IT Project Manager

Title: IT Project Manager

Department/Location: Information Technology, St Louis

Position Type: Full-Time, 12-month

Summary

The IT Project Manager is an onsite role located in St. Louis, MO. The role advances Principia by leading moderately complex technology projects that support Principia's mission, operations, and service delivery across the School, College, and shared administrative services. Reporting to Chief Technology Officer, this role plays a critical part in coordinating teams, vendors, stakeholders, and technical resources to deliver defined outcomes with clear scope, structure, communication, and accountability and collaborates closely with institutional leaders, department stakeholders, system owners, project managers, vendors, and IT service teams across the School, College, and shared services to service academic and administrative functions across multiple departments and campuses. As well as developing and managing project plans, schedules, risks, issues, decisions, communications, implementation readiness, and stakeholder expectations. The role also supports practical change readiness so that technology changes are communicated, adopted, handed off, and sustained.

Success in this role draws on ensuring projects are delivered with clear scope, timeline, responsibilities, risks, decisions, and stakeholder expectations and project status is accurate, timely, and useful for decision-making; Risks, issues, and dependencies are identified early and actively managed; Stakeholders understand project impacts, decisions, and implementation readiness; Communication, readiness, training, and support needs are identified early and included in the project plan when appropriate; Technology changes transition into daily operations with clear ownership, documentation, support paths, and handoff planning; Post-implementation reviews assess delivery completion, service impact, and operational value; Project closeout captures lessons learned and practical improvement opportunities; The project manager is viewed by stakeholders and technical teams as organized, credible, transparent, and outcome-focused; And the role strengthens trust between IT and the departments it serves.

Who We Are

At our award-winning Early Childhood through grade 12 Principia School in St. Louis, Missouri, and top-ranked Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, Principia faculty and staff make up a close-knit community of educators, coaches, and professionals taking a distinct approach to education-blending academic excellence with Christian Science-based character education. Principia's team of over 500 employees supports not only Principia School and Principia College, but also a worldwide network of alumni and friends.

Principia employees are part of an engaging academic community preparing students to be tomorrow's leaders, thinkers, and changemakers. We strive to create a collaborative and inclusive environment where everyone feels they belong and are valued.

Primary Responsibilities

Project Planning and Delivery

• Leads assigned IT projects through the full project lifecycle, including initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, controlling, implementation, and closeout
• Develops and maintains project charters, scope statements, project plans, schedules, milestones, resource plans, and status reports
• Builds appropriate communication, implementation readiness, and operational handoff activities into project plans
• Coordinates project activities across internal teams, department stakeholders, vendors, consultants, and service partners
• Manages project scope, timeline, budget, dependencies, risks, issues, decisions, and action items, including monitoring project spending and helping ensure projects stay within approved budget limits
• Identifies constraints and tradeoffs early, escalates appropriately, and supports timely decisions
• Confirms that implementation planning includes technical cutover, stakeholder communication, support readiness, and operational handoff

Stakeholder Engagement and Communication

• Serves as a primary point of coordination between technology teams, departments, vendors, and leadership stakeholders
• Facilitates project meetings, planning discussions, risk reviews, decision reviews, and readiness meetings
• Prepares clear project communications for technical and non-technical audiences, including executive summaries, dashboards, issue summaries, and decision documents
• Identifies affected stakeholder groups and tailors communication based on role, impact, and decision authority
• Builds trust with stakeholders by clarifying expectations, documenting decisions, following through on commitments, and communicating risks transparently
• Surfaces readiness or adoption concerns early and address them through communication, training coordination, process clarification, or leadership escalation

Change Readiness and Adoption Support

• Plans for the people, process, service, and support impacts of technology changes when those impacts are significant
• Identifies affected stakeholder groups, communication needs, training or support needs, readiness risks, and operational handoff requirements
• Coordinates with business owners, IT leaders, service owners, training resources, communications teams, and support teams to prepare users for implementation
• Confirms that documentation, support paths, transition plans, and post-go-live stabilization needs are addressed before project closeout

Risk, Issue, and Dependency Management

• Maintains project risk, issue, decision, and dependency logs.
• Analyze project risks and recommend mitigation or contingency plans
• Identifies whether project risks are related to scope, timeline, budget, technical delivery, stakeholder readiness, process change, or operational support
• Tracks and resolves blockers with project teams and stakeholders
• Escalates risks and decisions when scope, timeline, cost, quality, security, compliance, adoption, or service delivery may be affected
• Coordinates with vendors and internal teams to manage external dependencies and contractual deliverables

Governance, Reporting, and Documentation

• Prepares regular project status reports, steering committee materials, readiness updates, and closeout summaries
• Maintains accurate project records in approved project management, collaboration, and document repositories
• Supports project intake, prioritization, governance reviews, and portfolio reporting as needed
• Documents project outcomes, unresolved risks, operational handoffs, lessons learned, and improvement opportunities

Core Competencies

Principia values the unique strengths each employee brings to their role. The following competencies are especially important for success at Principia:

• Continuous Learning &Expertise: Demonstrates mastery in your area of responsibility and seeks opportunities for professional growth and development.
• Accountability & Results Orientation: Manages time and priorities effectively, meets commitments, and consistently delivers high-quality outcomes.
• Problem Solving & Judgment: Approaches challenges thoughtfully, considers multiple perspectives, and makes sound, timely decisions that support institutional goals.
• Proactivity & Ownership: Takes initiative, anticipates needs, and drives projects forward with minimal supervision while taking responsibility for outcomes.
• Excellence & Attention to Detail: Produces accurate, polished, and high-quality work; continuously looking for ways to improve systems, processes, and results.
• Service Orientation: Builds positive, supportive relationships and responds promptly and professionally to the needs of students, colleagues, and other stakeholders.
• Collaboration & Collegiality: Works cooperatively across departments and teams; values input from others and contributes to a positive, respectful environment.
• Communication: Shares information clearly and concisely; listens carefully to others and adjusts communication style for different audiences and situations.
• Inclusion & Belonging: Demonstrates respect for all people; values diverse perspectives and fosters a culture of inclusion, belonging, and mutual respect.
• Leadership: Inspires and guides others with clarity, compassion, and accountability; supports individual and team growth in alignment with Principia's mission and goals.
• Culture & Team Building: Fosters a culture of trust, collaboration, and open communication; demonstrates genuine care for team members' well-being and development.
• Resource Stewardship: Manages budgets, time, and resources responsibly and strategically to achieve departmental and institutional objectives.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Business Administration, Project Management, Management Information Systems, education administration, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Eight or more years of professional experience supporting or managing projects, including at least five years of direct project management experience in technology, business systems, infrastructure, service delivery, or enterprise application environments.
• Demonstrated experience managing scope, schedules, budgets, risks, issues, dependencies, communications, and stakeholder expectations.
• Experience coordinating communication, readiness, training, support, or operational handoff activities as part of technology project delivery.
• Experience working with technical teams and non-technical business stakeholders.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and projects in a changing environment.
• Strong written communication, meeting facilitation, problem-solving, organization, and relationship-building skills.
• Proficiency with project management and collaboration tools such as Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Jira, ServiceNow, Teams, SharePoint, Miro, Visio, or similar platforms.
• Supportive of Principia's guiding statements as articulated herehttps://www.principia.edu/about/guiding-statements

Preferred Qualifications

• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.
• Proscicertification, ADKAR exposure, or comparable change management training.
• Experience supporting stakeholder engagement, communication, training, readiness, or adoption activities as part of project delivery.
• Experience managing IT projects in education, higher education, independent schools, nonprofit organizations, or mission-driven institutions.
• Experience leading projects involving student information systems, ERP, CRM, identity and access management, endpoint management, classroom technology, cybersecurity, infrastructure, cloud services, data/reporting, or IT service management platforms.
• Experience with Agile, Kanban, waterfall, and hybrid project delivery methods.
• Student of Christian Science preferred

The statements above describe the general nature and level of work but are not a complete list of responsibilities and are subject to change at the discretion of Principia.

Compensation and Benefits

We offer a competitive starting salary range for this position: $95,000 - $115,000 annually, commensurate with experience and qualifications.

In addition to salary, our comprehensive total rewards package includes:

• Generous Employee Tuition Discount: Enjoy a 90% discount on tuition (pro-rated for part-time staff) for your eligible children enrolled from Pre-K3 through College (infant and acorn programs excluded).
• Relocation: Principia provides a relocation reimbursement of up to 12% of your annual salary when moving from outside a radius of more than 50 miles.
• Professional Development: Access to learning opportunities, training programs, and career growth support.
• Comprehensive Benefits: Learn more about all our benefits here, including comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans, paid time off, a 403(b) retirement plan with Principia matching, and more.

Equal Opportunity

Principia, a mission-driven institution, believes every person has the right to an equitable and respectful educational environment and workplace. Principia does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, ethnicity, gender (identity or expression), sexual orientation, family status, disability, age, or military or veteran status.

In hiring, admissions, and related decisions, Principia-as an institution with a religious mission-gives preference, where appropriate, to Christian Scientists.