The Program/Project Manager will lead complex, cross-functional IT initiatives from discovery through implementation, supporting improved accountability, transparency, compliance, and service delivery across City departments.
This role combines strong project management and Agile delivery expertise with a human-centered, systems-thinking approach to problem-solving. The ideal candidate is a proactive, hands-on leader who can navigate ambiguity, translate complex challenges into actionable plans, and maintain momentum across teams and stakeholders.
The successful candidate will emphasize iterative progress, informed decision-making, continuous learning, and practical outcomes rather than waiting for every detail to be finalized before moving forward.
IT Project Leadership: Lead complex, multi-department technology initiatives, including projects supporting public safety transformation and City compliance requirements associated with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) settlement agreement and Department of Justice (DOJ) consent decree.
End-to-End Project Management: Manage initiatives from discovery through implementation, defining project scope, objectives, schedules, resources, risks, dependencies, decisions, and success measures.
Planning and Execution: Translate complex or ambiguous challenges into clear project plans, priorities, deliverables, ownership assignments, and actionable next steps.
Stakeholder Communication: Establish meeting agendas, document discussions and decisions, track action items, and maintain alignment among project teams, department leaders, and other stakeholders.
Proactive Risk Management: Anticipate risks, dependencies, decisions, and delivery barriers. Develop recommendations, evaluate options, and take initiative to resolve issues and maintain progress.
Agile and Iterative Delivery: Develop outcome-based roadmaps, break complex initiatives into manageable increments, prioritize work, test assumptions early, gather feedback, and adapt delivery plans as new information emerges.
Continuous Improvement: Help teams identify the smallest meaningful next step, make informed decisions with available information, and pursue continuous improvement rather than unnecessary analysis or perfection.
Human-Centered Design: Engage users and stakeholders to understand their needs, workflows, pain points, and desired outcomes. Incorporate feedback into planning, requirements, solution design, testing, and implementation.
Systems Thinking: Assess the relationships among people, processes, technology, data, policies, and organizational structures. Identify cross-project dependencies and evaluate downstream impacts.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Facilitate collaboration across technical and business teams, building alignment around objectives, priorities, roles, decisions, and next steps while maintaining accountability.
Executive Reporting: Prepare and deliver executive-level project updates covering progress, risks, dependencies, decisions, and recommendations from both technical and organizational perspectives.
Organizational Change Management: Incorporate communications, training, change readiness, and transition planning into project delivery. Assess how technology changes affect employees' responsibilities, workflows, and day-to-day operations.
Business Readiness and Implementation: Develop and implement practical, user-friendly readiness materials and tools to support project milestones, including go-live checklists, pilot plans, and transition resources.
Outcome Measurement: Evaluate project success against scope, schedule, budget, and quality, as well as user adoption, usability, operational effectiveness, service improvements, and stakeholder needs.
Strong project management and Agile delivery capabilities.
Experience leading complex, cross-functional IT initiatives.
Ability to operate effectively in ambiguous and evolving environments.
Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
Excellent facilitation, communication, and stakeholder management abilities.
Experience managing project risks, dependencies, decisions, and competing priorities.
Ability to communicate project status and recommendations to executive leadership.
Knowledge of human-centered design and user engagement practices.
Systems-thinking approach to understanding organizational and technology dependencies.
Experience supporting organizational change, business readiness, and technology adoption.
Focus on measurable outcomes, continuous improvement, and practical execution.
