Senior Project Manager - System

: WELCOME TO INDIANAPOLIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS! At IPS, we believe in the transformative power of education. We work collectively every day to prepare our students for success in the classroom and in life by providing equitable, high-quality educational experiences across our family of schools. IPS is a place to make an impact, grow your career, and ensure every student has access to a high quality education, all while earning a good living in a district on the move. While the work is challenging, it is deeply meaningful and impactful. We seek innovators and trailblazers who bring varying experiences and expertise and share our belief that every child deserves access to an exceptional education. As part of TeamIPS, you’ll create lasting connections, find a sense of belonging, and feel supported to make a meaningful difference in students’ lives. In return, no matter your role here, we expect a commitment to excellence and accountability. You’ll be held to high standards. Resilience and passion are key—you must be adaptable, handling adversity with flexibility while putting students at the heart of everything you do. Ethical conduct, clear communication, and mutual respect are fundamental. Being a dependable, collaborative team player who builds meaningful relationships is essential. Together, we are Proving What’s Possible by building a community where everyone belongs and each student has the opportunity to fulfill their potential. A Career in IPS Offers… Purpose and Impact:Essential Contributions: In every non-teaching and non-leadership role, your work directly supports the success of IPS students and schools. Whether you’re maintaining facilities, providing student services, or managing administrative operations, you play a key part in ensuring an equitable and high-quality educational environment.Belonging and Community: IPS is a place where every employee is valued. You’ll join a supportive community that promotes respect, teamwork, and a shared commitment to serving students and families. Professional and Personal Growth:Training and Development Opportunities: IPS offers a variety of training programs to help staff build new skills and grow professionally. This includes access to development opportunities for administrative, technical, and operational roles, as well as pathways to becoming a certified teacher.Skill Enhancement: Whether you’re new to your role or seeking to deepen your expertise, IPS provides resources and support for continuous improvement. Comprehensive Compensation and Benefits:Fair Compensation: IPS ensures competitive wages and regularly reviews pay structures to maintain equity.Extensive Benefits Package: Employees enjoy comprehensive health coverage, dental and vision plans, life insurance, disability insurance, and retirement plans. Additional financial benefits include flexible spending accounts and eligibility for federal loan forgiveness programs. Work-Life Balance and Well-being:Generous Leave Policies: IPS offers vacation, personal, and sick leave, along with paid holidays. Twelve-month employees benefit from floating holidays, and unused personal leave rolls into the sick leave balance.Wellness Programs: IPS prioritizes staff well-being with access to wellness initiatives, including health screenings and an employee assistance program for confidential support and counseling. What We Expect:Professionalism and Reliability: Every role at IPS is vital to the district’s success. We expect staff to demonstrate professionalism, dependability, and a commitment to providing excellent service to students, educators, and families.Collaboration and Communication: IPS values teamwork. Working collaboratively with your colleagues ensures a supportive environment for all. Clear communication and mutual respect are key to maintaining this culture.Flexibility and Problem-Solving: As a large, dynamic district, IPS needs staff who are adaptable and proactive in solving problems to meet the ever-changing needs of students and schools.JOIN US! Indianapolis Public Schools is more than a workplace; it’s a community where purpose, impact, and belonging come together to help Prove What’s Possible – in your career and in your school. If you’re ready to embrace challenges, strive for excellence, and make a meaningful impact, IPS is the place for you. TITLE: Senior Project Manager - System SUMMARY OF OPPORTUNITY: The Senior Project Manager will report directly to the System Executive Director and hold full day-to-day authority over the project team. In this key leadership role, you will drive project implementation, oversee critical workstreams, and ensure ongoing alignment with the organization’s strategic objectives. You’ll work closely with the special projects team to unify the district’s various lines of business, serving as the collective voice that bridges different business units. The role demands a balanced blend of leadership, communication, and organizational skills—combining high-level strategic thinking with detail-oriented project oversight. By consistently engaging with team members, leadership, and stakeholders, tracking project performance, and adapting to evolving priorities, you will help ensure projects stay on schedule and deliver meaningful, lasting results. WHAT YOU’LL DO:Managed Project Team and Lead Cross-functional Projects: Managed team’s day-to-day, led specialized projects across multiple functional areas—including Digital Strategy, Operations, HR, and Finance—to advance the organization’s long-term district strategy, generate creative solutions, bolster innovation, foster a culture of shared responsibility and drive transformative change.Strategic Planning: Supporting the Executive Director with organizational strategy, long-term initiatives, and critical objectives to align department goals. Develop and Manage Project Plans: Develop comprehensive project plans, and outline scope, goals, deliverables, budgets, and timelines aligned with strategic objectives.Deliver Timely and Cost-Effective Outcomes: Oversee cross-functional project execution, coordinating stakeholders and resources to ensure on-time delivery and budget compliance.Drive Transformational Change: Continuously monitor project performance, proactively resolve roadblocks, and communicate clearly with leadership and team members to achieve successful project outcomes.Support Continuous Improvement: Encourage team members' professional growth, contribute ideas for refining project management methodologies, and enhance team efficiency. Stay current on best practices and tools to help drive innovation and improved results CORE DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: Leadership: Lead, manage, and coordinate project team, mentoring and motivating team members, and creating a collaborative environment.Cross-functional communication & collaboration: Work closely with the special projects team to bridge all district business lines, fostering alignment and cohesion across diverse functional areas.Directing: Ensure all projects are on time, on budget, and within scope.Budget management: Control all team and project budgets and procurements. Risk assessment: Assess and mitigate all departmental, team, and project risks.Project planning: Create, implement, and lead detailed project strategies and plans. Resource management: Coordinate and manage department and team resources. Quality control: Ensure quality control of project tasks—surface ideas for improving operations and implementations. Project reporting: Provide department and project reporting and feedback to the team and leadership. Researching, benchmarking, and negotiating: Secure favorable deals, reduce risks, and maintain productive vendor relationships.Change management: Support the Executive Director in strategy, managing change, and RAID management.Thought Partnership: engage in deeper-level thinking and dialogue to generate new insights, solve complex problems, and refine strategic directions.Perform other related duties as assigned: Undertake any tasks or responsibilities that arise in the normal course of business, ensuring flexibility and responsiveness to evolving organizational needs. ”DAY IN THE LIFE” OVERVIEW: On a regular day, as Senior Manager of Special projects, you might:Review Communications: Scan emails, messages, and project dashboards for updates, potential risks, or stakeholder inquiries.Daily Stand-Ups: Lead or attend short stand-up meetings with the project team to touch base on progress, roadblocks, and next steps.Project Planning Sessions: Strategic planning and collaboration to evaluate project timelines, budgets, and resource allocation to ensure milestones are met and anticipate future needs.Executive Alignment: Meet with the System Executive Director, executive leadership, and stakeholders to align on strategy, confirm priorities, and adjust project scopes if necessary. Facilitate ongoing coordination, collaboration, communication, and alignment across different teams or departments within the district.Bi-weekly One-On-One Meetings: Spend time coaching and mentoring team members, addressing challenges, and providing guidance. In addition, conduct weekly cross-functional meetings.Workstream Oversight: Monitor various work streams within the special projects team, ensuring each is on track and properly resourced.Issue Resolution and Next Steps: Address any issues identified amongst the department, team, and projects—document action items and follow-ups.Budget Management: Track and control financial resources for department and project budgets ensuring spending is within approved limits. Assess resource requirements (people, technology, materials) for the department and current and upcoming project phases.Documentation and Reporting: Prepare weekly or monthly status reports for executive leadership, highlighting key metrics, project achievements, and pending approvals. Author and maintain departmental SOPs to establish clear workflows, compliance standards, and processes.Process Improvement: Review outcomes and processes (OKRs &KPIs) to identify lessons learned and implement continuous improvement measures. WHAT YOU’LL BRING: SKILLS AND MINDSETS: As an ideal candidate for this role, you will be able to achieve the following: Exceptional Leadership & Team-Building: Demonstrates strong leadership qualities and the ability to foster a collaborative team environment.Project Management Expertise: Proficient in the principles of project management, customer service best practices, and data management.Strong Communication & Engagement: Excellent interpersonal skills, enabling effective collaboration and stakeholder engagement. Comfortable partnering with colleagues, providing clear, concise, and articulate information—both written and verbal. Is an active listener and versed in conflict resolution. Strategic Mindset: Driven to align department goals, team needs, daily tasks, objectives, and overarching goals to drive strategic priorities.Multi-priority Management: Skilled at effectively supervising teams and balancing several competing priorities simultaneously.Organizational & Time Management: Maintains superior organizational habits and efficient time management to meet tasks and deadlines. Adaptability and Continuous Learning: Growth mindset, remain flexible, adjusting to changing priorities while keeping everyone aligned.Cross-level Collaboration: Comfortable partnering with colleagues across all levels of the organization to achieve common objectives.Self-motivated & Detail-oriented: Displays initiative, attention to detail, and consistent follow-through to ensure project success.Technology Proficiency: Utilize Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, Smartsheet, excel, Planner, and other data visualization tools. SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES: ● Yes. Provide direct supervision to the project team. EDUCATION, CERTIFICATION, AND LICENSURE REQUIREMENTS: ● Preferred Education: Bachelor’s degree in a business discipline, project management, communications, human resources, education, or another technical business administration field. ● Project Management Experience: 8–10 years minimum of direct project management experience. Alternatively, 10 or more years of combined experience in project management or administrative support—where an equivalent blend of training and experience demonstrates the required knowledge and abilities—may be considered. ● Certifications: PMP (Project Management Professional) or CSM (Certified ScrumMaster) required. FLSA CLASSIFICATION: Exempt ELIGIBILITY FOR REMOTE WORK: Remote work is eligible at the Supervisor’s discretion. PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS: The physical requirements described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made for individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions. EEOC STATEMENT: Indianapolis Public Schools, in accordance with its nondiscrimination policies, will not discriminate in its programs, facilities, or employment or educational opportunities on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, sex, age, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, veteran or military status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, familial status, domestic violence victim status, homelessness or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state or local laws, regulations, or ordinances. Indianapolis Public Schools does not tolerate any form of retaliation or bias-based intimidation, threat, or harassment that demeans individuals’ dignity or interferes with their ability to learn or work. DISCLAIMER: Essential functions, as defined under the Americans with Disabilities Act, may include any of the above representative duties, knowledge, and skills. This job description is illustrative only, and is not a comprehensive list of all essential functions and duties performed by the occupant of this position. Factors such as regular and punctual attendance are not routinely listed in job descriptions, but are an essential function.