Technical Project Manager

Job Description: Technical Project Manager

Reports To: Head of PMO / PMO Governance Manager
Employment Type: Full-Time
Experience Level: 6-8 Years

Position Summary

The Technical Project Manager (TPM) is responsible for leading the planning execution and delivery of complex technical projects within NUVEENs product and technology organization. Serving as the critical bridge between business strategy and technical execution the TPM orchestrates cross-functional collaboration among product managers product owners engineering managers software engineers and QA teams to deliver high-quality technical solutions that drive business value.

The ideal candidate brings a balanced blend of technical depth and project management excellence with proven ability to navigate complex technical landscapes while maintaining focus on business outcomes. You will be responsible for managing multiple concurrent projects driving agile delivery practices and ensuring seamless communication across technical and business stakeholders.

This role requires someone who can dive into technical details with engineering teams while articulating business impact to executives all while maintaining rigorous project discipline and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

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