Director of IT Project Management, Digital Technology Solutions

Uc Blue Ash College - Cincinnati, OH

Full-time - Senior

Cincinnati, OH

10,001+ employees

About the position

The Director of IT Project Management at the University of Cincinnati is responsible for leading and managing IT project management areas, overseeing the program portfolio and project lifecycle for strategic IT projects. This role ensures successful delivery of projects within scope, on time, and on budget, while aligning project execution with the university's broader mission and technology strategy. The director will manage a team and projects across multiple methodologies, including Agile and Waterfall, and will serve as the primary point of contact for project status, risk management, and issue resolution.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and develop the project management team to ensure effective delivery of IT projects that align with the university's goals.
• Develop and implement project management frameworks, policies, and best practices to standardize processes across Agile and Waterfall methodologies.
• Collaborate with IT leadership to prioritize and align projects with strategic objectives.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for project status, risk management, and issue resolution, ensuring transparent communication with stakeholders.
• Communicate project status, issues, and risks to executive leadership, steering committees, and other stakeholders, providing visibility into project performance and success metrics.
• Oversee the full lifecycle of IT projects, from initiation through execution and closing, ensuring that scope, schedule, budget, and quality targets are met.
• Facilitate cross-functional projects and teams, including IT, academic, and administrative departments, to ensure project goals are achieved.
• Implement and maintain effective project tracking and reporting tools (Jira) for Agile and Waterfall environments, developing dashboards and overall reporting on the program portfolio across all central IT areas.
• Manage project portfolios, ensuring that resource allocation, timelines, and risk management are optimized across multiple projects.
• Ensure effective implementation of Agile and Waterfall methodologies, including leading daily standups, sprint planning, retrospectives, and stakeholder reviews in Agile projects, while ensuring that Waterfall projects adhere to traditional project management practices.
• Guide teams in choosing appropriate methodology for each project based on scope, complexity, and stakeholder needs.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement by integrating feedback and lessons learned from Agile and Waterfall projects.
• Provide direct and/or indirect supervision to exempt and non-exempt staff, including hiring/firing, performance evaluations, disciplinary action, and approving time off.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business Administration, or related field.
• Eight (8) years of progressive experience in IT project management, including five (5) years in a leadership role.
• Experience working across multiple facets of IT and projects in infrastructure, development, security, operations, etc.
• Proven experience managing projects using both Agile and Waterfall methodologies.
• Strong knowledge of project management tools (Jira) and techniques for both methodologies.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills with a proven ability to lead teams and engage stakeholders at all levels.

Nice-to-haves

• Master's Degree preferred
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification or Agile/Scrum certification strongly preferred
• Experience in higher education or similar complex organizational environment highly desirable.

Benefits

• Competitive salary range dependent on the candidate's experience.
• Comprehensive insurance plans including medical, dental, vision, and prescription coverage.
• Flexible spending accounts and an award-winning employee wellness program, plus an employee assistance program.
• Financial security via life and long-term disability insurance, accident and illness insurance, and retirement savings plans.
• Generous paid time off options including vacation, sick leave, annual holidays, and winter season days in addition to paid parental leave.
• Tuition remission available for employees and their eligible dependents.
• Discounts for on and off-campus activities and services.