Senior R&D Project Manager

SAS•Cary HQ, NC

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

The SaaS team is seeking a Senior R&D Project Manager to lead planning and execution for projects supporting SAS’s Software as a Service offering. The role helps shape products into cloud-native, CI/CD-driven solutions and ensures projects are delivered predictably, aligned with business goals, and executed with quality in a globally distributed environment. The position partners with engineering, product, and cross-functional teams to drive execution, manage dependencies, and align stakeholders across the full project lifecycle—from planning and estimation through execution and delivery. It also involves navigating complexity in a modern SaaS environment, managing multiple large-scale projects, and providing timely, audience-appropriate delivery information to stakeholders and senior and executive management as needed.

Requirements

At least 8 years of experience in software project management, preferably in agile environments.
Bachelor’s degree in a quantitative field, preferably Computer Science or a related discipline; equivalent combinations of related education, training, and experience may be considered.
Proven experience delivering projects end-to-end across planning, execution, and delivery.
Strong experience working in SaaS or continuous delivery environments.
Excellent stakeholder management skills, including negotiation, communication, and conflict resolution.
Strong communication skills, including conveying information clearly and concisely and listening actively.
Ability to drive results, set goals, monitor progress, and pursue continuous improvement.
Ability to build trusting relationships with customers and internal partners.
Ability to influence without authority.
Ability to manage pressure, deadlines, and competing priorities.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Jira or similar tools.
PMP, CSM, or equivalent certifications.

Responsibilities

Lead deadline-driven, team-based projects by clarifying objectives, requirements, scope, goals, and committed outcomes with teams and stakeholders.
Plan, prioritize, forecast, implement, and adjust delivery schedules, scope, resourcing, and quality in consultation with stakeholders, while maintaining focus on committed work.
Negotiate resource needs and coordinate domestic and international technical resources.
Maintain project plans, delivery forecasts, schedules, decision logs, action items, issue lists, risk registers, and status reports to provide transparent progress and work-item visibility.
Coordinate and communicate activities across team members and stakeholders, facilitate meetings, and drive action-item ownership and follow-up.
Identify, track, and coordinate risks and delivery impediments, including blocked or aging work, and drive mitigation and escalation as appropriate.
Manage project scope and expectations; identify and constructively negotiate conflicts and areas of high risk.
Use methodologies, processes, project tools, and best practices to accelerate delivery.
Identify and coordinate project dependencies and stakeholder influences; monitor cross-team handoffs and wait states; and collaborate with organizations that share delivery responsibility.
Serve as a central point of contact across the Company, including Legal, Marketing, and SAS.com, to maintain alignment and project success.
Manage multiple large-scale, complex projects and determine and evolve methods and procedures for new assignments.
Communicate delivery status, blockers, threatened dependencies, and pending decisions to stakeholders and senior or executive management as needed.