Senior IT Project Manager / Application Transition Lead

Role: Senior IT Project Manager / Application Transition Lead

Location: Remote

Type: Contract

Position Summary:

• Client is seeking an experienced Senior IT Project Manager / Application Transition Lead to provide IT leadership, oversight, and coordination across a portfolio of business application transition initiatives associated with a large-scale acquisition carve-out.
• The individual will serve as the primary IT point of accountability for assigned applications, ensuring each initiative has clear business and IT ownership, an appropriate project or workplan, accountable delivery leadership, identified IT activities, and a well-defined path through implementation and operational support.
• This role is broader than traditional project management. Individual application initiatives may be managed by dedicated IT Project Managers, business leads, or other delivery owners. The Application Transition Lead will work effectively across these different delivery models, providing IT oversight and readiness assurance without unnecessarily duplicating the responsibilities of the assigned Project Manager or Business Lead.
• The successful candidate will combine strong project/program management discipline, application delivery knowledge, stakeholder leadership, and hands-on problem-solving skills. The role requires the ability to operate at a portfolio level while diving into application-level details when necessary to identify gaps, resolve dependencies, coordinate IT activities, and drive transition readiness.

Key Responsibilities:

Application Transition Leadership

• Serve as the primary IT lead and point of accountability for an assigned portfolio of application transition and implementation initiatives.
• Ensure each assigned application has:

• Clear business and IT ownership
• Appropriate delivery leadership
• A defined project plan or workplan
• Clear milestones and dependencies
• Identified IT activities and resources
• A defined implementation approach
• Clear operational and support ownership

• Assess the delivery model and determine the appropriate level of IT involvement required for each application initiative.
• Provide IT oversight across both IT-led and business-led initiatives, adapting the level of involvement based on project complexity, risk, and delivery structure.
• Ensure applications progress through the transition lifecycle with appropriate governance, ownership, planning, and readiness.

Project & Program Oversight

• Partner with assigned Project Managers and Business Leads to maintain visibility into project plans, milestones, risks, dependencies, decisions, resources, and outstanding IT actions.
• Provide oversight and readiness assurance without duplicating the day-to-day responsibilities of dedicated Project Managers.
• Review project and application plans to identify gaps, missing activities, unclear ownership, dependencies, and potential delivery risks.
• Drive unresolved IT actions and decisions to closure in partnership with appropriate stakeholders.
• Ensure appropriate escalation and intervention when applications lack sufficient planning, ownership, resources, decisions, or readiness.
• Coordinate multiple concurrent initiatives while maintaining appropriate prioritization and focus.

Application-Level Readiness & Delivery

• Dive into application-level details as required to identify delivery gaps, clarify requirements, confirm dependencies, establish ownership, and resolve outstanding issues.
• Assess and confirm readiness throughout the application transition lifecycle, including, as applicable:

• Business and technical requirements
• Solution approach and architecture
• Infrastructure and hosting
• Security and access
• Data requirements
• Interfaces and integrations
• Environment readiness
• Testing and validation
• Deployment and cutover
• Documentation
• Knowledge Transfer (KT)
• Operational support and ownership

• Coordinate and drive completion of required IT activities, particularly for business-led initiatives that do not have a dedicated IT Project Manager.
• Identify cross-application dependencies and coordinate resolution with appropriate business and technology teams.
• Confirm that applications have a clear path from transition planning through implementation and ongoing operational support.

Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Coordination

• Coordinate across business stakeholders, IT teams, application owners, Project Managers, vendors, and third-party consultants.
• Establish strong working relationships with business and technology stakeholders and drive accountability for agreed actions and deliverables.
• Facilitate discussions to clarify ownership, requirements, decisions, risks, dependencies, and delivery responsibilities.
• Work across multiple functional and technical teams to resolve issues that could impact transition timelines or readiness.
• Communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders and translate detailed application issues into clear business and project implications.

Vendor & Third-Party Coordination

• Support vendor engagement and coordination activities required for application transition and implementation.
• Participate in solution and vendor evaluations as appropriate.
• Support the development and review of Statements of Work (SOWs).
• Coordinate with procurement, sourcing, vendors, and internal stakeholders as required.
• Track vendor dependencies, deliverables, decisions, and outstanding actions that could affect application readiness.
• Help ensure third-party activities remain aligned with transition objectives and timelines.

Portfolio Governance & Executive Reporting

• Maintain portfolio-level visibility across assigned applications and initiatives.
• Develop and maintain clear status reporting covering:

• Overall application status
• Transition readiness
• Key milestones
• Risks and issues
• Dependencies
• Decisions
• Outstanding IT actions
• Resource or ownership gaps
• Areas requiring leadership intervention

• Provide concise management and executive-level reporting on application transition progress and readiness.
• Identify trends and systemic issues across the application portfolio and recommend appropriate corrective actions.
• Proactively escalate applications that lack ownership, plans, resources, required decisions, or sufficient readiness.

Required Experience & Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience leading or coordinating complex IT application initiatives, projects, programs, or portfolios.
• 5+ years of demonstrated ability to drive delivery across multiple applications, stakeholder groups, and delivery models.
• 5+ years of strong project and program management discipline, including experience assessing and managing:

• Project plans and milestones
• Risks and issues
• Dependencies
• Decisions and actions
• Resource requirements
• Ownership and accountability
• Implementation and operational readiness

• Ability to provide project oversight and governance without needing to act as the dedicated Project Manager for every initiative.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple concurrent applications while shifting effectively between portfolio-level governance and hands-on application-level problem solving.
• Strong understanding of enterprise application delivery and transition activities.
• Working knowledge of IT activities across areas such as:

• Infrastructure
• Security
• Application integrations
• Data
• Testing
• Deployment and cutover
• Knowledge transfer
• Operational support

• Experience gathering, clarifying, and translating business requirements and technology needs into actionable plans, decisions, and IT activities.
• Strong business relationship management and stakeholder management skills.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, coordination, and presentation skills.
• Demonstrated ability to establish credibility and drive accountability across business, technical, project, and vendor teams.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities with the ability to identify gaps and proactively drive issues through resolution.
• Ability to work independently in a remote, cross-functional, and geographically distributed environment.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience supporting mergers and acquisitions (M&A), divestitures, acquisitions, or carve-out programs.
• Experience leading or supporting enterprise application transitions, migrations, separations, integrations, or technology transformation programs.
• Experience managing application portfolios involving a combination of business-led and IT-led initiatives.
• Experience with vendor management, solution evaluation, SOW development, procurement, or third-party delivery coordination.
• Experience transitioning applications from project implementation into stable operational support.
• Background may include IT Project/Program Management, Application Delivery, Business Systems Analysis, Application Management, Technology Transformation, or similar roles.

Key Skills:

IT Project Management | Program Management | Application Transition | Application Delivery | Portfolio Management | M&A / Carve-Out | Transition Readiness | Stakeholder Management | Business Relationship Management | Risk & Dependency Management | Application Governance | Vendor Management | SOW Development | Requirements Analysis | Infrastructure & Security Coordination | Integration Management | Testing & Cutover | Operational Readiness | Executive Reporting