Senior Project Manager

Senior Project Manager

Duration: 6 Months (with possibility of extension)

Location: Chicago, IL 60601 (Onsite)

Only W2 candidates are eligible for this position. Third-party or C2C candidates will not be considered.

Position Overview

Our client is seeking one (1) Senior Project Manager with extensive experience leading and managing multiple concurrent IT projects ranging from small-scale initiatives to large, complex application development and systems implementation efforts. The successful candidate will be responsible for planning, coordinating, monitoring, and delivering projects involving internal project teams, business stakeholders, and third-party vendors while ensuring alignment with organizational goals, timelines, budgets, and quality standards.

The Senior Project Manager will serve as the primary liaison between Information Technology, business units, external customers, and vendors, ensuring effective communication, risk management, resource allocation, and successful project delivery.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage multiple application development, application deployment, and systems implementation projects simultaneously.
• Develop, maintain, and execute comprehensive project plans, schedules, resource plans, budgets, and project documentation.
• Lead projects utilizing industry-standard project management methodologies including Waterfall, Agile, Scrum, and hybrid approaches.
• Coordinate, schedule, assign, and monitor project tasks across project teams and vendors.
• Manage project timelines and application release schedules to ensure successful and timely delivery.
• Monitor project progress, identify roadblocks, and implement corrective actions to mitigate risks and delays.
• Proactively identify, assess, manage, and escalate project risks and issues to appropriate stakeholders.
• Track team capacity, project hours, budget utilization, and resource allocation, recommending corrective actions when variances occur.
• Allocate and balance staff and budget resources to support changing business priorities and project demands.
• Identify, negotiate, and manage project schedules, milestones, dependencies, and resource requirements.
• Facilitate effective communication between IT teams, business stakeholders, production teams, vendors, and executive leadership.
• Evaluate project performance using industry best practices, quality standards, and key performance metrics.
• Coordinate system testing, user acceptance testing (UAT), installation, deployment, training, and production support activities.
• Develop and deliver project status reports, executive dashboards, and stakeholder communications.
• Support employee performance evaluations and provide feedback related to project team performance.
• Ensure adequate team coverage throughout the project lifecycle to support successful and timely project delivery.
• Perform additional duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of eight (8) years of progressive Project Management experience managing projects of varying size, scope, and complexity.
• Demonstrated success managing IT software development, application deployment, and systems implementation projects.
• Hands-on experience utilizing multiple project management methodologies, including Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, and hybrid frameworks.
• Strong experience with project management and collaboration tools such as Monday.com, Microsoft Project, Azure DevOps, Jira, or similar platforms.
• Proven experience developing and managing project schedules, budgets, resource plans, and project deliverables.
• Strong client-facing communication, presentation, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience identifying, mitigating, and escalating project risks and issues to ensure timely resolution.
• Strong organizational, analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Experience managing cross-functional teams, vendors, consultants, and business stakeholders.
• Ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment while maintaining project quality and delivery commitments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working within government agencies, public sector organizations, or regulated environments.
• Experience leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, technologies, and processes to improve project delivery, reporting, planning, or operational efficiencies.
• PMP, PMI-ACP, Scrum Master, or other relevant project management certifications preferred.