Staff Project Manager, Professional Services

OpenGov•San Francisco, CA

2d•$160,000 - $180,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Staff Project Manager is a senior individual contributor within OpenGov's Professional Services Strategic Projects team, responsible for owning delivery on specific multi-suite, high-complexity government implementations. This role sits above the Lead/Sr. PM tier and below Principal PM: the Staff PM defines and oversees implementation strategy for the projects assigned to them, without holding people-management authority and without the org-wide, cross-portfolio strategy mandate carried by the Principal PM. The Staff PM operates as the connective tissue on their assigned engagements — coordinating Solutions Architecture, Technical, and Change Management functions, managing scope and risk with commercial discipline, and serving as the primary program-level point of contact for Director- and VP-level client stakeholders. The role requires the judgment to run a complex, multi-department implementation independently, while building the documentation and governance habits that make the engagement defensible under scrutiny. This is an individual-contributor role. Influence across matrixed delivery teams — SA, Technical, Change Management, and vertical resources — is exercised through structured process and stakeholder trust, not direct authority.

Requirements

5–7 years of progressive program and project management experience in a SaaS environment, including ownership of at least one enterprise-scale, multi-product implementation.
Demonstrated experience coordinating across implementation, product, engineering, and sales functions without direct authority over those teams.
Experience with complex governmental clients or equivalent regulated/public-sector environments; understanding of procurement constraints and multi-department governance is strongly preferred.
Prior experience supporting SOW language, change-order rationale, or commercial framing in partnership with sales or PS leadership.
Strong technical aptitude for enterprise SaaS platforms and deployment methodology, including configuration management, data migration oversight, and integration coordination.
Proficiency with project/program management tooling and CRM platforms (RocketLane, Salesforce, or equivalent).
Ability to evaluate cross-system dependencies and resource constraints and translate findings into clear, actionable mitigation plans.
Working knowledge of project-level budget tracking and delivery-margin awareness for assigned engagements (portfolio-level forecasting sits with the Principal PM).
Strong written and verbal communication skills; demonstrated ability to produce client-ready documentation (status briefs, steering committee materials, escalation memos).
Demonstrated ability to influence without authority — aligning cross-functional teams and driving accountability across a matrixed environment.
Skilled at translating technical delivery complexity into clear narrative for non-technical client stakeholders and department-level executives.
PMP certification preferred; Scrum Master (CSM or PSM) or SAFe Agile certification accepted as equivalent or supplementary.
Working knowledge of PMBOK, Agile, and hybrid delivery frameworks.
Willingness to travel to client sites for discovery, steering committee meetings, go-live support, and executive relationship management.
Bachelor's degree preferred or commensurate experience demonstrating the ability to perform the responsibilities above.
This is an individual-contributor role with cross-functional influence; people-management experience is not required, though mentorship capability is expected.

Nice To Haves

Prosci, CCMP, or equivalent Change Management certification a plus.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end delivery for one or more multi-suite, multi-department government implementations, including cross-workstream sequencing and phased go-live planning.
Apply matrix program management discipline to coordinate SA, Technical, and Change Management resources without direct reporting authority over those functions.
Establish and maintain project governance artifacts: RAID logs, decision registers, escalation paths, and configuration-freeze protocols appropriate to the engagement's complexity.
Define scope boundaries at the project and workstream level; identify client-side triggers for change orders and document them in writing before they become disputes.
Escalate risks to the Principal PM / Sr. Director with enough lead time for intervention — no risk is surfaced for the first time in a client meeting.
Serve as the primary point of accountability for Director- and VP-level client stakeholders throughout the implementation lifecycle.
Navigate multi-department client governance, competing priorities, and shifting decision-makers with professionalism and a clear paper trail.
Deliver structured, client-ready status reporting, escalation memos, steering committee materials, and go/no-go readiness briefs.
Partner with Sales and PS Leadership during scoping on assigned or prospective engagements to assess delivery feasibility and inform SOW structure.
Define and enforce go-live readiness criteria, configuration-freeze processes, and UAT acceptance standards for assigned engagements.
Proactively identify project-level risks — scope, resource, timeline, and client-readiness — and own mitigation plans through resolution.
Lead root-cause analysis on delivery issues that span multiple workstreams; document findings and surface them to the Principal PM / PS leadership when the fix has implications beyond the current engagement.
Ensure delivery consistency through adherence to PS methodology and shared tooling (RocketLane, Salesforce), and contribute observations to playbook development.
Coordinate change management activities for assigned implementations — organizational readiness, adoption risk, and stakeholder alignment across departments — in partnership with the Change Management function.
Advise client stakeholders on readiness gaps and adoption risk specific to their governmental constraints and political dynamics.
Guide clients through scope evolution without losing delivery momentum or allowing verbal-only agreements to stand as commitments.
Act as a day-to-day resource and informal mentor for Lead/Sr. PMs and Implementation Consultants staffed on the same engagements.
Identify delivery trends within assigned engagements — scope patterns, resource gaps, client-readiness indicators — and raise them to PS leadership with a recommendation.
Partner with Product and Engineering to route field delivery observations into product feedback for the assigned account(s).
Feed engagement-specific learnings from multi-department, multi-suite projects up to the Principal PM and PS leadership for incorporation into the broader delivery methodology.