Senior Project Manager - Cloud

Key Responsibilities 1. Project Delivery & Governance - Plan and coordinate all aspects of AIC projects (strategy/assessments, architecture/design, implementation/execution, and transition to operations) from initiation through closure. - Ensure service delivery success, quality, and customer satisfaction through effective project and program management practices. - Lead project initiation activities, including confirmation of client objectives, success metrics, scope, assumptions, constraints, dependencies, and governance model. - Develop, maintain, and execute project plans, schedules, budgets, work breakdown structures, and RAID (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies) logs. - Own project administration in AHEAD’s tools (e.g., PSA), ensuring accurate project setup, resource plans, budgets, billing milestones, and status updates. - Apply change control and Project Change Request (PCR) processes for scope, schedule, and budget changes in collaboration with ELs, TLs, and Sales. 2. Stakeholder & Client Management - Serve as a primary point of contact for assigned projects, driving clear and proactive communication with client stakeholders and internal leadership. - Facilitate status meetings, steering committees, and executive-level updates, providing transparent views of progress, risks, decisions, and financial health. - Align delivery with AIC and client standards (e.g., Agile, hybrid, or waterfall delivery), ensuring the ways-of-working are explicit and followed. - Partner with Engagement Leads and Client Directors to shape a top-notch client experience, including responsiveness, expectation management, and structured escalation handling. 3. Coordination of Global & After-Hours Work - Oversee and coordinate after-hours and weekend change windows (e.g., production cutovers, platform migrations, major releases) in partnership with US-based PMs and TLs. - Act as the primary offshore liaison during change events when assigned, ensuring alignment with approved implementation plans, backout plans, and validation steps. - Maintain continuous communication channels across time zones (India ↔ U.S.) so that risks, blockers, and status are clearly handed off and tracked. - When no after-hours activities are scheduled, work aligned to India/U.S. overlap hours to independently lead small to medium AIC projects (e.g., cloud adoption pilots, data platform workstreams, application modernization sprints). 4. Risk, Quality, and Financial Management - Identify, document, and manage project risks, issues, and dependencies, driving timely mitigation and escalation as needed. - Ensure appropriate quality gates are defined and met (e.g., design reviews, test readiness, go/no-go, post-implementation reviews). - Track and manage project budgets, burn rates, and margin, raising concerns early and partnering with ELs and practice leadership to protect both client value and profitability. - Support PSA data hygiene by maintaining accurate time entry expectations, project end dates, budget adjustments, and revenue alignment. 5. Practice & PMO Enablement - Model and reinforce AIC PMO standards for project hygiene, governance, and reporting, including use of standard templates, dashboards, and inspection routines. - Contribute to practice development, including harvesting reusable artifacts (plans, RAID logs, status report templates, change playbooks) and improving delivery frameworks. - Provide coaching and mentoring to junior project managers, coordinators, and consultants who are performing PM tasks on AIC engagements. - Collaborate with Resource Management and Delivery leaders regarding resource planning and capacity management, helping to structure onshore/offshore staffing models that align to AIC scoping guidelines. 6. Pre-Sales & Opportunity Support (As Needed) - Identify follow-on opportunities and work with client-facing teams to position next-phase work informed by project outcomes and client feedback. Must Have Skills & Experience - 10–12+ years of progressive IT project management experience, including multi-phase engagements in at least one of the following areas: - Cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP) – migrations, modernization, landing zones, platform build-outs. - Data & AI – data platform implementations, analytics/BI, AI/ML initiatives. - Application modernization / DevOps – refactoring, re-platforming, or re-architecting workloads. - Demonstrated success leading medium to high complexity, multi-stakeholder projects with significant client visibility. - Strong working knowledge of project management standards and methods, including both Agile (Scrum/Kanban) and waterfall/hybrid approaches. - Experience coordinating work across global, distributed teams, including offsite/offshore resources and cross-practice contributors. - Proven ability to plan and manage after-hours or production change activities (e.g., cutovers, major releases, infrastructure or platform changes affecting production). - Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, including experience with: - Executive-ready status reports and presentations. - Facilitating workshops, working sessions, and steering meetings. - Proficiency with project management tools (e.g., Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Microsoft Azure DevOps boards, Atlassian Jira, Salesforce, or similar tools). - Strong analysis, problem-solving, negotiation, and conflict management skills. - Demonstrated ability to: - Manage project budgets, forecasts, and financials. - Operate with a consultative mindset, connecting delivery activities to business and operational outcomes. Nice to Have Skills - Background in consulting or a services organization with AIC-style project portfolios (cloud, data, AI, application/platform transformations). - Experience in one or more of the following: - Cloud migration programs, landing zone builds, or modernization roadmaps. - Data platform (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks, Synapse, Redshift) or analytics initiatives. - DevOps / Continuous Integration (CI) – Continuous Delivery (CD) enablement or platform engineering initiatives. - Familiarity with AHEAD-style delivery artifacts (e.g., engagement plans, outcome roadmaps, prioritized backlogs, action plans). - PMP or Agile certifications (e.g., PMI-ACP, PSM, CSM, SAFe) are a plus. - Experience working within or alongside a centralized PMO in a global context. Originally posted on Himalayas