Technical Project Manager

About the Role

We are seeking a highly analytical and proactive Technical Project Manager to bridge the gap between technical execution and business strategy. Unlike a traditional PM, you will be expected to understand architecture, challenge technical estimates, and manage engineering trade-offs. You will lead cross-functional teams (backend, frontend, QA, DevOps) to deliver complex software/products on time and within scope.

Key Responsibilities

1. Technical Planning & Execution

• Lead end-to-end delivery of technical initiatives (API development, cloud migrations, feature releases, infrastructure upgrades).

• Break down high-level business requirements into technical epics, user stories, and tasks with clear acceptance criteria.

• Facilitate technical design discussions and challenge architectural decisions based on feasibility, timeline, and resource constraints.

• Manage technical debt backlog alongside feature development.

2. Agile & SDLC Management

• Own the Agile ceremonies (daily stand-ups, sprint planning, retrospectives, demos) for engineering teams.

• Implement and maintain CI/CD processes in collaboration with DevOps; ensure quality gates (code review, automated testing) are respected.

• Track progress using JIRA, Asana, or Linear; maintain burndown charts, velocity tracking, and release plans.

3. Risk & Dependency Management

• Proactively identify technical risks (e.g., legacy system integration, third-party API limits, skill gaps) and mitigation strategies.

• Manage cross-team dependencies (data, UI, platform) and coordinate release rollbacks/feature flags.

4. Stakeholder Communication

• Translate technical complexity into business impact for non-technical stakeholders (product, sales, leadership).

• Report on key metrics: cycle time, defect rate, sprint predictability, and release health.

• Facilitate post-mortems for incidents or delays, driving root cause analysis and action items.

5. Resource & Budget Alignment

• Work with engineering managers to estimate effort (story points, t-shirt sizes) and forecast capacity.

• Track project budget related to cloud costs, third-party tools, or contractor hours.

Required Qualifications

Technical Foundation

• 3+ years as a Technical Project Manager, Engineering Lead, or Scrum Master with technical hands-on background.

• Solid understanding of modern software architecture (RESTful APIs, microservices, event-driven design, databases – SQL/NoSQL).

• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform) and concepts like containers (Docker, Kubernetes) and serverless.

• Working knowledge of source control (Git/GitHub) and CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, CircleCI).

• Ability to read code (Python, Java, TypeScript, Go, or similar) and review logs/errors to facilitate debugging conversations.

Process & Tools

• Deep expertise in Agile (Scrum, Kanban, Scrumban) and scaled frameworks (SAFe, LeSS) – optional but valued.

• Proficiency in JIRA (advanced querying, dashboarding) and Confluence.

• Experience with API testing tools (Postman) or basic SQL queries for validation.

Soft Skills

• Exceptional prioritization – ability to say “no” or “not yet” based on data.

• Conflict resolution between engineering, product, and QA.

• Documentation-first mindset – architecture decision records, runbooks, project charters.

Preferred Qualifications (Nice-to-Have)

• Prior experience as a Software Engineer, QA Engineer, or DevOps for 2+ years.

• Certifications: PMP, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), SAFe Agilist, or AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner.

• Experience in [specific domain: FinTech, HealthTech, E-commerce, AI/ML] – adjust as needed.

• Knowledge of data engineering pipelines (Airflow, dbt, Snowflake) or mobile development (iOS/Android).

Performance Metrics (KPIs for Success)

• On-time delivery rate of committed sprint scope (≥80%).

• Reduction in escaped defects (bugs found post-release).

• Predictability – variance between estimated and actual cycle time <20%.

• Stakeholder satisfaction (product & engineering NPS).