CONTRACTUAL WORKER

State of Illinois • Springfield, IL

3d • Onsite

About The Position

The Illinois State Board of Elections (SBE) seeks an experienced Project Manager to serve as the agency’s lead coordinator in the implementation of the Statewide Voter Registration System modernization project. In this contractual role, the Project Manager is responsible for the general oversight of the multi-year project and taking a lead role in coordinating between the vendor’s project management team, the SBE’s subject matter experts (SMEs), and external stakeholders to ensure project deliverables meet expectations and contractual requirements. This would include but is not limited to: overseeing vendor performance in relation to expectations and contractual requirements, coordinating internal communication and responses, collaborating and communicating with external stakeholders (primarily the 108 election authorities across the state), and ensuring alignment with project governance, requirements, and operational objectives. The Project Manager will work closely with SBE managerial staff, and under the direction of the Assistant Executive Director.

Requirements

• Minimum 7 years of experience in project management, program management, or government operations oversight.
• Demonstrated experience coordinating a large scaled multi-stakeholder project involving technology implementations.
• Strong experience in stakeholder coordination, project oversight, and vendor management.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and organizational skills.

Nice To Haves

• Government (state, federal, or local) and/or election administration experience.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the SBE Project Manager and primary internal lead, representing the agency in all project governance activities, planning sessions and decision-making forums.
• Interface with the vendor’s Project Manager on project decisions, coordination, and issue resolution.
• Support project governance by participating in governance meetings, providing agency input, and escalating risks or issues as needed.
• Review project status reports and monitor progress against schedules, milestones, and contractual obligations.
• Ensure vendor compliance with contract requirements, service levels, and approved project plans.
• Coordinate stakeholder engagement, including SBE leadership, SMEs, and external partners, to support alignment on project goals and priorities.
• Facilitate internal communication across agency leadership (Executive Staff and/or the Board), technical staff, and project stakeholders.
• Coordinate SBE staff participation in project activities, including workshops, interviews, and planning sessions.
• Coordinate stakeholder engagement and communication to refine functional and technical requirements.
• Schedule and facilitate participation of agency subject matter experts in requirements workshops.
• Review, coordinate, and provide feedback on vendor deliverables to ensure alignment with agency expectations prior to formal acceptance.
• Ensure adherence to change management processes and support prioritization of changes in accordance with the approved project framework.
• Coordinate and oversee agency participation in testing activities, including user acceptance testing (UAT).
• Establish and validate acceptance criteria, review testing results, and confirm system functionality meets project requirements and operational expectations.
• Coordinate agency readiness for system implementation, including training, transition planning, and go-live preparation.
• Support training efforts by coordinating participation in train-the-trainer and end-user sessions.
• Participate in go-live readiness assessments and deployment decision-making processes.
• Monitor vendor performance and system support during post-deployment and hypercare periods.
• Review operational performance and service level reports to ensure ongoing compliance with expectations.
• Coordinate internal feedback on system performance and support continuous operational improvements.

Benefits

• Paid time off (PTO) for up to 2 weeks (10 days or 75 hours) annually, on an accrual basis. Contractor will accrue 1.56 hours of PTO for each 37.5 hours worked.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: Associate degree