IT Project Manager

Title: IT Project Manager

Location: Saint Paul, MN (Remote)

Duration: 12 Months

Description of Engagement

The Minnesota Department of Information Technology Services (MNIT), partnering with the Minnesota Department of Administration (Admin), is seeking a vendor to provide resource(s) to support MMCAP and other Admin divisions. The resource(s) will provide IT project management support and day-to-day operational support of IT applications, as well as data storage optimization, database analysis, and Azure modernization support.

The vendor will supply one full-time resource that will be dedicated to supporting MMCAP, a national cooperative group purchasing organization (GPO) for government facilities that provide healthcare services.

The vendor will also supply additional resource(s) on an as-needed basis to support other Admin divisions. There is no guarantee of work for the as-needed resource(s).

As agency needs warrant, the full-time resource may also be required to support other divisions, and the as-needed resource(s) may also be required to support MMCAP.

The resource(s) will work with several major databases, applications, and websites - providing project management, leading IT support, providing design assistance, and planning and developing technology efforts. The resource(s) will provide the leadership, expertise, training, analysis, and guidance necessary to build, deploy, administer, and maintain these critical systems. The resource(s) will provide information for managerial decision-making and provide application support to ensure effective communications and information exchange. The resource(s) will support internal/external employees as well as application, data, and connectivity issues as they arise, all with a timely turnaround.

The resource(s) will also potentially assist multiple divisions that are currently experiencing significant data storage challenges and technical debt related to legacy databases and on ‑ premise systems. Several business units generate and maintain large volumes of structured and unstructured data but lack the internal capacity to analyze existing storage patterns, identify optimization opportunities, or design cloud ‑ aligned solutions that meet long ‑ term operational needs. To address this, the resource(s) will perform duties pertaining to data storage optimization, database analysis, and Azure modernization support.

Technologies utilized by MMCAP and other Admin divisions include Azure; SQL Server and SQL Server Management Studio; OnContact; ShareFile; Tableau; Drupal; and Acquia.

Sample Tasks

• Provide project management support
  • Be accountable for creating and communicating project artifacts
  • Regularly communicate scope/schedule status to stakeholders and negotiate changes to either
  • Manage project dependencies and sequencing of activities
  • Define project initiative and outcomes to ensure completion
• Provide IT application support
  • Install/configure websites, applications, and databases
  • Provide 2nd level support - Troubleshoot website, application, and database issues; consult with other resources and perform research to determine source of issues; resolve issues
  • Manage remote access to systems
  • Be responsible for the overall planning, execution, and success of complex software solutions to meet customer needs
  • Provide technical direction on software applications in order to manage day-to-day operations
  • Manage vendor purchase requests, subscriptions, contracts, and payment
  • Manage vendor professional services
  • Implement and manage chatbots
• Provide data storage optimization, database analysis, and Azure modernization support
  • Conduct comprehensive assessments of current data storage environments across participating divisions, including evaluation of storage capacity, performance, access patterns, bottlenecks, retention practices, and data sensitivity classifications
  • Perform database analysis of legacy systems, application databases, and other structured data environments to identify dependencies, inefficiencies, scalability concerns, and modernization opportunities
  • Lead structured requirements gathering sessions with business and technical stakeholders to capture current-state challenges, data usage needs, reporting requirements, and long-term operational objectives
  • Translate requirements and assessment findings into detailed technical documentation and recommendations, including modernization paths such as consolidation, re architecting, or migration to Azure-based solutions
  • Provide expert guidance on Azure data services (Azure SQL, storage accounts, Data Lake, and related capabilities) and propose future-state architectures that align with enterprise standards, governance requirements, and security policies
  • Support the planning and design of cloud migration strategies, proof-of-concept initiatives, and phased implementation roadmaps
  • Deliver current state assessment reports, detailed requirements documentation, proposed future state designs, and a migration or consolidation strategy with clearly defined risks, timelines, and resource considerations
  • Provide consultation to support decision-making and ensure alignment with enterprise standards
• Perform testing on websites, applications, and databases
• Coordinate activities with Admin divisions, MNIT, and other consultant IT resources
• Review software packages and hardware and advise selection committee of security implications and risk mitigation requirements
• Provide knowledge transfer to State staff
• Perform other related duties as assigned

Full-Time (Named) Resource Desired Qualifications

• Experience in IT project management roles
• Experience in IT application support roles
• Experience supporting applications in Microsoft Azure and/or administering environments in Microsoft Azure
• Experience in data storage optimization
• Experience in database analysis
• Experience in Azure modernization support
• Azure administrator certification
• Experience supporting and troubleshooting Microsoft SQL databases
• Experience with ShareFile
• Experience with Tableau
• Experience with Drupal
• Experience with Acquia
• Experience with OnContact

Vendor (Company) Desired Qualifications

(The State desires vendors with significant company experience in the following areas as well as the ability to provide multiple resources with significant experience in the following areas.)

• Cloud & Azure
• Experience delivering solutions on Microsoft Azure
• Experience implementing Azure networking, computing, and security best practices
• Experience implementing Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS Gen2) and Delta Lake
• Experience managing Azure SQL, storage accounts, Data Lake, and Azure migration tooling
• Experience using Azure Key Vault, Azure Monitor, and Log Analytics in enterprise environments
• Azure Administrator-level certification and/or experience
• Databricks & Enterprise Data Engineering
• Experience implementing and supporting Azure Databricks (clusters, workflows, notebooks, jobs)
• Experience delivering Databricks-based data engineering solutions at enterprise scale
• Experience implementing PySpark and Spark SQL pipelines
• Experience in large-scale data architecture and data storage analysis
• PDF Extraction & Document Processing Solutions
• Experience delivering document extraction solutions using Azure Document Intelligence
• Experience building and/or integrating PDF ingestion pipelines using PyPDF2, pdfplumber, PDF.js, or equivalent tools
• Experience implementing OCR processing of scanned PDFs
• Experience in large scale PDF text pre processing, chunking, and transformation for LLM retrieval
• Vector Search & Embedding Infrastructure
• Experience converting unstructured document content into embeddings for downstream LLM use
• Experience deploying vector search solutions using Azure AI Search
• Experience implementing and managing vector databases such as Pinecone, Weaviate, or Chroma 
• Chatbot / Generative AI Solution Delivery
• Experience designing, building, and maintaining enterprise chatbots that use PDF documents as primary content sources
• Experience deploying chatbots using LLMs (Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, Hugging Face, or similar platforms)
• Experience implementing Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)
• Experience designing conversational flows and performing prompt optimization at scale
• Experience developing APIs or back end integrations connecting LLMs with vector stores and document repositories
• Experience using frameworks such as LangChain, Semantic Kernel, or equivalent enterprise tooling
• Experience monitoring, validating, and optimizing chatbot response quality
• Platform & Application Support
• Experience supporting Microsoft SQL Server
• Experience supporting enterprise platforms such as ShareFile, Tableau, Drupal, Acquia, and OnContact
• Business Analysis & Multi Division Collaboration
• Experience leading requirements gathering across technical and non technical stakeholder groups
• Experience working within complex, multi division organizations with diverse levels of data maturity
• Experience delivering technical documentation and/or providing technical communication

As-Needed Resource Minimum Qualifications

Each as-needed resource that the vendor provides to perform work under this engagement must individually meet the minimum qualifications specified below. THE AS-NEEDED RESOURCE(S) WILL NOT BE SUBMITTED OR EVALUATED AS PART OF THE CONTRACTING PROCESS, but the State reserves the right to review such resource(s) qualifications prior to them performing work under the engagement. The State reserves the right to reject any resource(s) that do not meet the minimum qualifications, and to require that different resource(s) be provided that do meet the minimum qualifications.

• Five (5) years’ experience in IT project management roles
• Two (2) engagements lasting at least six (6) months each in IT project management roles
• Two (2) engagements lasting at least six (6) months each in IT application support roles
• Two (2) years’ combined experience supporting applications in Microsoft Azure and/or administering environments in Microsoft Azure
• Two (2) years’ experience in data storage optimization
• Two (2) years’ experience in database analysis
• Two (2) years’ experience in Azure modernization support