Sr. Project Manager, IT PMO - 9+ months - Long Beach, CA

We need a Sr. Project Manager, IT PMO for a 9 month contract for a public sector client in Long Beach, CA.

This Sr. Project Manager will lead business application and technology-driven initiatives based on the company s goals and needs. This consultant role requires a minimum of 15 years of experience in IT, project management, and successful project delivery. Key responsibilities include developing project charters and plans, facilitating meetings, tracking project status, managing risks and issues, coordinating with vendors and internal teams, and preparing executive status updates. Additional responsibilities may include creating project deliverables and analyzing business requirements and system design.

The Senior Project Manager must actively structure and drive projects forward while solving problems along the way. They will go beyond schedule tracking by engaging in business analysis, risk management, stakeholder alignment, and vendor coordination.

The ideal candidate is comfortable bridging business and IT, ensuring business needs and technical feasibility align. They should be highly adaptable, able to step into any project, create structure, and drive execution.

This role can be based anywhere in the western USA, with a preference given to candidates who can work Pacific Time Zone (PST) hours. We would prefer a person who lives in CA, as there may be occasional (infrequent) Onsite meetings in the Long Beach, CA office.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Project Leadership and Execution.

• Ensure projects follow industry best practices in project and portfolio management.
• Manage multiple projects with broad scope, ambiguity, and complexity.
• Provide structure and direction, ensuring alignment between business objectives and technical solutions.
• Develop and maintain project schedules, milestones, and deliverables, proactively managing risks, scope, and dependencies.
• Oversee vendor and in-house project teams, ensuring projects progress within time and budget constraints.
• Monitor costs, schedules, and project health, providing regular updates to leadership and escalating issues proactively when necessary

1. Business Analysis and Stakeholder Engagement (as needed).

• Analyze and refine business and functional requirements to ensure clarity and feasibility not just document them.
• Assess process impacts, define success criteria, and support change management efforts by identifying and addressing potential adoption challenges.
• Ensure smooth communication between technical teams and business stakeholders, bridging gaps between business needs and technical feasibility.

1. Vendor and Contract Management.

• Coordinate with vendors to ensure timely delivery of system enhancements, upgrades or implementations.
• Manage vendor relationships, including contract agreements, software renewals and issue escalation.

1. Risk and Issue Management.

• Identify potential risks early and implement mitigation strategies.
• Maintain a structured RAID log to track risks, actions, issues and decisions, ensuring visibility and accountability.
• Navigate established governance structures to manage escalations, change requests and decision making processes.

Required Knowledge and Experience:

• 10-15 years of project management experience, with strong background in business applications, system upgrades, and enterprise IT initiatives.
• Proven ability to manage both business and IT projects from initiation through closure.
• Strong problem solving, analytical and communication skills, with experience creating and presenting executive level communications.
• Ability to step into a business analyst role as needed, gathering requirements, mapping workflows, and aligning business needs with technical solutions.
• Experience managing vendor contracts, licensing agreements and external service providers.
• Strong understanding of project management methodologies, best practices and structured PMO frameworks.
• Experience leading change management and process improvement initiatives.
• Strong understanding of SDLC processes, IT governance and risk management.
• Experience managing both custom and package software solutions, including systems integration.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office suite, including Excel, Word, Powerpoint, MS Project, Teams, Visio and Sharepoint.