Contract Principal Project Manager

Stable Kernel•Houston, TX

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

Stable Kernel is hiring a Contract Principal Project Manager to lead delivery for a portfolio of clients’ complex, transformational initiatives. The role combines delivery expertise with trusted client and stakeholder advising, ensuring projects are delivered on time and on budget. The Principal Project Manager partners with sales, strategy, technical, and client services professionals across the client life cycle to support high-quality work, documentation, and customer experiences. The role sets delivery strategy, governance, standards, and coordination across multiple projects or large programs. It leads program planning, financial forecasting, risk management, stakeholder communication, escalation handling, process improvements, and adoption of tools and practices. The position also mentors project managers and may be structured as an individual contributor or as a people manager with individual contributor responsibilities. It reports to the Director of Project Management. This is a 4–6 month contract. Stable Kernel uses a People Before Place Hybrid model, allowing most employees to choose where they work most days. Minimal travel is associated with the role. Base compensation is listed as $135,000.

Requirements

8–10 years of project management experience in consulting, professional services, or similar services-based organizations.
PMP, CSM (Certified Scrum Master), CSPO (Certified Scrum Product Owner), or similar project management certification.
Proven track record of successfully delivering projects of varying sizes and complexities.
Exceptional communication skills, including client and stakeholder management.
Experience crafting deliverable components of statements of work and writing business requirements documents.
Intimate working familiarity with JIRA, Notion, Slack, Claude, GitHub, Miro, and budget tracking tools.
Fluency in Scrum, Kanban, Waterfall, and other project management methodologies, with willingness to adapt as the SDLC evolves.
Strong stakeholder management, negotiation, and problem-solving capabilities in complex situations.

Responsibilities

Establish scalable delivery solutions and define approaches, phasing, sequencing, and strategic trade-offs across complex, multi-project programs.
Establish scope governance and change control practices, and coach project managers on managing scope creep and change requests.
Set engagement health and quality benchmarks across project teams and mentor project managers on delivery health indicators.
Evaluate tools at program scale and recommend procurement, integration, or retirement.
Design AI-enabled delivery workflows and lead responsible AI adoption across program teams.
Coordinate technical, design, product, and business teams across enterprise-level programs.
Identify opportunities to expand service offerings within existing programs.
Clarify strategic outcomes, build integrated roadmaps, translate client goals into program-level objectives, and anticipate shifts in priorities.
Establish project planning standards and coach project managers on planning, baselining, and tracking.
Support statement of work development, RFPs, and paid discovery engagements.
Lead estimation and financial calibration; oversee burn tracking and forecasting and coordinate business forecasts with finance and account leadership.
Mentor project managers on difficult stakeholder situations and delivery practices.
Orchestrate coordination among project teams, account leadership, technical leads, and senior business stakeholders.
Lead program-level status reporting and tailor governance cadences to stakeholder audiences.
Drive adoption of methodologies, tools, and practices through demonstration and consensus-building.
Advise teams and executive leadership on complex program challenges and strategic decisions.
Lead communications during escalations, major milestones, and strategic decisions.
Coach project managers on stakeholder mapping, dependency management, political complexity, and advisory skills.
Partner with leadership to shape delivery approaches and guide project managers on large-scale initiatives and complex stakeholder dynamics.
Manage stakeholder relationships across senior client stakeholders, cross-functional partners, and delivery teams.
Establish clarity for program teams in ambiguous, high-stakes environments.
Challenge proposed solutions and ask probing questions to help teams reach strong outcomes.
Coach project managers in critical and analytical problem-solving.
Help clients and colleagues understand and respond to risk.
Lead program-level problem-solving and serve as the escalation point for assigned project managers, using structured methods to diagnose root causes.
Establish risk management and escalation frameworks, coach project managers on early warning signs, and create escalation pathways.
Escalate business-impactful issues with context, impact assessments, and recommended solutions while addressing them in parallel.
Analyze patterns across projects, identify systemic issues, and establish program health metrics and measurement frameworks.
Provide strategic guidance, nurture potential, and support team members’ career development.
Set strategic direction for project management within the program and lead multiple project teams or large programs.
Lead process improvements in areas such as throughput, delivery quality, and engagement management, establishing standards for broader adoption.
Advance delivery practices and philosophy across the program and organization, evaluating industry standards for applicability.
Help manage program resources, staffing plans, and resourcing forecasts in partnership with account and delivery leadership.
Develop other leaders through mentoring.
Lead department-level activities, including team meetings, internal PMO initiatives, hiring, onboarding, and team culture.