The Lead Project Manager is responsible for ensuring consistent adoption of the project management process standards and methodology across all  team members. This role overviews and supervises delivery rituals, monitors project health, coaches Project Managers, oversees their career development, and manages escalations to ensure predictable, high-quality outcomes with minimal variance. The Lead Project Manager operationalizes project management standards day-to-day, establishes and improves processes, and enables PMs to execute with discipline, structure, and ownership. Additionally, this role may step in hands-on to lead or stabilize key projects when necessary, ensuring continuity and delivery excellence across the organization.

Key Responsibilities

1. Delivery Governance & Operational Consistency

• Ensure disciplined application of the project management playbook, delivery lifecycle, and reporting standards.
• Monitor project health across all accounts, identifying variance early and driving corrective actions.
• Overview and supervise delivery rituals (kickoffs, weekly status, risk reviews, retros) to enforce consistency.
• Lead and standardize project process standards.
• Define and enforce best practices for project tracking, customer communication, and delivery quality.

2. PM Coaching & Career Development

• Provide structured coaching, support, and feedback to PMs.
• Contribute to defining PM competencies, leveling criteria, and career paths.
• Help PMs strengthen planning, communication, risk management, and delivery discipline.
• Promote a culture of ownership, strong communication, predictability, and continuous improvement.

3. Reporting, Insights & Variance Management

• Maintain and enhance delivery dashboards and project performance reporting.
• Track variance trends and propose operational improvements to reduce risks and delays.
• Ensure reliable communication of project status, blockers, and decisions to leadership.

4. Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Engineering and Product to align delivery workflows, quality expectations, and dependencies.
• Collaborate with Finance to support estimates, staffing/margin impacts, and delivery economics.
• Coordinate with Recruiting and People teams for PM hiring, onboarding, and capacity planning.
• Work closely with Account Management to ensure external positioning matches delivery capabilities and identify farming opportunities.

5. Operational Improvements & Process Evolution

• Identify gaps in delivery workflows and lead initiatives to refine or scale project management processes.
• Update templates, tools, documentation, and guidelines for continuous improvement.
• Support organizational readiness for new methodologies, tools, or delivery frameworks.

6. Hands-on Project Leadership 

• Step in to stabilize high-risk or strategic projects.
• Lead by example through hands-on delivery when required to ensure continuity and best-practice adoption.

Key Skills & Qualifications

• 7–10+ years in Project Management.
• Strong command of Agile delivery models.
• Experience coaching or leading PMs in day-to-day execution.
• Demonstrated ability to enforce standards, mitigate risks, and drive predictability.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder alignment, and conflict management skills.
• Cross functional collaboration mindset.
• Strong operational mindset with ability to improve and scale processes.
• Experience working across engineering, product, and operations teams.
• Hands-on readiness to lead critical projects when required.
• Strong tools management (Jira, Asana, Monday, Notion, Confluence, etc)
• PMP, CSM or similar certifications (Nice to Have).
• Familiarity with SDLC, delivery economics, and reporting best practices.

Key Competencies

• Ownership & accountability
• Delivery discipline and structure
• Coaching & people development
• Risk and variance management
• Clear and proactive communication
• Systems and process thinking
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Adaptability and continuous improvement mindset

Success Indicators

• Consistent adoption of project management standards across teams.
• Reduction in delivery variance (timelines, quality, risks).
• Improved PM capability and performance.
• Reliable, accurate project reporting and escalations management.
• Scalable project management processes and workflows.
• Strong relationships with Engineering, Product, Finance, and People teams.