Junior Project Managers/Analysts

Key Responsibilities

1. Project Planning & Execution (25%)

Strategic Project Planning:

• Define comprehensive project scope, objectives, success criteria, and deliverables aligned with business strategy and technical requirements
• Develop detailed project plans including work breakdown structures, schedules, resource allocation, budget estimates, and dependency mapping
• Establish project governance structure with clear decision rights, escalation paths, and approval gates
• Create realistic timelines incorporating technical complexity, resource constraints, and risk factors
• Define and track key project milestones, deliverables, and quality gates

Execution & Delivery Management:

• Coordinate and monitor project progress across multiple workstreams and technical teams
• Track project performance against baseline using earned value management and agile metrics
• Conduct regular status reviews with project teams and stakeholders
• Identify schedule slippage, budget variance, or scope creep early and implement corrective actions
• Manage project changes through formal change control processes
• Ensure smooth handoffs between project phases and successful transition to production
• Lead project retrospectives capturing lessons learned and implementing improvements

Resource & Budget Management:

• Forecast and secure necessary technical resources (engineers, architects, QA, DevOps)
• Manage project budgets including labor costs, infrastructure, licensing, and vendor expenses
• Track resource utilization and optimize allocation across multiple initiatives
• Negotiate resource conflicts with engineering managers and prioritize critical path activities
• Monitor burn rate and forecast budget variances with mitigation plans

2. Technical Coordination & Leadership (30%)

Technical Architecture & Design Collaboration:

• Partner with software architects and technical leads to understand system architecture, technical constraints, and design decisions
• Facilitate technical design reviews ensuring scalability, performance, security, and maintainability requirements are met
• Coordinate integration planning across multiple systems, APIs, and microservices
• Ensure technical dependencies are identified, documented, and tracked across teams
• Work with DevOps teams on CI/CD pipeline, deployment strategies, and infrastructure provisioning
• Understand cloud architecture (AWS, Azure, GCP) and infrastructure implications on project timelines

Technical Requirements Management:

• Collaborate with business analysts and product owners to translate business requirements into detailed technical specifications
• Ensure technical requirements are complete, testable, and traceable through implementation
• Facilitate technical feasibility assessments and proof-of-concept planning
• Maintain requirements traceability matrix linking business needs to technical deliverables
• Manage technical debt discussions and prioritization with engineering teams
• Coordinate API design, data model definitions, and integration specifications

Engineering Team Enablement:

• Act as primary liaison between product management and engineering teams
• Remove technical blockers and impediments hindering development progress
• Facilitate resolution of technical disputes or conflicting priorities
• Translate technical complexities into business language for non-technical stakeholders
• Ensure engineering teams have clarity on priorities, requirements, and success criteria
• Champion engineering best practices including code reviews, automated testing, and documentation

Technical Risk Assessment:

• Identify technical risks including architectural complexity, technology maturity, and integration challenges
• Collaborate with architects and senior engineers on risk mitigation strategies
• Assess impact of technical decisions on project schedule, cost, and quality
• Monitor technical health indicators (code quality, test coverage, performance metrics)
• Escalate technical concerns to engineering leadership with recommended solutions

3. Stakeholder Management & Communication (20%)

Cross-Functional Partnership:

• Build strong working relationships with product managers aligning project execution with product strategy and roadmap
• Partner with product owners ensuring backlog prioritization supports project milestones
• Collaborate with engineering managers on resource planning, capacity management, and team velocity
• Coordinate with QA leadership on test strategy, automation, and quality metrics
• Engage with architecture, security, compliance, and infrastructure teams on technical governance requirements
• Work with release management on deployment planning and production readiness

Executive & Leadership Communication:

• Prepare and deliver executive status reports with Red/Yellow/Green health indicators and trend analysis
• Present to senior leadership on project progress, risks, and strategic decisions needed
• Translate technical details into business impact for executive audiences
• Facilitate steering committee meetings and governance checkpoints
• Manage escalations effectively, providing context and recommended actions
• Build credibility with leadership through transparency, data-driven insights, and proactive communication

Stakeholder Expectation Management:

• Conduct stakeholder analysis identifying interests, influence, and communication preferences
• Develop stakeholder engagement plans with tailored communication strategies
• Proactively manage scope expectations and negotiate tradeoffs when necessary
• Navigate organizational politics diplomatically resolving conflicting priorities
• Build consensus among diverse stakeholders with competing interests
• Celebrate wins and recognize team contributions fostering positive relationships

Communication Excellence:

• Create clear, concise project communication including status reports, dashboards, and presentations
• Maintain project wiki/Confluence spaces with current documentation accessible to all stakeholders
• Facilitate effective meetings with clear agendas, timeboxed discussions, and actionable outcomes
• Ensure consistent messaging across stakeholder groups avoiding confusion or misalignment
• Practice active listening and empathy in stakeholder interactions
• Adapt communication style to audience technical proficiency and organizational level

4. Agile Project Management & Delivery (15%)

Agile Methodology Implementation:

• Drive agile/scrum practices within project teams ensuring adherence to sprint cycles and agile principles
• Tailor agile frameworks (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe) to project context and organizational maturity
• Balance agile flexibility with project predictability providing reliable delivery commitments
• Champion agile values of transparency, inspection, and adaptation
• Support Product Owners in effective backlog management and prioritization
• Foster agile mindset across teams emphasizing collaboration and iterative delivery

Agile Ceremony Facilitation:

• Facilitate or coordinate sprint planning sessions ensuring realistic commitments and clear sprint goals
• Support daily stand-ups keeping teams focused and identifying blockers quickly
• Participate in sprint reviews providing project context and stakeholder perspective
• Lead or contribute to sprint retrospectives driving continuous improvement
• Coordinate Program Increment (PI) planning in scaled agile environments
• Ensure ceremonies remain productive, timeboxed, and valuable to teams

Agile Metrics & Performance:

• Track team velocity, sprint burn-down, and release burn-up charts
• Monitor cycle time, lead time, and throughput for continuous flow optimization
• Measure sprint predictability and work with teams to improve estimation accuracy
• Use cumulative flow diagrams identifying bottlenecks and workflow inefficiencies
• Report on agile health metrics (escaped defects, technical debt, automation coverage)
• Balance speed with quality ensuring sustainable pace and technical excellence

Continuous Improvement:

• Identify process inefficiencies and lead improvement initiatives
• Experiment with new agile practices and tools measuring effectiveness
• Share best practices across project teams and engineering organization
• Facilitate problem-solving sessions using root cause analysis techniques
• Encourage team autonomy and self-organization while maintaining accountability
• Foster learning culture where failures are treated as improvement opportunities

5. Risk Management & Problem Solving (10%)

Proactive Risk Management:

• Identify, assess, and prioritize project risks across technical, schedule, resource, and organizational dimensions
• Develop comprehensive risk mitigation and contingency plans
• Maintain risk register with probability/impact analysis and mitigation status
• Monitor risk triggers and execute response plans proactively
• Escalate risks appropriately providing leadership with options and recommendations
• Conduct "pre-mortem" exercises anticipating potential failures and planning prevention
• Balance risk mitigation with acceptable risk-taking enabling innovation

Issue Resolution & Escalation:

• Rapidly identify and triage issues impacting project progress
• Facilitate root cause analysis and problem-solving sessions with cross-functional teams
• Drive resolution of technical blockers coordinating across engineering, architecture, and infrastructure teams
• Manage critical production issues during project deployment and stabilization
• Know when and how to escalate effectively providing context and recommended solutions
• Track issues to closure ensuring accountability and timely resolution
• Document issues and resolutions building organizational knowledge

Technical Problem Solving:

• Anticipate technical bottlenecks based on architecture complexity and team capacity
• Collaborate with engineers on solution alternatives evaluating tradeoffs
• Challenge technical assumptions and push for creative solutions
• Facilitate technical deep-dives when issues are complex or ambiguous
• Balance technical perfection with practical delivery timelines
• Support teams through difficult technical challenges providing encouragement and resources

6. Quality Assurance & Compliance (5%)

Quality Management:

• Ensure all deliverables meet quality standards and acceptance criteria
• Collaborate with QA teams integrating testing throughout project lifecycle (shift-left testing)
• Define test strategy including unit, integration, system, performance, and security testing
• Track quality metrics including defect density, test coverage, and escaped defects
• Ensure adequate test environments and data availability supporting quality objectives
• Balance speed-to-market with quality and technical debt management
• Champion non-functional requirements (performance, security, scalability, maintainability)

Compliance & Governance:

• Ensure projects comply with NUVEEN policies, standards, and regulatory requirements
• Coordinate with Information Security on security reviews, threat modeling, and vulnerability remediation
• Support audit activities providing documentation and evidence of controls
• Ensure change management and production deployment approvals
• Maintain project artifacts per retention policies and governance frameworks
• Implement controls ensuring data privacy, confidentiality, and regulatory compliance

Production Readiness:

• Lead production readiness reviews ensuring operational preparedness
• Coordinate with infrastructure, monitoring, and support teams on go-live planning
• Develop rollback and contingency plans for deployment risks
• Ensure runbooks, operational documentation, and knowledge transfer to support teams
• Monitor post-deployment stability and coordinate rapid issue resolution
• Facilitate lessons learned capturing deployment insights for future improvements

Required Qualifications

Experience:

• 6 years of progressive experience in technical project management, software engineering, or related technical roles
• Minimum 3-4 years managing complex technical projects in Hybrid environments
• Proven track record delivering software products or platforms from conception through production deployment
• Experience working directly with software engineering teams managing full SDLC
• Demonstrated success navigating complex technical landscapes with multiple dependencies
• Background working in product-led organizations with cross-functional teams
• Financial services or regulated industry experience highly preferred

Technical Knowledge:

Software Development & Architecture:

• Solid understanding of software development lifecycle (SDLC) and methodologies (Agile, Waterfall, DevOps)
• Working knowledge of modern software architecture patterns (microservices, APIs, event-driven, serverless)
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and cloud-native development
• Understanding of CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and DevOps practices
• Knowledge of software engineering best practices (code reviews, TDD, refactoring, technical debt management)
• Understanding of data architecture, databases (SQL/NoSQL), and data integration patterns

Technical Tools & Platforms:

• Hands-on experience with project management tools: Jira, Confluence (required)
• Proficiency with collaboration tools: Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zoom
• Experience with version control concepts (Git/GitHub/Bitbucket)
• Familiarity with development environments and tools engineers use
• Understanding of monitoring, logging, and observability tools (Splunk, Datadog, New Relic)
• Knowledge of test management and automation frameworks

Project Management Expertise:

• Strong command of project management methodologies (Agile, Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, traditional/waterfall)
• Proficiency creating project plans, schedules, WBS, and Gantt charts (MS Project, Smartsheet)
• Budget management and financial tracking capabilities
• Risk management frameworks and techniques
• Change management and stakeholder engagement practices
• Earned value management and project performance measurement

Preferred Qualifications

Certifications:

• Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) or Professional Scrum Master (PSM)
• PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
• SAFe Program Consultant (SPC) or SAFe Agilist (SA)
• PRINCE2 Practitioner