Strategic Initiatives Project Manager

Highmark Residential; Addison (TX); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Monthly bonus opportunities

Medical, Dental & Vision benefits

Life insurance & disability coverage

401(k) with match

Tuition reimbursement

Paid time off

Job summary

Highmark Residential seeks a Strategic Initiatives Project Manager to lead initiatives from intake through implementation and closeout across property operations and corporate functions. You will build and maintain charters, work plans, budgets, risks, and communication plans while coordinating with technology, vendors, and onsite teams.

This role requires strong financial acumen and the ability to drive projects to on-time, on-scope delivery with measurable impact.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in business, real estate, project management, or a related field.
• Five or more years of multifamily property operations or related real estate experience, including leading cross-functional projects.
• Experience managing projects from intake through closeout with measurable impact.
• Strong financial and analytical skills including budgets and business cases.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with executive-level stakeholders.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office; familiarity with project management tools and Yardi is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Manage intake and prioritization of strategic initiatives from scope through closeout.
• Build project charters, work plans, budgets, risks, and reporting.
• Lead cross-functional initiatives involving technology, policy changes, and operations.
• Coordinate internal teams, vendors, and partners to ensure correct sequencing of activities.
• Track schedules, costs, and outcomes; escalate variances and implement corrective actions.
• Close projects with documented lessons learned and handoff to business owners.

Skills

Strategic initiative leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

Budgeting & financial analysis

Communication with executives

Education

Bachelor's degree in business/real estate/project management or related field

Tools

Microsoft Office

Yardi knowledge

Job description

Because every position is considered critical to Highmark’s success and reputation, we take care to employ those who aspire to become the best in their field. Those who succeed at Highmark will do so because they enjoy an empowered, challenging, fulfilling, and financially rewarding workplace!

Why we need you:

The Strategic Initiatives Project Manager l eads strategic initiatives from intake through implementation and closeout across property operations and corporate functions. Builds and maintains the plans, governance, reporting, and accountability needed to deliver projects on time, within scope, and with documented financial and operational impact.

What Highmark can do for you:

• Help you achieve your goals by continuous professional development and regular career progression sessions
• Competitive pay for the market
• Monthly bonus opportunities for all site associates
• Medical, Dental & Vision benefits the 1 st of the month following 30 days of full-time employment
• Company-provided life insurance, short-term and long-term disability coverage
• Flexible Spending accounts
• 401(k) eligibility after 90 days, with 4% Highmark match
• Professional Certification & Tuition reimbursement
• Vacation, Sick and Personal Time off available to use after 90 days
• 10 paid holidays
• Paid parental leave

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Manage the intake and prioritization of strategic initiatives, clarifying the business problem, objectives, scope, expected impact, sponsor, project owner, stakeholders, dependencies, and required decisions before work begins.
• Build and maintain project charters, detailed workplans, milestones, resource requirements, budgets, risks, issues, dependencies, decision logs, communication plans, and success measures.
• Lead cross-functional initiatives involving technology and vendor implementations, process and policy changes, Shared Services and centralization, property operations, and executive priorities.
• Establish clear roles, decision rights, deliverables, deadlines, and reporting expectations for each project; hold assigned owners accountable for commitments and follow through on open actions.
• Facilitate project kickoffs, working sessions, status meetings, leadership reviews, and decision discussions that move work forward and produce documented actions and owners.
• Maintain a complete, current portfolio view of all initiatives, including status, milestones, ownership, risks, decisions, upcoming work, and interdependencies.
• Prepare concise project and portfolio reporting for leadership, clearly distinguishing completed work, next steps, risks, decisions needed, and expected or realized impact.
• Coordinate internal teams, vendors, and other partners to ensure requirements, configurations, testing, training, communications, and implementation activities are completed in the correct sequence.
• Manage pilots and phased rollouts, including readiness reviews, issue tracking, feedback collection, adoption monitoring, and recommendations to continue, revise, pause, or scale.
• Track project schedules, scope, costs, resource needs, and outcomes; address variances and recommend corrective action before delivery is affected.
• Partner with business owners to prepare onsite and corporate teams for change through clear communications, training, support plans, escalation paths, and defined operating procedures.
• Close projects by confirming deliverables, documenting decisions and lessons learned, measuring financial and operational impact, and transitioning ongoing ownership, reporting, and maintenance to the appropriate business owner.
• Conduct post-implementation reviews to confirm adoption, performance, and sustained results; reopen or elevate issues when expected outcomes are not maintained.
• Bachelor's degree in business, real estate, project management, or a related field preferred; equivalent relevant experience considered.
• Five or more years of multifamily property operations or related real estate experience, including at least three years leading cross-functional projects.
• Demonstrated experience managing projects from intake and planning through implementation, adoption, measurement, and closeout.
• Strong working knowledge of multifamily property operations and the practical impact that corporate projects, technology, policies, and process changes have on onsite teams.
• Experience building project charters, workplans, schedules, status reports, risk and issue logs, decision logs, and implementation plans.
• Ability to manage multiple concurrent initiatives with competing priorities, dependencies, stakeholders, and deadlines.
• Strong financial and analytical skills, including the ability to develop business cases, track budgets, define success measures, and document financial and operational impact.
• Excellent written, verbal, facilitation, and presentation skills with the ability to communicate effectively with onsite associates, corporate partners, vendors, and executive leaders.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and project management or work-management tools; experience with Yardi and multifamily technology platforms preferred.
• Strong judgment, organization, attention to detail, and follow-through, with the confidence to challenge scope, surface risks, hold owners accountable, and expedite when needed.
• Project Management Professional certification or comparable formal project management training preferred, but not required.