Project Manager - Hybrid Denver , CO

Novalink Solutions LLC•Denver, CO

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Strategic Project Manager will lead the replacement of Colorado’s legacy probation case management system, ICON/JPOD. This multi-year, high-visibility modernization spans technical infrastructure, legislative and policy compliance, and the day-to-day experience of probation officers, judicial staff, and justice-involved individuals across the state’s 23 judicial districts. The role operates within a multi-level governance framework, supporting executive decisions, aligning stakeholders, and escalating issues across business, technology, and judicial leadership. The project will replace a system that supports statewide probation case management, tracks felonies, juvenile cases, and most misdemeanors, and exchanges data with partner agencies through CICJIS. The replacement must preserve those data exchanges without interruption. Its intended outcomes include reducing probation officers’ time spent on data entry, improving the reliability of data for supervisors, and providing clearer, fairer, and more consistent supervision experiences for justice-involved individuals. The Project Manager will lead the project lifecycle from requirements and procurement through design, development, data migration, testing, statewide rollout, and ICON/JPOD decommissioning. The role develops and maintains the master schedule, budget, scope baseline, and benefits realization plan; supports vendor procurement and oversight; incorporates legislative, policy, reporting, and practice requirements into the solution; and leads stakeholder engagement, human-centered design, organizational change management, training, communications, and go-live support. The position also manages risks, issues, quality, cutover planning, and status reporting to leadership. This is a hybrid position based in Denver. Regular in-state travel to judicial districts, including rural districts, may be required, particularly during training and rollout. Occasional work outside normal hours is expected around go-live and cutover events.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in project management, information systems, public administration, criminal justice, business, or a related field; additional relevant experience may substitute for the degree year for year.
Ten years of progressively responsible project management experience, including at least five years leading large, complex technology implementations with multiple vendors and stakeholder groups.
Demonstrated experience managing a multi-year schedule.
Experience leading enterprise system replacements that included data migration and organizational change management.
Ability to pass a criminal background check.
Command of predictive, Agile, and hybrid project and program management methods, and judgment in selecting between them.
Ability to understand the interactions among technology, policy, operations, and people, including downstream effects of design choices.
Clear, plain-language written and verbal communication for audiences including judges, legislators, frontline officers, and vendors.
Ability to build consensus among stakeholders with competing priorities without direct authority.
Empathy for probation officers and clients and the discipline to design around their needs.
Analytical ability to interpret data, evaluate trade-offs, and make sound decisions under uncertainty.
Integrity and discretion in handling confidential criminal justice information and sensitive organizational matters.
Resilience and steady leadership through ambiguity, setbacks, and the pressures of a high-visibility public project.
Understanding of business outcomes and ability to support measurement of adoption and value realization objectives.
Ability to operate within complex governance structures, prepare executive decision materials, facilitate escalations, and support leadership decisions across organizational levels.
Ability to support organizational readiness, stakeholder engagement, communications, training, and user adoption activities.

Nice To Haves

Project Management Professional (PMP), PgMP, or equivalent certification.
Agile and change management certifications.
Experience with Waterfall Project methodology.
Experience applying Waterfall governance and procurement controls in conjunction with Agile solution delivery.
Experience implementing case management systems for courts, probation, parole, corrections, or other justice agencies.
Familiarity with Colorado state government, the Colorado Judicial Branch, or CICJIS data exchanges.
Experience with commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) or configurable SaaS platform implementations in the public sector.
Experience working with geographically distributed users in both urban and rural settings.

Responsibilities

Lead the full project lifecycle, from requirements and procurement through design, build, data migration, testing, statewide rollout, and decommissioning of ICON/JPOD.
Develop and maintain the master schedule, budget, scope baseline, and benefits realization plan.
Translate the Branch’s strategic probation goals into project objectives and measurable success criteria.
Support solicitation, evaluation, and selection of a solution vendor under state procurement rules.
Hold vendors and internal teams accountable for quality, schedule, and cost.
Track Colorado statutes, Chief Justice Directives, and probation standards affecting system requirements, and incorporate them into the solution.
Coordinate with legal, policy, and research staff to support required reporting, risk and needs assessments, and evidence-based practices.
Engage chief probation officers, officers, supervisors, judges, court staff, and partner agencies across all 23 judicial districts.
Lead human-centered design activities, including field observation, user testing, and feedback loops with frontline staff.
Direct organizational change management, training, communications, and go-live support.
Ensure client-facing system components are accessible, plain-language, and equitable for justice-involved individuals.
Identify, track, and mitigate risks and issues, and escalate decisions promptly.
Plan cutover to ensure probation supervision is never interrupted.
Report project status, risks, and outcomes to leadership.
Support executive decision-making and facilitate issue escalation across business, technology, and judicial leadership.