Software Project Manager

Remote Jobs; Oak Ridge (TN); On-site; USD 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Vital Services is seeking an experienced Technology Project Manager to plan, track, and deliver custom application, data, and reporting projects on schedule and within budget. The role aligns operations with the Domain BA and Engineering Manager to maximize billable utilization and protect profitability targets.

You will own scope, timelines, budgets, and Jira delivery tracking for multiple client engagements while ensuring consistent milestone progress and stakeholder communication.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of IT project management experience, preferably in professional services, digital agency, or tech consulting.
• Strong fluency in interpreting SOWs and T&M contracts to prevent non-billable scope creep.
• Experience forecasting capacity, tracking burn rates, and managing backlogs.

Responsibilities

• Scope, timeline, and budget ownership for all client engagements.
• Monitor SOW boundaries and protect margin targets.
• Plan resource capacity with Engineering Manager to maintain 80%+ billable utilization.
• Serve as primary point of contact for client communications and milestone updates.
• Manage Jira epics, milestones, releases, and capacity-tracking.

Skills

IT Project Mgmt

Stakeholder Mgmt

Capacity Planning

Client Management

Jira

Tools

Jira

Job description

Summary

Vital Services is seeking an experienced, talented, and knowledgeable Technology Project Manager to join our growing Information Technology team. As the Technology Project Manager, you will plan, track, and successfully deliver custom application, data, and reporting projects on schedule and within budget, driving operational alignment with the Domain BA and Engineering Manager to maximize billable utilization and protect project profitability targets.

Responsibilities of the Software Project Manager

1. Scope, Timeline, & Budget Ownership: Defining, documenting, and actively managing detailed project plans, milestones, and delivery timelines for all T&M client engagements.
2. Margin Protection & SOW Enforcement: Monitoring contract boundaries on active Scopes of Work (SOWs) alongside the Domain BA to prevent non-billable scope creep and ensure custom client requests protect the 20% profit margin target.
3. Resource Capacity & Utilization Planning: Partnering with the Software Engineering Manager to forecast near-term resourcing needs, ensuring client queues remain unblocked and the team maintains a steady >= 80% billable utilization footprint.
4. Stakeholder & Client Management: Serving as the primary point of contact for client communications, project updates, and milestone verification across distinct service accounts.
5. Jira Lifecycle Delivery Tracking: Managing the overarching operational epic and version structures within Jira, ensuring the team's weekly delivery throughput translates accurately into verifiable client progress.

Skills & Experience of the Technology Project Manager

• Professional Delivery Experience: 5+ years of dedicated IT Project Management experience, with a heavy preference for candidates who have managed delivery in a professional services firm, digital agency, or technology consulting ecosystem.
• Scope & T&M Contract Fluency: Exceptional proficiency in interpreting and managing execution boundaries defined within client Scopes of Work (SOWs) and Time and Materials (T&M) agreements. Proven experience stopping and resolving "non-billable scope creep."
• Operational Capacity Planning: Advanced experience tracking project burn rates, forecasting near-term development capacity, and managing backlog pipelines to consistently meet direct billable resource allocation targets.
• Insurance or High-Compliance Exposure: Strong familiarity operating within data-heavy or high-compliance industries (e.g., Insurance IT, FinTech, or healthcare software environments) to ensure project timelines respect technical dependencies.
• Jira Lifecycle Mastery: Extensive hands-on experience structuring, building, and maintaining epics, milestones, release versions, and capacity-tracking components inside Jira.
• Collaborative Client Management: Strong history acting as the primary, polished point of contact for complex B2B client relationships-navigating shifting delivery priorities, setting realistic milestones, and maintaining client trust.
• Cross-Functional Triad Partnership: Proven success pairing directly with a Domain BA (to validate scope values) and a Software Engineering Manager (to align resource execution) to maximize team productivity.

Success Metrics of the Technology Project Manager

• Departmental Billable Utilization Support: Partner with the Software Engineering Manager to maintain a baseline of >= 80% billable utilization across the active engineering team.
• Capacity-Based Contract Utilization: Ensure that >= 80% of all contractually promised client retention/capacity hours are actively planned, story-pointed, and scheduled in the backlog at the start of each cycle.
• Project Margin Variances: Keep non-billable overruns, unapproved scope additions, or delivery reworks to < 5% variance against budgeted SOW hours.
• On-Time Milestone Delivery: Maintain a >= 90% compliance rate on hitting defined client project milestones and scheduled delivery dates.

Pay Range: $85,000 - $110,000, dependent on experience