Associate Director, Technical Project Management

Braven • Newark, NJ

5d • $101,200 - $108,700 • Hybrid

About The Position

Braven is seeking an Associate Director, Technical Project Management to join their Systems Team. This role will manage technical projects within a specific domain, ensuring a standard project management methodology is applied across high-impact, cross-functional projects. The Systems Team is responsible for engineering, data operations, and digital product management, building and maintaining the platforms and tools that support Braven's program delivery and operations. The Associate Director will manage a portfolio of projects, guiding cross-functional teams through complex technical work to achieve ambitious organizational goals. This role reports directly to the Senior Director, Systems Strategy and Operations.

Requirements

• At least 4 years of demonstrated excellence in cross-functional project or program management within a technical function.
• Experience with Jira project management tool.
• Experience with agile methodologies and specifically, Scrum and Kanban

Nice To Haves

• Certified Scrum Master or Project Management Professional (PMP) certification
• Experience working directly with technical teams (engineering, DevOps, Salesforce development, platform infrastructure).
• Familiarity with software development, Salesforce development lifecycle, and emerging technologies
• Demonstrated success in managing complex projects from start to finish. You pay attention to detail and ensure that all contributing teammates have clear tasks, while also keeping all stakeholders updated.
• Strong ability to effectively prioritize competing demands and make timely decisions to keep critical work on track.
• Demonstrated commitment to building strong and welcoming cultures that help to develop others.
• Experience coordinating work across multiple teams simultaneously.
• Strong communication skills — able to translate technical details into clear status updates for non-technical stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to identify risks early and support timely resolution.
• Exemplification of Braven’s core values.
• Experience that has informed your belief in Braven’s mission and has prepared you to work with or for Braven’s student Fellow population.
• Experience in the education, government, or nonprofit sector.
• Strong ability to collaborate effectively and cross-functionally with teammates and build relationships and influence without authority.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills with the ability to present ideas and content in a concise, clear, engaging way and adapt your approach to meet the needs of a variety of stakeholders, including technical and non-technical teammates.
• Strong organizational skills with a proven ability to create and execute project plans with high attention to detail and meet deadlines.
• Comfortable seeking out, receiving, and implementing constructive feedback; demonstrating a commitment to continuous learning and improvement.

Responsibilities

• Manage operational and tactical aspects of domain-specific cross-functional projects of varying size, scope, and technical level.
• Develop and maintain project plans, timelines, and milestones for Systems Team scrums.
• Create and maintain quality project documentation and other assets, including the project charter, project schedule, and lessons learned.
• Own backlog refinement, keep Jira groomed, stories well-defined, and sprints ready to pull.
• Partner with Digital Product Management on prioritization and roadmap alignment.
• Track delivery progress against commitments and proactively flag risks or delays.
• Run sprint planning and delivery check-ins within existing team scrums to ensure clear goals and realistic commitments.
• Maintain visibility into team capacity and upcoming work.
• Coordinate release planning and facilitate go/no-go decisions across technical teams.
• Drive sprint reviews and demos with internal and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Ensure timely completion of project deliverables and milestones, with overall success measured by stakeholder satisfaction and project quality.
• Identify and gain agreement on project requirements, objectives, scope, timing, and resources with domain stakeholders.
• Map and track dependencies between Systems, Product, and Volunteer teams.
• Facilitate cross-functional planning for domain initiatives, using existing meetings and async channels (Slack, Jira boards) rather than creating new standing meetings.
• Ensure smooth handoffs between teams.
• Proactively identify and resolve cross-team blockers before they impact delivery.
• Collaborate with teammates within and across projects to identify project risks and develop mitigation strategies.
• Develop, strengthen, and cultivate effective working relationships with project stakeholders to ensure cross-team communication, transparency, and consistency throughout project execution.
• Prepare regular status reports for domain stakeholders and Systems leadership.
• Maintain risk and issue logs with clear owners, due dates, and escalation paths.
• Communicate sprint progress, capacity, and delivery forecasts to stakeholders.
• Shield teams from unnecessary interruptions by consolidating ad-hoc requests through structured channels.
• Collaborate and consult with domain stakeholders, including product owners, Program Managers, and subteam leads, to understand their needs, prioritize work effectively, surface and help resolve conflicts, and support consistency and alignment on project methodologies for successful project delivery.
• Track and report on delivery metrics (velocity, cycle time, sprint burndown) to surface trends.
• Identify process bottlenecks and propose incremental improvements scoped to the teams you support.
• Maintain and improve team documentation, workflows, and Jira/Confluence hygiene.
• Collaborate with fellow Technical Project Managers to standardize delivery practices across domains.
• Other duties, as assigned.

Benefits

• Unlimited vacation time in addition to org-wide holidays and week-long shutdowns in July and the end of the calendar year (this is a minimum of 20 days per year)
• $25,000 in lifetime Carrot benefits for fertility, family-building, and hormonal health
• Match of your 401K contribution up to 5% of your base annual salary, starting your first full month
• Coverage of 85% of health insurance premium for employee and dependents
• 12 weeks of paid parental leave
• A one-month paid sabbatical after 4 years on staff

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed