Senior Project Manager

Senior Project Manager

Career Edge is a fully integrated career readiness and case management software system supporting workforce and education entities. Our goal is simple and relentless: sustained employment for career seekers, real results for employers, and stronger communities. We sell and implement enterprise software to state agencies and large workforce systems, and we are judged on whether those implementations land. The mission is why we do it; delivery is what earns us the right to keep doing it.

TITLE:  Senior Project Manager

REPORTS TO:  VP of Project Management Office

LOCATION:  Remote

EMPLOYMENT TYPE:  Full-Time, Exempt Employee

Enterprise workforce systems have run on the same software and the same delivery playbook for decades. We're replacing both - one state, one agency, one implementation at a time. As a Senior Project Manager, you're where that promise gets kept. You lead complex, enterprise-level client implementations and internal initiatives from concept through go-live, and you own whether they land.

Here's the part most job descriptions won't tell you. We need someone who loves process enough to hold a cross-functional team accountable to it, and who can build a new one where none exists yet. Most people have one of those instincts. We need both, in one person, and we screen hard for it. The role is new - created by bigger contracts and more concurrent implementations than our current team can carry, not by a vacancy. Practically, that means some of the scaffolding you'd expect at a mature PMO isn't built yet, and building it is part of the job. If you've only ever delivered inside an established PMO - governance handed to you, a template for every artifact, someone senior who owns the escalation - that gap will feel like work rather than opportunity, and we'd rather you know that now.

The Shape of the Job

Portfolio size depends on what we win: one large statewide implementation as your whole world, or two to three concurrent mid-size engagements. Implementations run several months, typically more than a year.

The structure is matrixed. You have no direct reports, but you direct the Business Analysts, Solutions Architects, and Engineering Leads on your engagements, and mentor the PMs assisting you. On the client side you're the primary point of contact for agency program leadership and their executive sponsors.

What You'll Own

• Delivery, end to end. Own enterprise-level client implementations from discovery through go-live - on scope, on time, and at a quality bar you set and defend. When delivery is humming, it's because you built the plan; when something's stuck, you're already in the room clearing it.
• The client relationship. Be the strategic point of contact across the project lifecycle. Build executive-level trust, run discovery and alignment sessions that pin down scope, business outcomes, success metrics, and risk - and keep senior stakeholders aligned when their priorities collide.
• The translation layer. Turn business objectives into delivery roadmaps, milestones, and measurable outcomes the internal team can actually execute against. Guide the hard trade-off calls on timelines, resourcing, and long-term scalability.
• Cross-functional execution. Direct the work across Project Managers, Business Analysts, Solutions Architects, and Engineering Leads. You lead the high-level conversations on data migration readiness, timeline impacts, and cross-team dependencies without getting pulled into the technical execution yourself.
• Risk, before it's a fire. Spot delivery risk early, build the mitigation, and make the call, handling routine turbulence yourself without reflexively escalating and raising the flag loudly when the work genuinely needs it.
• Readiness and adoption. Guide UAT planning from a business-readiness lens, and shape rollout plans, client training strategies, and the long-game adoption success that turns a go-live into a lasting win.

Why This Role

• Real ownership and real impact: your outcomes directly move client satisfaction, our credibility, and long-term account growth.
• Small enough that you work shoulder-to-shoulder with the executive team and your judgment visibly changes the company. And small enough that the delivery infrastructure is still being built. If getting to shape it reads as the best part of the job rather than a caveat, you'll fit here - we work hard, we win together, and it's genuinely fun.

Who You Are

• A process builder and a process breaker. You hold teams accountable to the plan because you know that's what protects the client. You have the judgment to see when a process is getting in the way of the outcome - and the nerve to redesign it without blowing up everything that already works.
• Calm in ambiguity, sharp in structure. You bring a steady, confident presence to a room full of competing priorities, and you're energized - not rattled - when the path isn't drawn yet. You create the structure others navigate by - and you're the steadiest person on the call when a go-live date is slipping and the client's leadership is listening.
• A relationship-builder unafraid of the direct conversation. When priorities collide, you have the candid talk that gets everyone aligned and leaves the partnership stronger. You know how to protect the work without damaging the relationship.
• A decisive operator. You make independent calls on project direction, scope trade-offs, and escalation thresholds with real autonomy, weighing client objectives against delivery constraints and choosing the path that wins long-term. You have a track record of consequential calls you made without asking permission and can still defend today.

How We Work

• High trust, high accountability. Escalation is a judgment call you make, not a process you follow - we trust you to know the difference and back you when you use it.
• We don't do things the way they've always been done. And we're not interested in starting now.
• Customer obsession: we exist to create raving fans.
• Action over perfection - internally. The 70% plan this week beats the 90% plan next month. But most of our clients are state agencies expecting formal, stage-gated waterfall delivery, and we negotiate as much agility into each contract as that client will take, so no two look alike. Part of the job is reading which one you're on: run the cadence the contract actually bought, hold its deliverables, dates, and artifact standards exactly as written, and find the speed inside the process rather than around it.

What We're Looking For

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
• PMP certification.
• Substantial experience leading enterprise SaaS implementations, digital transformation, or large-scale technology deployments for external clients - not internal programs. This is the one we hold firm on. Workforce development knowledge is a welcome bonus and we'll happily bring you up to speed on the mission - but we're hiring for software delivery, and that experience needs to be there on day one.
• Ability to collaborate with and influence C-level and executive stakeholders.
• Strong skills in risk management, scope control, financial oversight, and strategic project planning.
• Proven leadership and mentorship of project teams or junior PMs.
• Experience delivering where the delivery infrastructure didn't exist yet - you've written the playbook, not just followed one.