Project Manager

Job Title: Project Manager
Location: Remote occasional travel to Springfield, IL
Preferred Candidate Location: Chicago, IL / Greater Chicagoland Area Job Type: Contract

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced Project Manager to support the Illinois Capital Development Board (CDB) on a contract basis. This is a backfill position responsible for managing projects from initiation through completion, coordinating cross-functional teams, tracking schedules and budgets, managing risks and issues, and ensuring successful delivery of project objectives.

The ideal candidate will have strong experience managing IT/technology projects, working with government or public-sector organizations, and communicating effectively with technical teams, business stakeholders, vendors, and leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage projects through the full project lifecycle, including initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closure.

• Develop and maintain project plans, schedules, milestones, deliverables, and dependencies.

• Coordinate cross-functional teams, technical resources, business stakeholders, vendors, and leadership.

• Define project scope, objectives, deliverables, timelines, and success criteria.

• Track project status, budgets, risks, issues, assumptions, dependencies, and action items.

• Facilitate project meetings, working sessions, status meetings, and stakeholder discussions.

• Prepare and distribute project status reports, dashboards, presentations, and executive updates.

• Identify project risks and develop mitigation and contingency plans.

• Manage issues and escalate critical risks or decisions to appropriate leadership.

• Monitor project progress against approved schedules, budgets, and milestones.

• Coordinate requirements, technical deliverables, testing, implementation, and deployment activities.

• Work closely with Business Analysts, Developers, QA/Testers, Architects, Infrastructure teams, and business users.

• Manage vendor and third-party activities when applicable.

• Ensure project documentation is complete, accurate, and maintained throughout the project lifecycle.

• Support change management and ensure scope changes are properly evaluated and documented.

• Ensure projects follow established SDLC, governance, security, and organizational standards.

• Coordinate User Acceptance Testing (UAT), implementation planning, and production rollout activities.

• Maintain project artifacts including project plans, RAID logs, meeting minutes, action items, decision logs, and status reports.

• Communicate project status, accomplishments, risks, and upcoming milestones to leadership and stakeholders.

• Ensure successful transition of completed projects into ongoing operations and support.

Required Skills & Experience

• 5+ years of experience in Project Management, preferably managing IT or technology projects.

• Strong knowledge of project management methodologies, including Agile, Waterfall, or hybrid methodologies.

• Experience managing complex, cross-functional projects from initiation through implementation.

• Strong project planning, scheduling, risk management, and issue-resolution skills.

• Experience working with project plans, schedules, budgets, RAID logs, status reports, and project documentation.

• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.

• Experience working with technical teams and translating technical information for non-technical stakeholders.

• Proficiency with project management and collaboration tools such as Microsoft Project, Jira, Azure DevOps, Smartsheet, or similar platforms.

• Strong understanding of SDLC and software development processes.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Strong organizational and multitasking abilities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with State of Illinois, state government, public-sector, or other government clients.

• PMP certification or equivalent project management experience.

• Experience managing large-scale technology modernization or enterprise application projects.

• Experience coordinating multiple vendors or implementation partners.

• Experience with government project governance, compliance, and reporting requirements.