IT Project Manager

Principia The • Des Peres, MO

2d • $95,000 - $115,000 • Onsite

About The Position

The IT Project Manager advances Principia by leading moderately complex technology projects that support Principia’s mission, operations, and service delivery across the School, College, and shared administrative services. Reporting to Chief Technology Officer, this role plays a critical part in coordinating teams, vendors, stakeholders, and technical resources to deliver defined outcomes with clear scope, structure, communication, and accountability and collaborates closely with institutional leaders, department stakeholders, system owners, project managers, vendors, and IT service teams across the School, College, and shared services to service academic and administrative functions across multiple departments and campuses. As well as developing and managing project plans, schedules, risks, issues, decisions, communications, implementation readiness, and stakeholder expectations. The role also supports practical change readiness so that technology changes are communicated, adopted, handed off, and sustained.

Success in this role draws on ensuring projects are delivered with clear scope, timeline, responsibilities, risks, decisions, and stakeholder expectations and project status is accurate, timely, and useful for decision-making; Risks, issues, and dependencies are identified early and actively managed; Stakeholders understand project impacts, decisions, and implementation readiness; Communication, readiness, training, and support needs are identified early and included in the project plan when appropriate; Technology changes transition into daily operations with clear ownership, documentation, support paths, and handoff planning; Post-implementation reviews assess delivery completion, service impact, and operational value; Project closeout captures lessons learned and practical improvement opportunities; The project manager is viewed by stakeholders and technical teams as organized, credible, transparent, and outcome-focused; And the role strengthens trust between IT and the departments it serves.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Business Administration, Project Management, Management Information Systems, education administration, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Eight or more years of professional experience supporting or managing projects, including at least five years of direct project management experience in technology, business systems, infrastructure, service delivery, or enterprise application environments.
• Demonstrated experience managing scope, schedules, budgets, risks, issues, dependencies, communications, and stakeholder expectations.
• Experience coordinating communication, readiness, training, support, or operational handoff activities as part of technology project delivery.
• Experience working with technical teams and non-technical business stakeholders.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and projects in a changing environment.
• Strong written communication, meeting facilitation, problem-solving, organization, and relationship-building skills.
• Proficiency with project management and collaboration tools such as Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Jira, ServiceNow, Teams, SharePoint, Miro, Visio, or similar platforms.
• Supportive of Principia’s guiding statements as articulated herehttps://www.principia.edu/about/guiding-statements [https://www.principia.edu/about/guiding-statements]

Nice To Haves

• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.
• Proscicertification, ADKAR exposure, or comparable change management training.
• Experience supporting stakeholder engagement, communication, training, readiness, or adoption activities as part of project delivery.
• Experience managing IT projects in education, higher education, independent schools, nonprofit organizations, or mission-driven institutions.
• Experience leading projects involving student information systems, ERP, CRM, identity and access management, endpoint management, classroom technology, cybersecurity, infrastructure, cloud services, data/reporting, or IT service management platforms.
• Experience with Agile, Kanban, waterfall, and hybrid project delivery methods.
• Student of Christian Science preferred

Responsibilities

• Leads assigned IT projects through the full project lifecycle, including initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, controlling, implementation, and closeout
• Develops and maintains project charters, scope statements, project plans, schedules, milestones, resource plans, and status reports
• Builds appropriate communication, implementation readiness, and operational handoff activities into project plans
• Coordinates project activities across internal teams, department stakeholders, vendors, consultants, and service partners
• Manages project scope, timeline, budget, dependencies, risks, issues, decisions, and action items, including monitoring project spending and helping ensure projects stay within approved budget limits
• Identifies constraints and tradeoffs early, escalates appropriately, and supports timely decisions
• Confirms that implementation planning includes technical cutover, stakeholder communication, support readiness, and operational handoff
• Serves as a primary point of coordination between technology teams, departments, vendors, and leadership stakeholders
• Facilitates project meetings, planning discussions, risk reviews, decision reviews, and readiness meetings
• Prepares clear project communications for technical and non-technical audiences, including executive summaries, dashboards, issue summaries, and decision documents
• Identifies affected stakeholder groups and tailors communication based on role, impact, and decision authority
• Builds trust with stakeholders by clarifying expectations, documenting decisions, following through on commitments, and communicating risks transparently
• Surfaces readiness or adoption concerns early and address them through communication, training coordination, process clarification, or leadership escalation
• Plans for the people, process, service, and support impacts of technology changes when those impacts are significant
• Identifies affected stakeholder groups, communication needs, training or support needs, readiness risks, and operational handoff requirements
• Coordinates with business owners, IT leaders, service owners, training resources, communications teams, and support teams to prepare users for implementation
• Confirms that documentation, support paths, transition plans, and post-go-live stabilization needs are addressed before project closeout
• Maintains project risk, issue, decision, and dependency logs.
• Analyze project risks and recommend mitigation or contingency plans
• Identifies whether project risks are related to scope, timeline, budget, technical delivery, stakeholder readiness, process change, or operational support
• Tracks and resolves blockers with project teams and stakeholders
• Escalates risks and decisions when scope, timeline, cost, quality, security, compliance, adoption, or service delivery may be affected
• Coordinates with vendors and internal teams to manage external dependencies and contractual deliverables
• Prepares regular project status reports, steering committee materials, readiness updates, and closeout summaries
• Maintains accurate project records in approved project management, collaboration, and document repositories
• Supports project intake, prioritization, governance reviews, and portfolio reporting as needed
• Documents project outcomes, unresolved risks, operational handoffs, lessons learned, and improvement opportunities

Benefits

• Generous Employee Tuition Discount: Enjoy a 90% discount on tuition (pro-rated for part-time staff) for your eligible children enrolled from Pre-K3 through College (infant and acorn programs excluded).
• Relocation: Principia provides a relocation reimbursement of up to 12% of your annual salary when moving from outside a radius of more than 50 miles.
• Professional Development: Access to learning opportunities, training programs, and career growth support.
• Comprehensive Benefits: Learn more about all our benefits here [https://www.principia.edu/jobs/highlights], including comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans, paid time off, a 403(b) retirement plan with Principia matching, and more.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal