Technical Project Manager – Engineering Team Lead

Overview

Acuity is seeking a highly technical IT Project Manager to lead engineering teams supporting enterprise IT modernization initiatives for the U.S. Department of State. This position requires a unique combination of hands-on technical expertise, engineering team leadership, and project management experience to oversee the successful design, development, implementation, and delivery of complex technology solutions.

The ideal candidate is a seasoned technical leader with a background in infrastructure engineering, cloud technologies, automation, software development, or enterprise IT operations who has progressed into leading multidisciplinary engineering teams and managing technical projects.

Unlike a traditional project management role, this position requires an individual who can engage directly with engineers, understand complex technical challenges, evaluate proposed solutions, provide technical direction, and hold engineering teams accountable for successful delivery.

The IT Project Manager will lead technical teams supporting Overseas Operations, Automation, and Overseas Data Storage initiatives, ensuring engineering solutions meet mission requirements, technical standards, and project objectives across domestic and international environments.

Why Acuity?

Are you ready to use your expertise in the areas of IT Modernization, Data Enablement, and Hyperautomation to make a real difference? Join Acuity, Inc., a technology consulting firm that supports federal agencies. We combine industry partnerships and long-term federal experience with innovative technical leadership to support our customers’ critical missions.

Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Engineering Management

• Lead, manage, and mentor multidisciplinary engineering teams supporting cloud infrastructure, automation, cybersecurity, networking, enterprise storage, software development, and IT modernization initiatives.

• Provide day-to-day technical leadership, direction, and oversight to engineers, ensuring technical solutions align with customer requirements, architectural standards, and operational objectives.

• Serve as the primary technical delivery leader, bridging engineering execution, project management, and government stakeholder expectations.

• Leverage a strong engineering background to evaluate technical designs, challenge proposed approaches, identify technical gaps, and guide teams toward effective solutions.

• Oversee engineering activities throughout the solution lifecycle, including technical planning, design, development, integration, testing, deployment, and operational transition.

• Facilitate technical discussions, engineering reviews, architecture assessments, and troubleshooting sessions to resolve complex technical challenges.

• Manage engineering workloads, resource allocation, technical priorities, and deliverables across multiple concurrent workstreams.

• Mentor and develop engineering personnel, promote technical accountability, and foster a culture of collaboration, continuous improvement, and high-quality delivery.

• Identify engineering skill gaps, resource constraints, and technical dependencies that could affect project execution.

• Partner with solution architects, technical SMEs, and engineering leads to ensure solutions are scalable, secure, supportable, and aligned with enterprise architecture standards.

Technical Project Management & Delivery

• Lead the planning, execution, and delivery of complex enterprise IT modernization projects, with direct accountability for engineering execution and technical outcomes.

• Translate customer mission requirements and business objectives into actionable technical work plans, engineering deliverables, and implementation strategies.

• Develop and maintain project schedules, technical milestones, resource plans, budgets, risk registers, and delivery metrics.

• Manage project scope, schedule, budget, technical risks, dependencies, and engineering resources while ensuring successful delivery against contractual requirements.

• Oversee multiple concurrent technical initiatives involving cloud modernization, infrastructure engineering, automation, cybersecurity, enterprise storage, and application modernization.

• Apply Agile, Scrum, Kanban, or hybrid project management methodologies to drive engineering execution and delivery.

• Coordinate engineering activities across geographically dispersed teams supporting domestic and overseas operations.

• Identify and proactively resolve technical roadblocks, engineering dependencies, integration challenges, and delivery risks.

• Ensure technical deliverables meet established quality, security, performance, and operational readiness requirements.

• Lead technical status reviews, engineering working groups, project meetings, and executive briefings with government stakeholders.

• Provide clear reporting on engineering progress, technical challenges, project performance, resource utilization, and delivery risks.

• Support DevSecOps practices, automation initiatives, and continuous improvement of engineering and delivery processes.

Stakeholder Engagement & Technical Collaboration

• Serve as a trusted technical delivery partner to Department of State stakeholders, program leadership, engineering teams, and technical SMEs.

• Communicate complex technical concepts, engineering tradeoffs, and project risks to both technical and nontechnical audiences.

• Collaborate with government technical representatives to understand mission needs, establish technical priorities, and recommend solutions.

• Ensure engineering execution aligns with Department of State governance, cybersecurity policies, federal IT standards, and operational requirements.

• Coordinate the transition of implemented solutions into production environments, including documentation, knowledge transfer, and operational support readiness.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a closely related technical discipline, or equivalent relevant experience where permitted by contract requirements.

• Minimum of ten (10) years of progressive experience in enterprise IT, including substantial experience in technical engineering, IT infrastructure, software development, cloud technologies, or enterprise systems.

• Demonstrated experience leading, supervising, or managing technical engineering teams responsible for designing, developing, implementing, or supporting enterprise technology solutions.

• Proven experience serving as a Technical Project Manager, Engineering Manager, Technical Lead, Infrastructure Lead, or similar role combining technical leadership with project delivery responsibilities.

• Strong technical understanding of multiple enterprise IT disciplines, including cloud infrastructure, networking, cybersecurity, automation, enterprise storage, systems engineering, or software development.

• Demonstrated ability to understand technical architectures, evaluate engineering solutions, troubleshoot complex technical challenges, and provide informed technical direction.

• Experience managing engineering resources, assigning technical work, establishing priorities, mentoring engineers, and driving technical accountability.

• Experience managing complex technical projects involving infrastructure modernization, cloud migration, enterprise automation, systems integration, or software delivery.

• Strong understanding of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), Agile delivery methodologies, DevSecOps principles, and enterprise IT operations.

• Experience managing project schedules, technical milestones, resources, budgets, risks, dependencies, and engineering deliverables.

• Proficiency with technical delivery and project management tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, ServiceNow, Microsoft Project, or comparable platforms.

• Experience working with geographically dispersed engineering teams and cross-functional technical stakeholders.

• Strong technical communication, leadership, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.

• Ability to communicate effectively with engineers, solution architects, program leadership, and senior government stakeholders.

• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior hands-on experience as a Systems Engineer, Cloud Engineer, Infrastructure Engineer, Software Engineer, Network Engineer, or Technical Architect.

• Experience transitioning from an engineering or technical lead position into engineering management or technical project management.

• Experience leading engineering teams supporting federal enterprise IT modernization initiatives.

• Technical familiarity with AWS, Microsoft Azure, enterprise networking, Windows/Linux environments, virtualization, storage technologies, or infrastructure automation.

• Experience with scripting and automation technologies such as Python, PowerShell, Bash, Ansible, or Terraform.

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, Git-based workflows, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, or comparable DevSecOps technologies.

• Experience supporting the U.S. Department of State or other federal civilian agencies.

• Experience supporting overseas IT operations, geographically distributed infrastructure, enterprise storage, or cloud modernization programs.

• Familiarity with NIST RMF, FISMA, FedRAMP, and federal cybersecurity requirements.

• Certified Scrum Master (CSM), PMI-ACP, SAFe Agilist, ITIL 4 Foundation, or comparable Agile/IT service management certification.

Clearance Requirement 

• Must have active Secret - level security clearance to start and be eligible for Top Secret.

Min

USD $150,000.00/Yr.

Max

USD $170,000.00/Yr.

Salary Range

The salary range for this position represents Acuity's good faith estimate of the compensation for this job title at the time of posting. Final compensation will be determined based on factors including, but not limited to, the candidate's qualifications, experience, education, certifications, skills, geographic location, contract requirements, applicable labor categories, and, where applicable, contract award and funding.