Job Title: Sr. IT Project Manager - Modernization
Duration: 12 Months (Contract)
Location: Denver, CO
Summary:
The Strategic Project Manager will lead the replacement of Colorado’s legacy probation case management system, ICON/JPOD. This role will oversee the full project lifecycle, including planning, procurement, system implementation, data migration, testing, statewide deployment, and legacy system decommissioning.
The position requires strong project governance, vendor management, stakeholder engagement, and change management skills to deliver a complex, high-visibility technology modernization initiative across Colorado’s 23 judicial districts. The Project Manager will coordinate with business, technology, policy, and partner agency stakeholders to ensure the new system meets operational requirements, regulatory obligations, and long-term organizational goals.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Project Management and Governance
- Lead the full project lifecycle, from requirements gathering and procurement through design, development, data migration, testing, statewide rollout, and legacy system decommissioning.
- Develop and maintain the project plan, master schedule, budget, scope, milestones, and benefits realization plan.
- Establish project governance, reporting processes, decision-making frameworks, and escalation procedures.
- Align project objectives and deliverables with organizational priorities and measurable business outcomes.
- Prepare executive-level status reports, decision materials, and project performance updates.
Vendor and Procurement Management
- Support solicitation development, vendor evaluation, and solution selection in accordance with state procurement requirements.
- Manage vendor relationships, deliverables, performance, timelines, and contractual obligations.
- Coordinate internal teams and external vendors to maintain project quality, schedule, and budget.
- Monitor dependencies, resolve delivery challenges, and escalate contractual or performance issues as needed.
Regulatory and Policy Compliance
- Identify applicable Colorado statutes, Chief Justice Directives, and probation standards that affect system requirements.
- Coordinate with legal, policy, research, and operational stakeholders to ensure regulatory and reporting requirements are incorporated into the solution.
- Ensure the system supports required reporting, risk and needs assessments, and evidence-based probation practices.
- Oversee coordination of required data exchanges with partner agencies to maintain continuity and data integrity.
Stakeholder Engagement and Change Management
- Engage probation leadership, officers, supervisors, court staff, and partner agencies across all 23 judicial districts.
- Facilitate stakeholder meetings, requirements workshops, user feedback sessions, and cross-functional decision-making.
- Lead user-centered design activities, including workflow reviews, field observations, and user testing.
- Coordinate organizational change management, communications, training, readiness assessments, and go-live support.
- Promote accessibility, plain-language communication, and equitable user experiences throughout system design and implementation.
- Support adoption and transition planning across geographically distributed urban and rural locations.
Risk, Quality, and Implementation Management
- Identify, document, monitor, and mitigate project risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies.
- Develop and execute testing, data migration, cutover, contingency, and deployment plans.
- Ensure the transition to the new platform minimizes operational disruption and maintains continuity of probation services.
- Monitor project deliverables against scope, quality standards, schedule, and budget.
- Track implementation outcomes, user adoption, and benefits realization, escalating critical decisions to leadership.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in project management, information systems, public administration, criminal justice, business, or a related field. Additional relevant experience may substitute for the degree on a year-for-year basis.
- Ten years of progressively responsible project management experience, including at least five years leading large, complex technology implementations involving multiple vendors and stakeholder groups.
- Demonstrated experience managing multi-year project schedules, budgets, scope, and deliverables.
- Experience leading enterprise system replacements involving data migration and organizational change management.
- Ability to pass a criminal background check.
Preferred Qualifications
- Project Management Professional (PMP), Program Management Professional (PgMP), or equivalent certification.
- Agile project management and/or change management certifications.
- Experience with Waterfall project management methodologies.
- Experience combining Waterfall governance and procurement controls with Agile solution delivery.
- Experience implementing case management systems for government agencies or other complex public-sector organizations.
- Familiarity with Colorado state government, the Colorado Judicial Branch, or CICJIS data exchanges.
- Experience implementing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions or configurable SaaS platforms in the public sector.
- Experience managing projects involving geographically distributed users across urban and rural locations.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- Project and Program Management: Strong command of Waterfall, Agile, and hybrid methodologies, including the ability to select and apply appropriate delivery approaches.
- Systems Thinking: Ability to understand the relationships between technology, policy, operations, and organizational processes.
- Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate complex project information for executive, technical, and operational audiences.
- Stakeholder Management: Proven ability to build consensus, facilitate decisions, and manage competing priorities across diverse stakeholder groups.
- Analytical and Problem-Solving Skills: Ability to evaluate data, assess trade-offs, resolve complex issues, and make sound decisions in ambiguous environments.
- Governance and Executive Engagement: Experience operating within complex governance structures, preparing executive decision materials, facilitating escalations, and supporting leadership decisions.
- Vendor Management: Ability to manage vendor performance, contractual deliverables, dependencies, and implementation risks.
- Change Management: Knowledge of organizational readiness, stakeholder engagement, communications, training, and user adoption strategies.
- Benefits Realization: Ability to define and track business outcomes, adoption metrics, and value realization objectives.
- Integrity and Discretion: Ability to handle confidential criminal justice information and sensitive organizational matters appropriately.
- Resilience and Adaptability: Ability to lead complex, high-visibility projects through uncertainty, competing priorities, and implementation challenges.
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