Job Title: Implementation Manager, EssentialsLocation: Remote - US Only (PST or MST Strongly Preferred)
Country: United States
Department: Professional Services
Reports To: Director, Professional Services
Position Type: Full-Time
Salary: $85,000
Job Summary:The Implementation Manager, Essentials owns end-to-end delivery of First Due implementations for the Essentials segment, the highest-volume portfolio in the US customer base. These are fire and EMS agencies, many of them volunteer and combination departments, that purchase broad module suites and run on lean internal staff.
The role carries a stacked mandate. On every engagement, the Implementation Manager runs full project management and personally performs hands-on configuration across the majority of the First Due platform, while carrying a large book of concurrent implementations at any given time. In Essentials, the Implementation Manager is both the project owner and the configuration resource for most modules in scope. The Implementation Manager is accountable for driving each engagement to a point where the agency is actively using what it bought and is set up for a clean transition to Customer Success.
Key Responsibilities:Portfolio and project delivery- Own delivery of a large book of concurrent Essentials implementations from sales transition through configuration, go-live, and Customer Success transition.
- Build and maintain every project in Rocketlane against the standard Essentials milestone structure, including prerequisites, go-live, and post-go-live completion windows.
- Manage prioritization and sequencing across the full portfolio so that anchor modules land first and no engagement stalls unnoticed.
- Run structured escalation and recovery on at-risk or unresponsive engagements, with each touch and call attempt documented, and pull in the Director and cross-functional partners on the defined cadence.
- Validate the sales transition ahead of kickoff so that contracted scope, module list, and expectations are confirmed before work starts.
Hands-on configuration- Personally configure the majority of purchased modules for each agency, spanning personnel and agency setup.
- Convert agency operational and regulatory requirements into working configuration, and validate that each module functions as the agency needs before go-live.
- Route the defined set of advanced modules to specialist Implementation Consultants and coordinate their work into the overall project plan.
Enablement and customer tiering- Deliver guided, live configuration for modules that call for it, and drive self-service enablement for modules the agency configures on its own through the learning platform and webinars, conveying enablement at the standard checkpoint.
- Coach lean, often volunteer, agency staff through adoption, adjusting to shift-based and combination staffing realities.
Integrations and Customer Success transition- Coordinate CAD and dispatch integration work, which is critical to the agency's core modules, including discovery of dispatch capability, budget, and data quality, and manage the dependency on the agency and its dispatch center.
- Execute a clean, documented transition to Customer Success, including open items, launch risk, and any module that reached go-live without adoption.
AI-enabled delivery- Use First Due's AI tooling to remove routine delivery work, including status drafting, meeting summarization and action-item capture, and first-pass configuration and discovery preparation, so that judgment and agency-facing time carry the majority of the role.
- Own the accuracy of any AI-assisted output that reaches an agency, and handle customer data within First Due's data handling standards.
Tooling and data hygiene- Maintain accurate, current project records in Rocketlane, including milestone status, escalation logs, and the data that feeds delivery reporting.
- Keep assignment, go-live, and value-realization records clean so that delivery performance and time-to-value are measurable across the portfolio.
Qualifications:- Four or more years of customer-facing implementation, professional services, or configuration experience in a SaaS environment, including direct hands-on ownership of product configuration, not program oversight alone.
- Proven ability to carry a high volume of concurrent projects and keep every one moving without dropping engagements.
- Strong public safety industry knowledge, with emphasis on fire service and EMS operations, including how volunteer and combination agencies are organized, funded, and staffed.
- Project management discipline, including scheduling, milestone and risk tracking, structured status, and documented escalation.
- Demonstrated ability to drive customer adoption and usage, not just deliver configuration and close.
- Comfort configuring software directly across a broad functional footprint and learning new modules quickly.
- Demonstrated use of AI tooling within a delivery workflow, with the judgment to know where output is reliable and where human validation is required.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to deliver unwelcome information to agency stakeholders without damaging the relationship.
- Experience with Rocketlane or a comparable professional services delivery platform.
- Working knowledge of Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Teams, Word, and Excel).
- Ability to travel to customer sites, team events, and company offsites, up to 10 percent.
Preferred Qualifications:- Direct experience delivering to fire, EMS, or other public safety agencies.
- Experience in a high-volume, high-concurrency delivery model rather than a small number of large programs.
- Working knowledge of Salesforce, including account data hygiene and project handoff from sales.
- Direct hands-on experience with Rocketlane.
- Experience with third-party integration work, including CAD or dispatch data.
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.
