Senior Strategic Communications Project Manager

BLN24•Mclean, VA

2d•Remote

About The Position

The Senior Project Manager provides overall leadership and management for a complex portfolio of research communications, publications, and digital communications projects supporting transportation research and technology initiatives. Serving as the primary point of contact between the Contractor and Government stakeholders, this individual leads multidisciplinary teams, coordinates with Contracting Officers, Contracting Officer's Representatives, Task Managers, researchers, and other stakeholders, and ensures the successful delivery of high-quality communications products. The Senior Project Manager is responsible for driving program performance, managing project execution, and ensuring deliverables are completed on schedule, within budget, and in accordance with contractual requirements while maintaining transparent project status reporting and exceptional customer service.

Requirements

Master’s degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Project Management, or a related technical discipline; or a bachelor’s degree in one of these fields with additional relevant professional experience.
Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience managing complex communications, publishing, marketing, technical communications, or research dissemination programs.
Demonstrated experience supervising technical information products from concept through final delivery, ranging from one-page flyers and outreach materials to technical reports exceeding 300 pages, as well as presentations, videos, online tours, social media content, and other communications collateral.
Proven experience managing the development and publication of technical information from concept through final production, including technical reports, engineering publications, brochures, presentations, videos, websites, digital communications, social media, and other communications products.
Experience managing project schedules, budgets, staffing, quality assurance, performance metrics, and risk management across multiple workstreams.
Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with executive leadership, technical subject matter experts, researchers, engineers, scientists, and Government stakeholders.
Experience implementing project management methodologies, resource planning, and project tracking systems.
Excellent leadership, organizational, written, verbal, facilitation, and problem-solving skills.
Ability to manage multiple priorities while maintaining exceptional quality, responsiveness, and customer service.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting highway, surface transportation, or other transportation-related programs is highly preferred.
Project Management Professional (PMP) certification is preferred; PMI-ACP, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), or comparable program management credentials are also desirable.
Experience managing federal communications, engineering, scientific research, infrastructure, or technology programs.
Knowledge of transportation systems, engineering research, technology transfer, scientific publishing, or infrastructure programs.
Experience managing technical publications, research journals, engineering reports, or large-scale communications and publishing programs.
Familiarity with Section 508 accessibility requirements, plain language principles, enterprise content management systems (CMS), and digital publishing platforms.
Experience leading multidisciplinary communications teams supporting strategic communications, editorial services, graphic design, multimedia production, web content management, and stakeholder engagement.
Experience managing Agile, hybrid, or traditional project delivery methodologies within a federal contracting environment.
Ability to lead, mentor, and motivate multidisciplinary teams while fostering collaboration, accountability, and high performance.
Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills with the ability to communicate effectively with Government stakeholders, executives, researchers, engineers, and technical subject matter experts.
Proven ability to build trusted relationships, facilitate collaboration, manage expectations, and coordinate diverse stakeholder groups.
Ability to proactively identify risks, analyze complex issues, and develop practical, timely solutions to ensure successful project delivery.
Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple concurrent priorities, meet deadlines, and maintain exceptional attention to detail.
Demonstrated flexibility in responding to changing priorities while delivering responsive, high-quality customer service and maintaining a mission-focused approach.

Responsibilities

Serve as the primary liaison with the Contracting Officer (CO), Contracting Officer's Representative (COR), Task Managers, and Government stakeholders.
Lead the planning, execution, and delivery of all contract activities, ensuring compliance with contractual requirements, quality standards, schedules, budgets, and performance objectives.
Manage multidisciplinary teams supporting technical writing, editorial services, publications, digital communications, multimedia production, strategic communications, stakeholder outreach, events, and communications analytics.
Develop and maintain integrated project schedules, staffing plans, workload forecasts, risk registers, and performance metrics across multiple concurrent projects.
Manage a portfolio of concurrent tasks and projects within a fast-paced research communications and publishing environment, balancing priorities, resources, schedules, and customer expectations across multiple workstreams.
Oversee resource allocation and prioritize work to support high-volume production of technical reports, research publications, digital communications, and outreach materials.
Monitor contract performance, identify and mitigate risks, resolve issues, and implement corrective actions to maintain project performance.
Ensure assigned staff consistently update the submission and project tracking system so customers have timely, accurate visibility into project status, milestones, review cycles, and deliverables.
Coordinate technical reviews, editorial workflows, approvals, and stakeholder engagement throughout the communications and publication lifecycle.
Supervise the development and production of technical reports, research publications, presentations, websites, multimedia products, videos, graphics, social media content, and other communications materials.
Lead continuous process improvement initiatives that enhance operational efficiency, collaboration, quality, and customer satisfaction.
Prepare executive status reports, performance metrics, dashboards, and briefings for Government leadership.