Junior Associate/Associate - Certified Project Manager (Pennsylvania Based)

Forest Pond Associates•Harrisburg, PA

10d•Remote

About The Position

Forest Pond Associates is seeking a Project Manager to lead a complex, enterprise-scale modernization initiative for a public-sector program. The project will transition a legacy, custom on-premises registry system to a cloud-based SaaS platform and coordinate the systems, data, business processes, vendors, and teams needed for successful delivery. The Project Manager will manage concurrent workstreams and technical and business dependencies, provide clear governance, maintain accountability for scope, schedule, budget, resources, and deliverables, and keep program leadership informed of progress, risks, and decisions. The role requires strong communication, organization, and leadership, and the ability to work effectively with executive sponsors, business stakeholders, technical teams, vendors, and other project managers. The role leads project delivery from initiation through closeout in accordance with PMI practices and applicable PMO standards. It oversees vendor agreements and performance, project governance and change control, planning and scheduling, resource and budget management, requirements coordination, technical and business workstream dependencies, data migration, testing, implementation, and post-launch support. The Project Manager also tracks risks, issues, decisions, and performance; maintains project documentation; reports to stakeholders and senior leadership; facilitates lessons learned; and may mentor junior project staff. As workload permits, the associate may support other Forest Pond Associates projects, including research, data review, analysis, requirements gathering, testing, quality review, project planning and reporting, meeting documentation, file organization, client coordination, proposal development, and other project support duties. The position is primarily remote, but requires Pennsylvania residency and the ability to travel to Central Pennsylvania on short notice for client meetings, work sessions, implementations, or other project activities. Background screening, security and confidentiality compliance, weekly status and time reporting, complete project documentation, and adherence to PMO standards are required. Overtime requires prior approval from the designated project authority.

Requirements

At least five years of project management experience in a structured PMO environment using PMI methodology.
Demonstrated experience leading enterprise SaaS implementations, cloud migrations, or comparable large-scale system modernization projects.
Experience managing vendors and monitoring SOW, SLA, and deliverable performance.
Experience managing projects with delivery cycles of eight to twelve months or longer.
Ability to create and maintain integrated project plans, detailed schedules, cost estimates, resource plans, risk strategies, and communication plans.
Experience coordinating cross-functional technical teams, including application, data, infrastructure, and security groups.
Experience managing data migration, integration, or complex system dependencies.
Strong stakeholder engagement, executive reporting, facilitation, and presentation skills.
Strong leadership, organization, problem-solving, conflict management, and negotiation skills.
Proficiency with Microsoft Project or a comparable project scheduling tool.
Bachelor’s degree in business, public administration, health administration, information technology, or a related field; an equivalent combination of education and experience may be accepted.
Candidate must be a Pennsylvania resident at the time of application and able to travel to a Central Pennsylvania work location on short notice as needed.
Background screening and compliance with applicable security, confidentiality, and system-access requirements.
Weekly status and time reporting, complete project documentation, and adherence to established PMO standards are required.

Nice To Haves

Multi-year project experience.
Experience in public health, healthcare, human services, government, or another regulated environment.
Experience with public-sector or enterprise data modernization, registry implementation, or regulatory-driven initiatives.
Experience coordinating multiple concurrent workstreams, vendors, and system integration partners.
Experience with enterprise business platforms, including ERP systems.
Experience with SAP or SAP S/4HANA implementations.
PMP certification is strongly preferred.
Other PMI, cloud, or SaaS-related certifications are a plus.

Responsibilities

Lead projects through initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and closeout using PMI practices and applicable PMO standards.
Serve as the primary coordination point for program leadership, executive sponsors, vendors, and internal IT and business teams.
Manage the approved Statement of Work, service level agreements, deliverables, signoffs, and contractual obligations; follow up on vendor commitments and resolve or escalate performance issues.
Establish and maintain project governance, including roles, responsibilities, decision-making processes, escalation paths, and change control.
Develop and maintain the Project Management Plan, integrated project schedule, cost estimates and forecasts, resource plan, communication plan, deliverables matrix, and RAID log.
Build and manage detailed schedules tracking tasks, milestones, dependencies, critical paths, and deliverable owners across workstreams.
Coordinate resource planning and capacity forecasting, identify staffing constraints, and recommend corrective actions.
Manage project scope, budget, schedule, quality, and resource allocation; assess proposed changes and document their impacts before approval.
Coordinate requirements definition and refinement with business owners, analysts, technical teams, and vendors.
Lead coordination across application, data, infrastructure, networking, security, service management, and other impacted teams.
Coordinate interrelated work, dependencies, plans, and delivery risks with vendor and system integration project managers.
Oversee legacy data migration planning and execution, including data mapping, validation, testing, quality review, and issue resolution.
Coordinate system testing, user acceptance testing, training readiness, cutover planning, implementation activities, and post-launch support.
Track project performance and provide regular status reports and presentations to stakeholders and senior leadership.
Identify, assess, and mitigate risks; maintain issue and decision tracking; escalate matters that may affect delivery objectives.
Maintain current project artifacts, documentation, decisions, approvals, and signoffs in accordance with PMO and security requirements.
Facilitate lessons-learned discussions and apply findings to improve project practices.
Mentor junior project staff when appropriate and contribute to consistent project management practices.
As workload permits, support other firm projects through research, analysis, requirements gathering, testing, quality review, project documentation, meeting support, client coordination, and proposal or work-plan contributions.
Follow firm practices for client communication, confidentiality, quality, and project delivery; perform related duties as assigned.