Job Title
Project Manager
Job Description Summary
Job Description
Role Purpose
The Project Manager is accountable for the successful delivery of assigned projects, ensuring work is executed with discipline, transparency, and governance. This role owns day-to-day delivery, manages risks and dependencies, and prepares decision-ready materials to support sponsors and steering committees. Project Managers operate with strong delivery judgment, understanding when to follow PMO standards and when additional analysis or escalation is required. They are expected to communicate effectively with senior leaders, including IT and TDS VPs, and to partner closely with Senior Project Managers and Portfolio Managers when executive support is appropriate.
Responsibilities
- Delivery Execution
- Own end-to-end delivery of assigned projects across scope, schedule, budget, risk, and quality
- Execute delivery using PMO standards, tools, and governance frameworks
- Identify and manage project risks, dependencies, and constraints, including those not explicitly documented
- Adapt delivery approach based on project complexity and stakeholder needs
- Ensure formal project closeout, transition to operations, and lessons learned documentation
- Financial Management
- Own project-level financial management, including budget tracking, forecasting, and variance reporting
- Proactively identify cost risks and propose cost trade-off options to sponsors and steering committees
- Provide clear, accurate financial information to support project-level decision-making
- Governance & Decision Support
- Prepare and present decision-ready materials for sponsors and steering committees
- Present directly to steering committees; executive participation is expected, particularly from TDS/IT leadership
- Strongly encouraged to partner with a Senior Project Manager or Portfolio Manager for executive-facing forums
- Escalate material issues with context, impact, and recommended options
- Operate governance forums proactively to avoid reactive escalation
- Executive & Stakeholder Engagement
- Communicate clearly and professionally with sponsors, business partners, vendors, and senior leaders
- Tailor messaging to technical and business audiences while maintaining clarity and transparency
- Build productive sponsor relationships through reliability and delivery credibility
- Navigate competing stakeholder priorities with professionalism and sound judgment
- Vendor & Partner Leadership
- Lead vendor delivery for assigned projects
- Hold implementation partners accountable to delivery milestones, quality expectations, and agreed plans
- Identify vendor-related risks early and elevate with recommended actions when required
- Ensure vendor activities align with overall project objectives and governance standards
- Team Support & Development
- Informally support and guide Project Coordinators on assigned initiatives
- Reinforce delivery fundamentals, governance discipline, and PMO standards
- Collaborate with Senior Project Managers to learn advanced delivery and leadership practices
- Decision Authority & Escalation
- Full authority for project-level delivery decisions, prioritization, and risk mitigation
- Responsible for preparing and presenting options and recommendations for sponsor and steering committee decisions
- Escalates cross-project or systemic risks to Senior Project Managers or Portfolio Managers as appropriate
- Budget Stewardship
- Track project budgets, actuals, and forecasts using PMO tools
- Monitor variances and identify cost risks as they emerge
- Surface financial impacts to sponsors and steering committees
- Propose cost trade-offs when needed, with support from Sr. Project Manager or Program Manager
- Escalate financial concerns early, even when data is incomplete
- Success Measures
- Predictable project delivery with clear visibility into risks and dependencies
- High-quality, decision-ready materials for sponsors and steering committees
- Effective financial management with early identification of cost risks and trade-offs
- Strong sponsor confidence and trust
- Consistent governance execution and clean project closeout
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Information Systems, or a related field.
- 5+ years of progressive project management experience.
- Project Management qualification such as PMP, and/or Scrum Master preferred.
- Ability to travel 10% or less of time.
Knowledge & Experience
- Experience delivering projects involving multiple teams, systems, or vendors, coordinating across technical and business stakeholders.
- Proven ownership of project financials, including budget tracking, forecasting, and variance management.
- Proficiency using Smartsheet as a primary project planning and tracking tool; experience with other PM tools is beneficial.
- Solid understanding of software development life cycles, with experience applying Agile and traditional project management approaches.
- Demonstrated ability to manage and lead remotely located, cross-functional teams.
- Strong organizational skills with the ability to prioritize and manage competing demands.
Skills & Personal Qualities
- Strong communication skills with the ability to convey information clearly to sponsors, team members, vendors, and senior leaders.
- Sound judgment in balancing adherence to standards with situational flexibility.
- High level of ownership and accountability for delivery outcomes.
- Ability to operate effectively under pressure and within aggressive timelines.
- Business-oriented mindset with an understanding of project purpose and value.
- Professional, collaborative approach to stakeholder engagement.
- Willingness to adjust working hours as needed to support critical delivery phases or governance forums
Benefits & Compensation
Cushman & Wakefield provides eligible employees with a variety of benefit programs, including health, vision, and dental insurance, flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, retirement savings plans, life and disability insurance programs, and paid and unpaid time away from work. In addition to a comprehensive benefits package, Cushman & Wakefield offers competitive pay, which may vary depending on factors such as geographic location, date of hire, total hours worked, job type, business line, and applicability of collective bargaining agreements. The compensation that will be offered to the successful candidate will depend on factors such as whether the position is covered by a collective bargaining agreement, the geographic area in which the work will be performed, market pay rates in that area, and the candidate’s experience and qualifications. The company will not pay less than minimum wage for this role. The compensation for the position is: $103,955.00 – $122,300.00.
Cushman & Wakefield is an Equal Opportunity employer to all protected groups, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. Discrimination of any type will not be tolerated.
In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA), if you have a disability and would like to request an accommodation in order to apply for a position at Cushman & Wakefield, please call the ADA line at 1-888-365-5406 or send an email. Please refer to the job title and job location when you contact us.
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