Contract Program Manager (Evergreen)

Blue State•Oakland, DC

10h•$60 - $90•Hybrid

About The Position

This is an evergreen job post, meaning it's not an active job opening but an expression of interest for future opportunities. As a Contract Program Manager at Blue State, you will lead website development and technical consulting projects from beginning to end. Your role will involve helping nonprofits and progressive organizations enhance audience engagement through their websites and digital marketing platforms. You will manage stakeholder relationships and collaborate with our Tech, Strategy, Design, and Analytics teams to conduct user research, define product requirements, create sprint plans, and test and refine deliverables for Blue State's diverse client base. A Program Manager at Blue State is a versatile role that bridges the gap between stakeholders, strategists, designers, engineers, analysts, and content producers.

Requirements

3+ years of experience in program management or similar roles such as product management or technical project management.
Experience with CMS-driven websites, such as those built on WordPress. You will not architect a WordPress site yourself, but you help steer designers and engineers in directions that are feasible and align with client goals.
Familiarity with and interest in marketing platforms, including CRMs, and data and personalization technology used by organizations to engage and mobilize their supporters.
Willingness to wear multiple hats and get into the weeds in order to reach a milestone, whether that means logging into the CMS to fix content, sketching a quick feature to clarify a proposal, or having a difficult conversation with a vendor.
Ability to use wireframes to communicate recommendations to design teams.
Cognizance of the overall AI landscape and the ability to evaluate AI outputs critically.
Excellent communication skills.
Ability to interact with engineers, designers, and business stakeholders alike.
Strong collaborator and relationship builder. Colleagues know they can come to you for help working through delicate issues or opportunities.
Empathy, positivity, respect, and the ability to be a role model at Blue State.

Responsibilities

Manage budgets and timelines for website redesigns and other digital projects, including defining scopes and gathering estimates across disciplines.
Distill clients’ goals and priorities through interviews, workshops, analytics, platform audits, and other forms of research.
Write and maintain requirements, ensuring that all functionality, user flows, and edge cases are understood by stakeholders. Documentation could range from lofi sketches to detailed acceptance criteria.
Minimize exposure to risk on a project by identifying potential scope creep and working with internal teams and client stakeholders to mitigate this risk.
Help create sprint plans and release schedules.
Develop testing and measurement plans in coordination with strategists and analysts.
Manage multiple website build projects simultaneously and understand project priorities in the context of agency and client expectations.
Manage stakeholder feedback, evaluating all proposed features against the product scope and ensuring that bugs are reported and prioritized correctly.
Provide creative recommendations based on your technical expertise when features don’t fit in the budget.
Make the tough calls when scope needs to be cut.
Support the greater Business Development team with the scoping of new client product engagements. Estimate effort, ensure that team members are aligned on what’s being proposed, and guard against proposals that aren’t feasible.
Manage operational aspects of projects, including communication of client needs to team and vice versa as well as resourcing and financial health tracking.
Lead project status meetings and updates with internal teams and clients.
Use AI to accelerate your work such as writing requirements or organizing inputs.