Project Manager Product Development Lifecycle

Job Summary

The Project Manager for the Product Development Lifecycle (PDLC) initiative is responsible for planning and delivering an enterprise program to define, implement, and embed a consistent lifecycle for technology-enabled products. The role will coordinate Product, PMO, Architecture, Engineering, Quality Assurance, Security, Release Management, Change Enablement, Finance, and business stakeholders to establish clear lifecycle phases, decision rights, governance controls, deliverables, and measurable outcomes from ideation through retirement.

This role combines project delivery discipline with product operating-model transformation. The Project Manager will manage the integrated plan, facilitate cross-functional design decisions, drive adoption of the future-state lifecycle, and ensure that product work is traceable, governed, and ready to transition into sustained operations.

Responsibilities

Project Scope: Product Development Lifecycle Transformation

· Lead the end-to-end project to design, pilot, implement, and operationalize a standardized Product Development Lifecycle.

· Coordinate current-state assessment, gap analysis, future-state design, pilot execution, rollout, and transition to ongoing process ownership.

· Align the PDLC with portfolio priorities, PMO delivery standards, product management practices, architecture governance, quality controls, change enablement, and release management.

Lifecycle Design & Governance

· Facilitate definition of lifecycle phases from idea intake and prioritization through business case, discovery, design, build, testing, launch, adoption, value realization, maintenance, and retirement.

· Define required artifacts, accountable owners, decision rights, stage gates, entry and exit criteria, approval paths, and exception processes.

· Ensure the lifecycle distinguishes product leadership, product ownership, project management, engineering, quality, architecture, security, release, change, and operational responsibilities.

· Establish a governance model that is scalable for different product types, delivery methods, risk profiles, and levels of complexity.

Project & Delivery Management

· Own the integrated project plan, milestones, workstreams, dependencies, critical path, and delivery commitments.

· Coordinate cross-functional contributors across U.S., LATAM, EMEA, GDC, and vendor teams as applicable.

· Run working sessions, decision forums, status reviews, and steering updates; document decisions and drive timely follow-through.

· Manage scope, schedule, resources, deliverables, and quality through the full project lifecycle.

Process, Tooling & Traceability

· Translate the future-state lifecycle into practical workflows, templates, checklists, playbooks, role guidance, and governance calendars.

· Partner with Azure DevOps and ServiceNow stakeholders to align intake, work-item hierarchy, required data, approvals, testing evidence, release readiness, and production-change records.

· Promote end-to-end traceability from business objective and product investment through requirements, delivery, testing, release, and realized outcomes.

· Define reporting and data-quality expectations that support portfolio visibility, auditability, and continuous improvement.

Stakeholder Alignment & Change Adoption

· Build alignment among product leaders, product managers, product owners, project managers, architects, engineers, test teams, release teams, operations, and business sponsors.

· Identify stakeholder impacts and coordinate communications, training, office hours, pilot support, and adoption activities.

· Anticipate resistance, clarify role changes, and resolve ownership or process conflicts through structured decision-making and escalation.

· Partner with process owners to establish the sustainable operating model, ownership, support model, and continuous-improvement backlog.

Financial & Resource Management

· Manage the project budget, forecast, resource plan, burn rate, and delivery variance in accordance with PMO standards.

· Coordinate resource demand and capacity across workstreams, including internal teams, GDC resources, and third parties.

· Support development of business cases, investment decisions, benefit measures, and value-realization reporting.

Risk, Issue & Dependency Management

· Maintain transparent RAID reporting and proactively manage cross-functional risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies.

· Drive mitigation and recovery plans, escalate decision points, and track actions to closure.

· Identify control gaps or delivery practices that could limit adoption, traceability, quality, or release readiness.

Governance, Reporting & Controls

· Produce standardized status reporting covering milestones, scope, finances, resource health, risks, decisions, adoption, and outcome measures.

· Prepare materials for stage gates, portfolio reviews, steering committees, and leadership forums.

· Define project success measures and handoff criteria for transition from implementation into steady-state process governance.

Skills and Experience

Skills

· English B2+

· Strong enterprise project and program management experience, including operating-model or process-transformation initiatives.

· Practical knowledge of product management and software/product delivery lifecycles, including Agile, hybrid, and stage-gate delivery models.

· Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional design decisions and convert complex processes into clear, usable standards and deliverables.

· Experience with portfolio intake, business cases, roadmaps, requirements, testing, release readiness, change adoption, and value realization.

· Familiarity with Azure DevOps, ServiceNow, Jira, Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Power BI, or comparable delivery and reporting tools.

· Experience coordinating vendors and geographically distributed delivery teams, including GDC resources.

· Strong executive communication, facilitation, negotiation, decision tracking, and change leadership skills.

· Ability to work through ambiguity, establish structure, and drive accountability without direct authority.

Education / Professional Experience / Qualifications

· Bachelor’s degree in Technology, Business, Product Management, or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.

· 7–10 years of project or program management experience in an enterprise technology environment, with responsibility for complex cross-functional initiatives.

· Experience delivering product, software development lifecycle, PMO, governance, or operating-model transformation initiatives.

· PMP, PRINCE2, Certified ScrumMaster, SAFe, Prosci, or product-management certification is preferred but not required.

· Experience working within formal PMO governance, financial controls, and executive reporting models.