Principal IT Project Manager

The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association (WFAA)* the private fundraising and alumni relations organization for UW-Madison is seeking an experienced Principal IT Project Manager to join our Project Portfolio Planning and Management Office (P3MO).This senior-level role combines hands-on delivery of complex IT projects with organizational responsibility for defining and advancing the enterprises project management methodology and standards. Reporting to the P3MO Manager the Principal IT Project Manager serves as a functional authority on how projects are managed across the IT organization setting PM standards driving continuous improvement and mentoring project managers across the team. PMP certification and experience building or maturing a PM practice are strongly preferred.

The Principal IT Project Manager contributes deep IT project delivery experience and project management methodology expertise to the Project Portfolio Planning and Management Office. This role provides functional leadership for how project management is practiced across the organization by owning the PMO methodology framework setting standards and continuously improving how projects are initiated executed and close partnership with the PMO Manager the Principal IT Project Manager helps ensure portfolio projects are supported by a disciplined consistent delivery practice.

If you are passionate about elevating the discipline of project management and driving delivery excellence through structured consistent practices and emerging AI-assisted tools please apply!

Please note: This position can be hired as hybrid or 100% remote for the right experience level. Remote candidates must reside in the following states to be considered: Arizona Colorado Illinois Iowa Kentucky Minnesota Nebraska New Mexico New York Texas and Wisconsin.

Who is WFAA
The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association is a private nonprofit corporation that encourages individuals and organizations to make gifts to the university and to connect with the 2014 the UW Foundation merged with the Wisconsin Alumni Association to better serve a growing population of UW alumni and donors. We believe that private support grows out of good relationships between campus leaders faculty and program staff who need support and the alumni and friends who want to invest in UWMadison. We provide important engagement opportunities to link UWMadison alumni to each other and to their alma mater building a strong community of Badgers.

Diversity and Inclusion:

Just as the university community benefits from differing viewpoints perspectives and experiences inclusion and diversity are imperative for the success of our mission. WFAA values people and the differences that they bring to the organization and creates an environment in which all staff members and constituents feel respected and have opportunities to thrive.

PMO Standards Methodology & Governance

• Methodology Ownership: Define own and maintain the organizations project management methodology selecting and tailoring frameworks (Agile Waterfall Hybrid Kanban) to organizational context and project type.
• Governance & Intake: Establish and enforce PMO governance processes including project intake stage-gate reviews and escalation paths.
• Standards Library: Develop publish and maintain a comprehensive library of PM standards templates playbooks and toolkits (charters RAID logs status reports lessons learned etc.).
• Project Classification: Define and operationalize project classification tiers (e.g. small/medium/large/transformational) with associated methodology and oversight requirements.
• PMO Maturity: Lead periodic PMO maturity assessments and develop roadmaps to advance organizational project management capability.
• Metrics & KPIs: Establish metrics and KPIs for project performance and PMO effectiveness; report findings to senior leadership.
• Mentoring: Serve as a mentor and go-to resource for project managers at all levels providing guidance on methodology application PM standards and stakeholder management.
• Competency Frameworks: Develop PM competency frameworks and reference materials that support consistent standards adoption across the team.
• Industry Currency: Stay current with industry trends (PMI Agile Alliance Gartner) and proactively recommend methodology updates.

IT Project Management

• Project Delivery: Manage a portfolio of complex high-visibility IT projects from initiation through closure ensuring delivery on time within scope and within budget.
• Stakeholder Alignment: Collaborate with senior leadership and stakeholders to define project objectives gather requirements and align projects to strategic business goals.
• Team Leadership: Lead cross-functional project teams through design development testing and implementation phases.
• Risk & Change Management: Identify assess and actively manage risks issues dependencies and change requests across all assigned projects.
• Documentation & Communication: Maintain comprehensive project documentation and deliver clear concise status communications to stakeholders at all levels.
• Role Flexibility: Flex into Product Owner Scrum Master or Business Analyst roles as project needs require.

PMO Tools Processes & Continuous Improvement

• Tooling Strategy: Own the selection configuration and adoption strategy for PMO tooling (Jira Workfront MS Project Power BI dashboards etc.).
• Reporting Frameworks: Develop standardized reporting frameworks and portfolio dashboards for executive and operational audiences.
• AI & Automation: Actively identify opportunities to apply AI tools and AI-assisted PMO tooling capabilities to automate the production and distribution of PM artifacts reduce administrative burden and enhance project delivery through intelligent scheduling risk flagging resource forecasting and stakeholder communication incorporating proven approaches into PMO standards.
• Lessons Learned: Lead lessons-learned programs and translate insights into actionable process improvements embedded in PMO standards.
• Continuous Improvement Culture: Champion a culture of continuous improvement data-driven decision-making and delivery excellence across the project management community.

Stakeholder Engagement & Executive Partnership

• Relationship Building: Build and sustain trusted relationships with IT leadership business unit leaders and executive sponsors.
• Advisory Role: Serve as a key advisor to leadership on project delivery risks resource capacity and methodology effectiveness.
• Communication: Communicate complex project and portfolio information clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree in Information Technology Project Management Business Administration or equivalent experience.
• 10 years of progressive IT project management experience with at least 3 years in a lead principal or PMO-level capacity.
• Demonstrated experience building or maturing a PMO or PM practice including methodology design and standards implementation.
• Proven track record delivering complex enterprise-scale IT projects with measurable business impact.
• Expert-level command of multiple project management methodologies: Agile Scrum Kanban SAFe Waterfall and Hybrid approaches.
• Proficiency in PMO tooling including Jira Workfront MS Project Microsoft Teams SharePoint and portfolio/reporting dashboards.
• Strong understanding of SDLC IT infrastructure and enterprise systems (CRM ERP Financial Reporting platforms preferred).
• Experience developing PM standards templates playbooks and governance frameworks.
• Exceptional leadership influence and facilitation skills; able to drive alignment across diverse cross-functional stakeholders without direct authority.
• Strong coaching and mentoring capabilities with a focus on elevating peers application of PM methodology and standards.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills including executive-level presentation and reporting.
• High analytical aptitude; able to synthesize data and translate insights into strategic recommendations. Comfortable managing ambiguity competing priorities and organizational change.

Other Qualifications:

• Preferred Certifications:
  • Project Management: PMP (Project Management Professional) PRINCE2 Practitioner PMI-PBA (Business Analysis)
  • Agile & Delivery: CSM / A-CSM (Scrum Master) PMI-ACP (Agile Certified Practitioner) SAFe Program Consultant (SPC)