Project Manager

Summary
The City of Pasadena is seeking an experienced, strategic, and customer-focused Project Manager to join the Department of Information Technology's Project Management Office (PMO). This position serves as a trusted advisor to City departments, leading complex, enterprise-wide technology initiatives that advance organizational priorities and improve service delivery.

The successful candidate will oversee projects from initiation through implementation while partnering with executive leadership, business stakeholders, technical teams, vendors, and external partners to deliver innovative solutions that create measurable business value. In addition to project delivery, this role plays a key part in portfolio governance, customer relationship management, organizational change management, and continuous improvement efforts across the organization.

This is an outstanding opportunity for a leader who enjoys solving complex business challenges, building trusted partnerships, and driving organizational transformation through technology.

Our PMO is committed to delivering technology solutions through partnership, disciplined execution, and exceptional customer experience. We are seeking a leader who shares these values and is passionate about helping departments achieve their strategic objectives through successful project delivery.

IDEAL CANDIDATE

The ideal candidate is an experienced technology project leader who understands that successful project delivery is as much about people and partnerships as it is about schedules and budgets.

They possess exceptional emotional intelligence and executive presence, enabling them to build trusted relationships with department directors, executive sponsors, technical teams, vendors, and customers throughout the City.

The successful candidate demonstrates:

• Proven success leading large, complex, cross-functional technology initiatives from concept through implementation.
• Strong customer relationship management skills with the ability to understand business needs, influence decision-making, and serve as a trusted advisor to City departments.
• Experience leading organizational change management efforts, including stakeholder engagement, executive communications, organizational readiness, training, user adoption, and transition planning.
• Experience facilitating governance discussions, navigating competing priorities, and driving consensus among diverse stakeholder groups.
• Exceptional communication, facilitation, negotiation, and presentation skills with the ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences.
• A collaborative leadership style that promotes accountability, transparency, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to connect technology investments to strategic organizational outcomes.
• Experience mentoring project managers and helping organizations mature their project delivery capabilities.
• A passion for improving customer experience through technology, process improvement, and effective partnership.
• The ideal candidate thrives in a dynamic environment where priorities evolve, embraces continuous learning, and is energized by helping organizations successfully navigate change.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

1. Lead multiple complex enterprise technology projects through the full project lifecycle, ensuring successful delivery within scope, schedule, budget, and quality expectations.
2. Serve as the primary advisor and liaison for assigned departments by developing trusted partnerships, understanding business priorities, and aligning technology initiatives with organizational goals.
3. Develop and manage project charters, integrated project plans, schedules, budgets, resource plans, risk registers, issue logs, communication plans, and executive reporting.
4. Facilitate project governance by identifying risks, managing dependencies, preparing executive decision materials, and presenting recommendations to governance committees and executive leadership.
5. Coordinate the work of cross-functional technical teams, consultants, vendors, and business stakeholders to ensure successful execution of project objectives.
6. Lead organizational change management activities, including stakeholder analysis, communication planning, organizational readiness assessments, training coordination, business process transition, and user adoption strategies.
7. Facilitate business process improvement workshops and collaborate with departments to identify opportunities for operational efficiencies and service enhancements.
8. Support enterprise portfolio planning, project prioritization, capacity planning, and resource management activities in partnership with PMO leadership.
9. Ensure compliance with PMO methodology, governance standards, project documentation requirements, and organizational best practices.
10. Develop executive dashboards, status reports, presentations, and performance metrics that provide meaningful insights into project health, portfolio performance, and strategic outcomes.
11. Mentor project managers and business stakeholders by promoting sound project management practices, knowledge sharing, continuous improvement, and professional development.
12. Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, innovation, customer service, and operational excellence across project teams.

STRATEGIC FOCUS AREAS

The selected candidate will have the opportunity to lead and support a diverse portfolio of strategic technology initiatives that advance the City's mission and improve service delivery. Projects may include:

• Enterprise Digital Transformation
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Emerging Technologies
• Enterprise Applications and Business Systems Modernization
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Implementations and Enhancements
• Cybersecurity and Risk Reduction Initiatives
• Infrastructure and Cloud Modernization
• Data Analytics, Reporting, and Business Intelligence
• Customer Experience and Digital Service Improvements
• Business Process Analysis and Optimization
• Organizational Change Management and User Adoption
• Enterprise Portfolio Governance and Strategic Planning
• Cross Department Technology Initiatives
• Vendor Selection, Procurement, and Technology Implementations

EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS

The ideal candidate will possess a combination of technical project leadership, business relationship management, and organizational change management experience.

Qualifications include:

• Five (5) or more years of progressively responsible experience managing complex enterprise technology projects or programs.
• Demonstrated success leading enterprise software implementations, digital transformation initiatives, infrastructure modernization, cloud migrations, cybersecurity initiatives, enterprise applications, or business process improvement efforts.
• Proven experience serving as a trusted advisor to executive leadership and business stakeholders, translating business needs into successful technology solutions.
• Strong experience leading organizational change management initiatives, including stakeholder engagement, executive communications, organizational readiness, training, and user adoption.
• Experience facilitating executive governance, portfolio prioritization, strategic planning, and cross-functional decision-making.
• Excellent leadership, communication, facilitation, negotiation, conflict resolution, and executive presentation skills.
• Experience managing consultants, vendors, contracts, and third-party service providers.
• Experience with Project Portfolio Management (PPM) tools such as Planview AdaptiveWork (Clarizen), Microsoft Project, Jira, Azure DevOps, or similar platforms.
• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business Administration, Public Administration, Project Management, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification is highly desirable.
• Organizational change management experience is highly desirable.
• Demonstrated experience leading business process improvement initiatives is a plus

• This is a primarily remote position.
• The selected consultant may be required to work onsite at City facilities for project meetings, stakeholder engagements, workshops, key milestones, team meetings, or other departmental activities as business needs dictate.
• The City operates on a 9/80 work schedule with alternating Fridays off.
• During scheduled work hours, the consultant must remain available and responsive via Microsoft Teams, email, and phone, with an expected response time of 15 minutes