies
• May develop key project artifacts such as Project Charters, Requirements, Cutover/Execution Plans
• May work with technology and procurement teams to develop Vendor Requests for Proposals (RFP) and vendor evaluations

Execution & Delivery

• Ensure delivery excellence through rigorous milestone tracking, dependency mapping, and proactive risk mitigation
• Works onsite leading cross-functional project teams, including internal staff, contractors, and vendors, to ensure timely and quality delivery
• Identifies opportunities for process optimization and automation, AI integration, and digital acceleration within project scope
• Monitors and controls project progress, adjusting plans as needed to meet changing requirements or to resolve issues
• May facilitate project scope change activities in conjunction with Business Technology Leadership and business stakeholders
• Provides expedient response, resolution of roadblocks, mitigation of risks, and re-evaluation of priorities for the team
• Ensures integration of vendor deliverables into overall project outcomes
• Ensures quality assurance through testing, validation, and documentation of deliverables
• Ensures project deliverables meet digital accessibility requirements

Communication & Influence

• Identifies, establishes, and maintains excellent business relationships
• Creates, maintains, and delivers (written and verbal) executive-level project updates
• Facilitates strategic communications, including executive briefings, board-level updates, and cross-functional alignment sessions
• Recommends and influences decision-making within project scope
• Maintains effective communications amongst project team members and with business stakeholders
• Serves as a liaison between the project team (AHA employees, consultants and contractors) and outside vendors and suppliers

Resource Management & Team Leadership

• Develops detailed project plans (work breakdown structures) and timelines
• Forecasts required resources and keeps resource allocations up to date in AHA's portfolio management tool
• Establishes work priorities for and directs the efforts of personnel (including consultants or contractors) involved in project-controlled tasks required to meet an approved project's objectives
• Mentors team members, fostering a culture of accountability and continuous improvement
• Promotes collaboration and team cohesion, especially in matrixed or remote environments

Risk & Issue Management

• Anticipates risks and issues; maintains RAID (Risks, Assumptions/Actions, Issues and Decisions) log
• Troubleshoots project problems, proactively takes action to resolve issues
• Establishes mitigation and contingency plans
• Acts as initial point of contact for escalated issues; resolves escalations diplomatically, balancing business urgency with technical feasibility and resource realities, seeking leadership guidance for unresolved concerns as necessary

Financial Management

• Owns multimillion-dollar budgets, ensuring fiscal discipline, forecasting accuracy and value realization
• Reconciles vendor invoices to project deliverables and statements of work (SOW), may submit invoices for payment processing and ensures timely invoice approval
• Manages the project's capital asset and operational expenses within the project budget.
• Maintains project actuals to forecast reporting, updates forecast as needed; may maintain multiple forecast scenarios as needed
• Communicates budget risks to appropriate technology leadership, along with identified options for mitigation and/or remediation
• May develop budget variance requests and seek executive approvals

Reporting & Metrics

• Monitors project performance using key performance indicators and makes necessary adjustments
• Follows AHA's project framework reporting guidelines and uses AHA templates where provided
• Tracks and reports key performance indicators (KPIs) such as schedule adherence, budget variance, resource utilization, and stakeholder satisfaction
• Provides executive dashboards and project health reports
• Conducts post-project reviews and lessons learned sessions

Change Management & Adoption

• Drives change management strategy, including stakeholder readiness, training, and communications; designs and coordinates change management activities
• Ensures user adoption of new systems, processes, or technologies through effective rollout strategies, measures behavioral change and business impact
• Measures post-implementation success and gathers feedback for future improvements

Transition to Operations and Sustainability

• Ensures seamless handoff of project deliverables to support, operations, and service management teams with full documentation, training, and knowledge transfer
• Establishes operational readiness criteria and validates that systems, processes, and teams are equipped to sustain the solution post-deployment.
• Coordinates with ITSM, DevOps, and support leads to embed new capabilities into run-state operations, including incident management, SLAs, and escalation paths

Best Practices

• Provides expertise in waterfall, agile, and hybrid project management methodologies.
• Champions project governance best practices; champions Agile, SAFe, or hybrid methodologies, tailoring delivery models to project complexity and organizational maturity

Other Job Duties Performs a variety of responsibilities in support of project goals, including tasks beyond core duties as needed to ensure successful project delivery (for example: requirements documentation, user acceptance testing, etc.) when project demand exceeds existing resource capacity

• 8-10 years minimum prior relevant experience in leading complex projects, managing cross-functional teams through digital transformation initiatives to deliver enterprise-class IT solutions within scope, budget and timeline
• Bachelor's degree or 5-8 years equivalent experience in information technology, project management, or related field
• Experience using a variety of portfolio/project management and delivery software packages (such as Microsoft Project, Planner, SmartSheet, Jira, Azure DevOps, etc.)
• Critical thinking skills, understands the business, and facilitates decisions based on what's best for the organization
• Proficiency in Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, and hybrid methodologies
• Familiarity with enterprise-class SaaS platforms and integration strategies
• Experience in Vendor and Contract Management
• Experience in Change Management, organizational readiness assessment, and adoption management
• Budgeting and financial management for large-scale IT initiatives
• Comprehensive knowledge of IT governance and service management best practices with a focus on continuous improvement
• Cybersecurity Awareness and compliance (GDPR, HIPAA, etc)
• Track record of driving innovation and continuous improvement

Soft Skills:

• Acts with integrity; has the ability to instill urgency and nimble reactions (pivot) in project teams
• Embodies transparency and displays a high-touch presence (video), willingness to be predominantly onsite (in office) and travel if necessary
• Excellent negotiation and communication skills with internal technology departments, business stakeholders, project team, and vendors; understands audiences and tailors communications up, down, and across.
• Executive presence with the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to C-suite stakeholders
• Ability to navigate matrixed organizations and influence without authority
• Attention to Detail; Dealing with Ambiguity; Ability to Work Independently with Minimal Supervision
• Knowledge and understanding of Non-Profit business environment and corresponding technologies required, such as Fundraising Technology and Solutions
• Expertise in data governance, artificial intelligence, and analytics enablement
• PMP®, PgMP®, or PMI-ACP®