Project Manager, Strategic Programs

Encore Fire Protection•Needham, MA

1d•$110,000 - $130,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Encore Fire Protection is seeking a Senior Project Manager to own the delivery of highly visible strategic initiatives across the organization. This role requires someone who can build clarity out of ambiguity, drive alignment across competing stakeholders, and hold complex projects accountable. The Project Manager will work directly with senior leadership and be a founding voice in the evolution of the PMO. In the first 90 days, the individual will embed into the company culture, build relationships, and understand how projects are initiated, tracked, and closed. Post-90 days, they will take ownership of an active project portfolio, manage scope, schedule, budget, and risk, and contribute to evolving PMO standards. Long-term, the Project Manager will help mature the PMO, advise on prioritization and resource allocation, and drive operational transformation.

Requirements

7–12 years of project management experience, with at least 5 years leading complex, cross-functional projects in a fast-paced environment.
Demonstrated ability to manage multiple concurrent projects with competing priorities, timelines, and stakeholders.
Experience operating in high-growth or PE-backed environments where pace, rigor, and adaptability are all simultaneously.
Deep familiarity with project management methodologies (Agile, Waterfall, hybrid) and the judgment to apply them appropriately (certifications preferred).
Comfortable building and managing project budgets, reading P&L summaries, and presenting cost-benefit analyses to senior leaders.
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex information into clear, actionable direction for any audience.
Track record of contributing to or building PMO functions, including methodology development and process standardization.

Nice To Haves

A project where the scope changed dramatically mid-stream and how you adapted without losing the team or the timeline.
How you have influenced senior stakeholders who did not report to you and did not always agree with you.
The PMO process or tool you are most proud of building—and what problem it solved.
Your philosophy on status reporting: what good looks like, what bad looks like, and how you hold others accountable to it.
How you decide what to escalate versus what to absorb and solve on your own.

Responsibilities

Serve as an end-to-end owner for Encore’s highest-priority projects and programs, operating across functions and organizational levels.
Lead strategic projects from initiation through closeout, including scope definition, work breakdown, scheduling, budgeting, risk management, and stakeholder alignment.
Develop and maintain comprehensive project plans, status dashboards, and executive-ready reporting that keep leadership informed and decisions moving.
Partner with project sponsors and department heads to define success criteria, resource requirements, and interdependencies at the outset of every initiative.
Identify, escalate, and resolve risks, issues, and blockers with urgency and precision.
Drive cross-functional collaboration across Operations, Finance, Sales, TechOps, and TCP, ensuring every workstream is aligned and accountable.
Help evolve PMO best practices: project intake processes, governance frameworks, standardized templates, methodology documentation, and lessons-learned protocols.
Manage project budgets and forecasts, tracking actuals against plan and surfacing variances with clear recommendations.
Build organizational capacity for delivery through mentorship and coaching.
Serve as a strategic thought partner to leadership on project prioritization, portfolio management, and capacity planning.