Project Management Operations Specialist - USA

Cogniify•San Diego, CA

6d•$150,000 - $160,000•Remote

About The Position

The PMO Specialist will support project governance, operational excellence, and delivery management across multiple software development initiatives for the BFSI domain. This role partners with Project Managers, Engineering Leads, Product Managers, Architects, and client stakeholders to maintain project visibility, standardize processes, and ensure timely reporting, risk management, and execution. The role acts as the central coordinator for project management operations, orchestrating project tracking, governance forums, delivery metrics, documentation, and continuous improvement activities.

Requirements

5+ years of overall experience in IT project coordination, PMO, delivery operations, or a related role.
Experience supporting multiple software development projects or programs.
Strong understanding of Agile methodology, SDLC, and project governance practices.
Excellent organizational, analytical, documentation, and prioritization skills.
Ability to manage multiple competing priorities in a fast paced environment.
Strong attention to detail and ability to maintain accurate project information.
Effective written and verbal communication skills.
Ability to communicate confidently with technical teams, business stakeholders, and leadership.
Strong follow up, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills.
Knowledge of risk, issue, dependency, change, and resource management.
Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively across teams.
Problem solving mindset with the ability to identify gaps and recommend improvements.
Flexibility to work with distributed teams and manage changing priorities.
Hands on experience with Jira and Confluence.
Experience managing project information through Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and SharePoint.
Exposure to Azure DevOps, MS Project, Power BI, or similar project tracking and reporting tools.
Ability to prepare dashboards, status reports, and presentations for leadership reviews.
Comfortable working with project metrics, delivery data, and operational reports.

Nice To Haves

Exposure to Java, ReactJS, and AWS based application development will be an added advantage.
Experience supporting projects in the BFSI domain would be preferred.
PMI-PMO certification, PMP, PRINCE2, Certified ScrumMaster, CAPM, or equivalent project management certification.
Practical experience supporting BFSI software programs delivered using Java, ReactJS, and AWS will be an advantage.

Responsibilities

Maintain the project portfolio, including project plans, status, milestones, dependencies, risks, and overall project health.
Track and report progress against schedule, scope, budget, SLAs, and committed deliverables.
Prepare periodic project dashboards, management reports, and executive level status communications.
Coordinate with Project Managers and delivery teams to collect updates and validate project information.
Maintain RAID logs covering risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies, and follow up on mitigation actions.
Support PMs in preparing project governance decks, meeting agendas, minutes, and action trackers.
Track milestones, release schedules, sprint commitments, and production deployment activities.
Monitor delivery commitments and highlight schedule deviations or potential risks proactively.
Support Agile ceremonies, including sprint planning, stand ups, reviews, and retrospectives as required.
Ensure project documentation is complete, current, and stored in accordance with organizational standards.
Coordinate project kick offs, milestone reviews, governance meetings, and closure activities.
Track resource allocation, utilization, onboarding, capacity, and delivery dependencies.
Support financial tracking, including budgets, purchase orders, invoicing, and project cost reporting.
Maintain project calendars and coordinate activities across engineering, testing, product, architecture, and business teams.
Assist with change management activities, including scope changes, impact assessment, and approval tracking.
Ensure project risks and escalations are routed to the appropriate stakeholders in a timely manner.
Prepare client facing reports and support communication between delivery teams and customer stakeholders.
Maintain operational metrics and identify opportunities to improve project governance and delivery processes.
Support audits, compliance reviews, and periodic process assessments.
Coordinate project closure, including lessons learned, documentation handover, and benefit tracking.
Establish and maintain common project management templates, reporting formats, and operating procedures.
Ensure adherence to PMO governance practices, SDLC processes, and Agile delivery methodologies.
Drive consistency in status reporting across projects and teams.
Support portfolio reviews and help identify cross project dependencies or resource conflicts.
Validate that project baselines, milestones, and deliverables are properly maintained.
Escalate critical risks, unresolved dependencies, and delivery concerns to project leadership.
Facilitate action oriented discussions and ensure meeting outcomes are tracked through completion.
Work closely with Project Managers, Engineering, QA, Product Management, Architecture, and Business teams.
Coordinate with customer stakeholders to obtain updates and maintain accurate delivery information.
Communicate project status effectively to technical and non-technical audiences.
Collaborate with geographically distributed onshore and offshore teams.
Manage follow ups with stakeholders and ensure commitments are fulfilled.
Support conflict resolution by maintaining transparency and facilitating alignment between teams.
Understand the software development lifecycle and common delivery practices.
Possess basic knowledge of application architecture, APIs, databases, and cloud based solutions.
Understand Agile concepts, Scrum ceremonies, and DevOps or release management practices.
Understand application development activities sufficiently to track delivery issues and dependencies.
Hands on experience with Jira and Confluence.
Experience managing project information through Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and SharePoint.
Ability to prepare dashboards, status reports, and presentations for leadership reviews.
Comfortable working with project metrics, delivery data, and operational reports.