Senior Project Manager - Cloud & Compliance Advisory

Lever, Inc.; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 85,000 - 141,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible work model

Competitive compensation

Paid parental leave

Job summary

Coalfire is seeking an Advisory Senior Project Manager to lead complex client engagements from initiation through closeout. You will translate objectives into executable plans, manage scope, schedule, and budget, and partner with clients and internal teams to deliver outcomes.

This role requires a strong consulting presence, executive communication, and the ability to operate in a matrixed environment. You will establish governance, monitor delivery health, and drive continuous improvement

Qualifications

• Progressive project management experience with multi-workstream engagements.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in PM, business, or related field.
• Experience leading complex client engagements with multiple workstreams.
• Strong governance, RAID management, and executive reporting.
• Familiarity with Waterfall, Agile, and hybrid PM approaches.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary PM for clients, sponsors, and internal teams.
• Lead initiation, planning, execution, and closeout of engagements.
• Translate client requirements into delivery plans, milestones, and outcomes.
• Establish governance, RAID, and escalation paths.
• Monitor budgets, forecasts, and financials throughout engagements.
• Provide executive-friendly status updates and governance packs.

Skills

Project management

Client-facing

Stakeholder management

Communication

Leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Risk & quality management

Budgeting & financials

Agile/Waterfall hybrid

Executive reporting

Education

Bachelor’s degree or higher in related field

Associate degree + equivalent experience

Tools

Smartsheet

Jira

OpenAir

Microsoft Project

Job description

About Coalfire

Coalfire is on a mission to make the world a safer place by solving our clients’ hardest cybersecurity challenges. We work at the cutting edge of technology to advise, assess, automate, and ultimately help companies navigate the ever-changing cybersecurity landscape. We are headquartered in Chicago, Illinois with offices across the U.S. and U.K., and we support clients around the world.

But that’s not who we are – that’s just what we do.

We are thought leaders, consultants, and cybersecurity experts, but above all else, we are a team of passionate problem-solvers who are hungry to learn, grow, and make a difference.

Position Summary

The Advisory Senior Project Manager is a senior, client-facing delivery leader responsible for planning, governing, and delivering complex consulting engagements from initiation through closeout. The role serves as the primary project management partner to clients, sponsors, and internal delivery teams, translating engagement objectives into executable plans and measurable outcomes.

Working across Coalfire’s Cloud, Compliance Advisory, Cloud Maintenance & Operations, and related consulting practices, the Senior Project Manager establishes delivery structure and manages scope, schedule, budget, resources, risks, issues, dependencies, decisions, quality, and client commitments.

This role requires strong consulting presence, sound business judgment, executive communication, and the ability to operate independently in a matrixed environment. The Senior Project Manager leads through influence, brings transparency to delivery, and protects both the client experience and Coalfire’s delivery standards.

What You’ll Do

CLIENT & ENGAGEMENT LEADERSHIP

• Serve as the primary project management point of contact for clients, sponsors, and internal delivery teams throughout the engagement.
• Build trusted client relationships through proactive communication, credible advice, reliable follow-through, and a strong understanding of client objectives.
• Lead project initiation, discovery, kickoff, planning, execution, transition, and closeout activities for consulting engagements.
• Translate statements of work, engagement objectives, and client requirements into clear delivery plans, milestones, outcomes, and acceptance criteria.
• Set expectations regarding scope, schedule, budget, roles, decision rights, deliverables, assumptions, and escalation paths.
• Anticipate client needs and delivery risks, surface concerns early, and recommend practical options that support successful outcomes.

PROJECT DELIVERY & CONTROLS

• Own the full project lifecycle for multiple concurrent client engagements, from initiation through delivery, transition, and closeout.
• Develop and maintain integrated project plans with appropriate detail to manage milestones, workstreams, dependencies, resources, deliverables, and critical path activities.
• Establish and maintain baselines for scope, schedule, budget, resources, and delivery milestones; assess and communicate variance.
• Coordinate work across matrixed consulting, technical, operational, and client teams to maintain delivery velocity and alignment.
• Define deliverable ownership, review cycles, acceptance criteria, and completion evidence; drive timely client approvals and sign-offs.
• Manage scope and change control, including impact analysis, approvals, documentation, and communication of approved changes.
• Track project health using meaningful delivery metrics and provide clear recommendations when intervention or recovery planning is required.
• Ensure project documentation, decisions, action items, approvals, and status artifacts are complete, accurate, and maintained throughout the engagement.

GOVERNANCE, RISK & QUALITY MANAGEMENT

• Design and manage an engagement governance model appropriate to the project’s size, complexity, client environment, and risk profile.
• Establish meeting cadences, forums, decision rights, escalation paths, reporting expectations, and stakeholder participation across the engagement.
• Maintain the RAID log and actively manage risks, assumptions, issues, decisions, dependencies, constraints, and mitigations through resolution.
• Lead governance reviews, stage gates, steering committee meetings, executive updates, and other formal delivery checkpoints.
• Prepare concise governance packs that communicate overall health, progress, decisions needed, risks, issues, financial status, and recommended actions.
• Escalate matters with sufficient context, impact analysis, options, and a recommended path forward; follow through until resolution or formal acceptance.
• Apply Coalfire delivery methodology, quality standards, and required controls; identify and address gaps before they affect client outcomes.
• Ensure engagements are delivered in accordance with applicable contractual commitments, internal policies, security expectations, and quality requirements.

FINANCIAL & COMMERCIAL MANAGEMENT

• Monitor project budgets, forecasts, burn, actuals, remaining effort, resource plans, and financial performance throughout the engagement.
• Partner with engagement and practice leadership to identify financial risks, forecast changes, and recovery actions.
• Track scope alignment and potential scope leakage; coordinate change requests and commercial impacts with the appropriate stakeholders.
• Support accurate time, expense, invoicing, utilization, and revenue-related processes in accordance with Coalfire requirements.
• Maintain visibility into resource capacity, staffing needs, delivery constraints, and planned transitions across the project lifecycle.

STAKEHOLDER & EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATION

• Provide clear, concise, and audience-appropriate status reporting for clients, project teams, sponsors, practice leaders, and executives.
• Lead client status meetings, working sessions, steering committees, executive briefings, retrospectives, and other required forums.
• Tailor communication style and level of detail to technical teams, business stakeholders, client executives, and internal leadership.
• Maintain decision logs, action registers, meeting outcomes, and commitments; ensure owners and due dates are clear and actively managed.
• Communicate delivery health, tradeoffs, risks, and decisions in a timely manner, including when the message is difficult or requires escalation.

TEAM LEADERSHIP & COLLABORATION

• Lead and influence cross-functional, matrixed teams without relying solely on direct authority.
• Clarify roles, responsibilities, handoffs, working agreements, and accountability across internal and client stakeholders.
• Facilitate collaboration, resolve conflicts, remove blockers, and create an environment that supports high-quality delivery.
• Coordinate with resource management, sales, finance, operations, security, and practice leadership to support successful engagement execution.
• Delegate effectively, reinforce ownership, and provide constructive feedback that improves team performance and delivery consistency.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

• Apply lessons learned, delivery metrics, client feedback, and retrospectives to improve project execution and client experience.
• Contribute to the evolution of Coalfire project management standards, governance practices, templates, playbooks, and reporting.
• Identify opportunities to improve delivery predictability, operational efficiency, communication, quality, and portfolio visibility.
• Perform other duties as assigned and maintain company-defined billable utilization targets. Remote position; travel for client or internal work as needed (up to 20%)

What You’ll Bring

• 5+ years of progressive project management experience, including substantial client-facing project delivery experience in consulting, professional services, technology, cybersecurity, compliance, advisory, or a related environment.
• Bachelor’s degree preferred, or associate degree plus equivalent experience in project management, business administration, consulting, technology, or a related field.
• Demonstrated success leading complex client engagements with multiple workstreams, stakeholders, deliverables, dependencies, and competing priorities.
• Experience managing scope, schedule, budget, resources, risks, issues, assumptions, decisions, dependencies, quality, and change control across the project lifecycle.
• Demonstrated experience designing or managing project governance, including steering committees, decision rights, escalation paths, stage gates, RAID management, and executive reporting.
• Experience partnering with client executives, sponsors, business stakeholders, and delivery leaders to drive alignment and outcomes.
• Experience leading cross-functional, matrixed teams in a consulting or professional-services delivery model.
• Experience managing project financials, forecasts, utilization, resource plans, scope alignment, and commercial impacts.
• Working knowledge of Waterfall, Agile, and hybrid project management approaches, with the judgment to tailor methods to the engagement.
• Experience facilitating executive meetings, steering committees, status reviews, working sessions, and issue‑resolution forums.
• Strong written, verbal, presentation, facilitation, negotiation, and stakeholder‑management skills.
• Excellent customer service skills and a demonstrated commitment to client satisfaction, delivery quality, and professional integrity.
• Experience with project and portfolio management tools such as Smartsheet, Jira, OpenAir, Microsoft Project, or similar platforms.
• Advanced ability to create executive‑ready status reports, governance packs, dashboards, financial summaries, and decision materials.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills, including the ability to evaluate complex information and recommend a clear course of action.
• Ability to establish structure in ambiguous or fast‑moving environments and to operate effectively with minimal day‑to‑day supervision.
• Demonstrated leadership, ownership of outcomes, sound judgment, adaptability, and consistent follow‑through.
• Ability to coach team members and influence stakeholders while maintaining appropriate boundaries and accountability.
• Availability to provide full‑time support aligned to U.S.-based delivery teams.

Bonus Points

• Experience in cybersecurity, compliance, cloud, technology advisory, or related consulting services is preferred.
• Foundational understanding of compliance frameworks such as FedRAMP, DoD, CMMC, ISO, SOC, or HITRUST is preferred.
• PMP, PgMP, CSM, PMI-ACP, SAFe, or a related project management certification is preferred.

$85,000 - $141,000 a year

The salary range listed is a reasonable estimate of the compensation range for this role based on national salary averages. The actual salary offer to the successful candidate will be based on job-related education, geographic location, training, licensure and certifications and other factors. You may also be eligible to participate in annual incentive, commission, and/or recognition programs.

Why You’ll Want to Join Us

At Coalfire, you’ll find the support you need to thrive personally and professionally. In many cases, we provide a flexible work model that empowers you to choose when and where you’ll work most effectively – whether you’re at home or an office.

Regardless of location, you’ll experience a company that prioritizes connection and wellbeing and be part of a team where people care about each other and our communities. You’ll have opportunities to join employee resource groups, participate in in‑person and virtual events, and more. And you’ll enjoy competitive perks and benefits to support you and your family, like paid parental leave, flexible time off, certification and training reimbursement, digital mental health and wellbeing support membership, and comprehensive insurance options.

At Coalfire, equal opportunity and pay equity is integral to the way we do business. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran. Coalfire is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. To request reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, contact our Human Resources team at [e-mail].