Senior Project Manager IT

Senior Project Manager IT Location: Torrance, CA
JOB RESPONSIBILITIES: Project Delivery & Execution:

• Own project plan, delivery milestones, timelines, scope, and cross-team coordination.
• Drive day-to-day execution across surveys, dashboards, QA, and UAT activities.
• Track vendor deliverables, SLAs, and work progress; escalate delays proactively.
• Coordinate tasks across business, IT application teams, vendors, and QA.
• Maintain RAID log (Risks, Actions, Issues, Dependencies) and drive resolutions.
• Own and manage the backlog in close partnership with the Product Owner - intake, refinement, prioritization, and sequencing.

Technical Delivery & Integration Oversight:

• Understand the end-to-end platform architecture across Qualtrics and AWS, including integrations and ETL/data pipelines.
• Coordinate integration work between systems; understand data flows, dependencies, and failure points.
• Apply working SDLC knowledge to guide build, test, and release activities.
• Translate technical constraints and risks into clear delivery decisions for stakeholders

Production Support & Platform Operations:

• Lead production support for the platform, overseeing the vendor's support team.
• Govern support SLAs, ticket queues, and escalations; ensure root-cause resolution.
• Balance production support with enhancement workstreams to maintain stability.
• Monitor platform health and support metrics; report operational status

Vendor Management:

• Manage delivery and communication with Qualtrics and Client teams.
• Ensure clarity of deliverables, timelines, and acceptance criteria.
• Facilitate requirement handoffs, change requests, and delivery sign-off.
• Monitor vendor quality and ensure readiness for testing and go-live.
• Hold vendor support resources accountable to SLAs and quality standards.

Financial Management:

• Own project financials: cost plans, actuals, forecasts, invoices, and accruals.
• Track spend against plan; produce variance analysis and forecasts.
• Validate vendor invoices against SOWs; manage monthly accruals.
• Partner with finance and procurement on PO management and budget approvals.

Stakeholder Engagement & Reporting:

• Serve as central point of contact for the program.
• Prepare and deliver weekly status reports, dashboards, and executive updates.
• Facilitate stakeholder meetings and working sessions; drive agendas and follow-ups.
• Track business readiness and coordinate rollout communications where applicable.

Testing & Deployment Coordination:

• Partner with BSA and QA to plan and execute testing cycles.
• Ensure UAT readiness: test scripts, testers, environment, and data.
• Communicate deployment plans and cutover readiness; manage go-live checkpoints.

Governance & Delivery Discipline:

• Ensure scope clarity and effective change control.
• Track budget usage, forecasts, accruals, and vendor SOW alignment.
• Maintain documentation and audit artifacts (project plan, reports, approvals)

WHAT WILL THE PERSON BE WORKING ON:
The Project Manager will lead delivery of enhancements and platform capabilities for the Enterprise Survey Platform (Qualtrics) program. This role will coordinate activities across vendors, business stakeholders, IT partners, and QA teams to ensure successful execution of survey development, reporting, integrations, and UAT. The PM will also lead production support, own project financials and manage the backlog. Success in this role requires strong project coordination, stakeholder communication, vendor management, schedule governance, delivery oversight, financial management, production support, and hands-on Jira/backlog administration. The PM must also be technically conversant - comfortable with the SDLC, system integrations, and data pipelines across Qualtrics and AWS s- enough to challenge vendors, assess risk, and make informed delivery decisions. This is a structured delivery environment where the PM is responsible for ensuring execution progress, risk/issue management, reporting, and alignment across multiple workstreams.
Required:

• 5+ years of IT Project Management experience, preferably in customer experience or digital platforms.
• Experience managing vendor-delivered technology programs.
• Working knowledge of the SDLC and experience delivering technical, integration-heavy programs.
• Ability to understand system integrations and ETL/data pipelines (Qualtrics and AWS environments).
• Comfortable engaging technical vendor teams on architecture, data flows, and integration design.
• Experience leading production support and vendor support teams with SLA management.
• Financial management experience: cost plans, actuals, forecasts, invoices, and accruals.
• Backlog management experience working closely with a Product Owner: intake, prioritization, refinement, and planning.
• Proven ability to manage cross-functional teams and external partners.
• Strong project planning, RAID management, and communication skills.
• Experience coordinating UAT and structured deployment cycles.
• Strong, hands-on Jira experience (boards, workflows, backlog, JQL, reporting); proficient in Confluence or similar tools.
• Excellent executive reporting and stakeholder-facing communication skills.

Preferred:

• Experience with Qualtrics, VoC, or survey-based programs.
• Background in digital product delivery, CRM, CX analytics, or marketing technology platforms.
• Familiarity with AWS services and ETL/data pipeline concepts.
• Experience with API-based integrations between enterprise platforms.
• Experience managing both delivery and production support (run + build) for an enterprise platform.

Soft Skills:

• Highly organized; strong follow-through and accountability.
• Proactive problem-solver; anticipates roadblocks and escalates early.
• Able to navigate ambiguity and drive clarity among stakeholders.
• Confident communicator with polished executive presence.
• Strong vendor diplomacy s- ability to push for outcomes while maintaining partnership.

Success Looks Like:

• Predictable project execution and clear communication with leadership.
• Vendor deliverables completed on time and of high quality.
• Surveys and dashboards delivered and validated with business stakeholders.
• Integrations and data pipelines delivered and validated, with technical risks understood and managed.
• UAT executed smoothly, issues tracked and resolved.
• Stable production support with SLAs consistently met.
• Accurate financials - forecasts, actuals, invoices, and accruals kept current.
• A healthy, prioritized backlog aligned to business value.
• No surprises: risks escalated early, and stakeholders informed co