OTAVA is seeking an experienced and results-driven Director/Sr. Director, Project Management Office (PMO) & Program Implementation to lead and develop a centralized project management function across the organization.
Reporting to the Vice President of Engineering, this leader will oversee Project Managers responsible for delivering customer deployments, infrastructure and technology implementations, operational improvements, and strategic initiatives.
The role will establish consistent project management practices, strengthen cross-functional coordination, drive accountability, and ensure projects are delivered on time, within scope, and within budget.
The ideal candidate is a hands-on leader with strong project management expertise, excellent communication and problem-solving skills, and the ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced managed services and cloud infrastructure environment.
Responsibilities
PMO Leadership & Team Management
- Lead, mentor, develop, and evaluate a team of Project Managers, establishing clear performance objectives and accountability standards.
- Establish and manage a centralized PMO supporting initiatives across departments, beyond the Deployment organization.
- Allocate projects based on business priorities, complexity, resource availability, and team capacity.
- Conduct regular project reviews, team meetings, and performance evaluations.
- Identify opportunities to improve project management capabilities, processes, and team effectiveness.
- Develop a scalable PMO structure to support organizational growth and evolving business needs.
Enterprise-Wide Project Management
- Oversee the planning, execution, monitoring, and successful completion of projects across OTAVA’s business units.
- Manage a broad portfolio of initiatives, including:
- Customer onboarding, implementations, migrations, and deployments.
- Data center and infrastructure upgrades, expansions, and migrations.
- Cloud platform and managed services initiatives.
- Internal technology and systems implementations.
- Product and service launches requiring cross-functional coordination.
- Operational efficiency and process improvement initiatives.
- Strategic business initiatives assigned by executive leadership.
- Ensure projects have clearly defined objectives, scope, milestones, deliverables, ownership, and success criteria.
- Monitor project schedules, dependencies, resource requirements, and delivery risks.
- Facilitate cross-functional collaboration and provide direct oversight for complex or high-priority initiatives.
Project Governance, Processes & Standards
- Develop, implement, and maintain standardized project management methodologies, processes, templates, and reporting practices.
- Establish consistent project initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closure procedures.
- Define project documentation requirements, communication plans, risk registers, and escalation processes.
- Implement project intake and prioritization processes to evaluate new requests and determine appropriate PMO involvement.
- Establish governance practices that promote accountability, transparency, and predictable project delivery.
- Identify and implement tools and technologies that improve project tracking, collaboration, and reporting.
- Capture lessons learned and continuously improve project management processes.
Cross-Functional Coordination & Stakeholder Management
- Serve as a central coordination point between Operations, Deployment, Engineering, Infrastructure, Product, Sales, Customer Success, and other departments.
- Partner with departmental leaders to align project requirements, priorities, timelines, and resource dependencies.
- Facilitate effective communication between internal stakeholders, external vendors, partners, and customers.
- Ensure clear ownership of project tasks and deliverables across participating departments.
- Proactively identify scheduling conflicts, resource constraints, and organizational dependencies that may impact project delivery.
- Escalate project risks, delays, and unresolved issues to the appropriate leadership teams.
- Build strong cross-functional relationships to promote collaboration and alignment.
Project Performance, Reporting & Accountability
- Establish and maintain key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure project delivery effectiveness and PMO performance.
- Develop and maintain a centralized portfolio view of active projects, including schedules, milestones, risks, and overall status.
- Provide regular project portfolio updates to Operations and executive leadership.
- Monitor project delivery against established timelines, budgets, and success criteria.
- Identify recurring project delays, operational bottlenecks, and opportunities for improvement.
- Ensure stakeholders receive timely, accurate, and actionable project updates.
- Drive accountability for project commitments and ensure early identification and escalation of risks.
Continuous Improvement & Operational Excellence
- Identify opportunities to improve project delivery efficiency, reduce delays, and enhance the customer experience.
- Collaborate with Operations leadership to streamline cross-functional workflows and eliminate unnecessary complexity.
- Analyze completed projects to identify trends, root causes of delays, and opportunities for process optimization.
- Support the implementation of automation and project management technologies to improve efficiency and visibility.
- Promote a culture of proactive planning, clear communication, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Experience
Required Experience
- 5+ years of progressive project management experience, preferably within IT infrastructure, cloud services, managed services, or technology organizations.
- 2+ years of experience leading Project Managers, project teams, or cross-functional initiatives.
- Demonstrated experience managing multiple concurrent projects with competing priorities and complex dependencies.
- Experience establishing or improving project management processes, governance, and reporting.
- Experience managing cross-functional projects involving multiple departments and stakeholders.
- Experience presenting project updates, risks, and recommendations to senior leadership.
Preferred Experience
- Experience building, managing, or expanding a centralized Project Management Office.
- Experience working within a Managed Service Provider (MSP), Cloud Service Provider (CSP), data center, or IT infrastructure organization.
- Familiarity with cloud infrastructure, virtualization, networking, disaster recovery, and managed services.
- Experience managing customer-facing technical implementations and infrastructure migrations.
- Experience with project portfolio management, resource planning, and capacity management.
- Familiarity with ITIL practices and IT service management processes.
- Experience supporting organizational change management and operational transformation initiatives.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- Strong understanding of project management methodologies, including Agile, Waterfall, and hybrid approaches.
- Ability to develop and implement project governance frameworks, processes, and reporting standards.
- Strong organizational, analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including executive-level reporting and presentations.
- Ability to influence and coordinate teams across departments without direct reporting authority.
- Strong stakeholder management, negotiation, and conflict-resolution skills.
- Ability to manage competing priorities, complex dependencies, and changing business requirements.
- Proficiency with project management, portfolio management, and collaboration tools.
- Strong leadership skills with the ability to develop high-performing teams and drive accountability.
Education
- Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Information Technology, Project Management, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
Certifications
- Project Management Professional (PMP) certification or equivalent preferred.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Success in this role will be measured through project delivery performance, operational efficiency, stakeholder satisfaction, and PMO effectiveness.
Project Delivery
- Percentage of projects completed on time.
- Percentage of projects completed within approved scope and budget.
- Adherence to established project milestones and delivery commitments.
- Average project delay and time required to resolve critical blockers.
Operational Efficiency
- Project Manager capacity and resource utilization.
- Reduction in project delays caused by coordination or communication gaps.
- Consistency of project documentation and process adherence.
- Effectiveness of project intake, prioritization, and resource allocation.
Stakeholder & Customer Satisfaction
- Internal stakeholder satisfaction with PMO support.
- Customer satisfaction with project communication and delivery coordination.
- Timeliness and effectiveness of project escalations and issue resolution.
PMO Development
- Adoption of standardized project management processes.
- Accuracy and timeliness of project reporting.
- Continuous improvement in project delivery performance.
- Development, engagement, and performance of the Project Management team.
Success in the First 12 Months
The successful candidate will be expected to:
- Establish a centralized PMO function: Transition Project Managers into a dedicated team with clearly defined responsibilities, reporting relationships, and operating procedures.
- Implement consistent project management standards: Establish repeatable processes, templates, communication expectations, and reporting practices.
- Improve project visibility: Provide executive leadership with a consolidated view of active projects, priorities, milestones, risks, and resource requirements.
- Expand PMO support across OTAVA: Extend project management capabilities beyond customer deployments to support operational, technical, and strategic initiatives.
- Improve project delivery performance: Demonstrate measurable improvements in project predictability, cross-functional coordination, accountability, and stakeholder satisfaction.
- Develop a scalable PMO organization: Establish the processes, capabilities, and team structure necessary to support future organizational growth.
What We Offer
Competitive base salary ($150,000–$170,000 annually), with a target annual bonus of 10%, depending on experience and qualifications.
Our benefits include a 401(k) match, health insurance, generous paid time off, paid volunteer time off, and the opportunity to work with world-class colleagues who are just as dedicated and passionate about what they do as you are.
What About OTAVA?
At OTAVA, we are people empowering people to enable growth. We are excited for you to join us!
As a global leader in secure, compliant, enterprise-class cloud hosting, we deliver a full range of solutions from colocation to private and hybrid cloud computing.
We’re creative thinkers who love to serve others, automate where possible, and change when required. Above all, we love to help our clients. We aim for superior client service in everything we do and strive to get even better.
Sound like you? Come join us!
