IT Project Lead, Operations

IT Project Lead, Operations

Position Summary

The IT Project Lead, Operations serves as a senior individual contributor within Nexus Health Systems' Information Technology Project Management Office (IT PMO). The role is the non-clinical counterpart to the IT Project Lead, Clinical Informatics, anchoring project delivery under the Information Technology Governance Board (ITGB) and pairing hands-on infrastructure engineering fluency with formal project management discipline to own enterprise technology initiatives from intake through closeout. As a customer-facing representative of Corporate IT, the role builds stakeholder confidence with executives, facility administrators, and operational leaders across all Nexus facilities that the IT department can plan, communicate, and deliver on its commitments.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Project Delivery, ITGB Portfolio

• Own assigned enterprise IT initiatives end to end, accountable for scope, schedule, budget, risk, and stakeholder alignment from intake through closeout.
• Lead delivery of non-clinical technology initiatives including infrastructure rollouts (phone system deployments, wireless and WAP replacements, voice recording, enterprise dashboards), physical security and badge access projects, platform migrations, and enterprise system integrations.
• Coordinate multiple concurrent projects within larger programs spanning one or more IT functions, balancing competing priorities, resource capacity, and timelines across project teams.
• Develop budgets and resource allocation plans for assigned initiatives in accordance with approved plans and specifications; track progress against established plans and recommend alterations to PMO and IT leadership.
• Develop and maintain project artifacts including charters, workplans, RACI matrices, RAID logs, risk registers, change logs, and post-implementation reviews in accordance with Nexus documentation standards.

Technical Fluency and Engineering Partnership

• Apply hands-on infrastructure engineering experience to translate technical scope into credible workplans, dependency maps, and acceptance criteria for initiatives spanning the Nexus enterprise technology environment.
• Partner with the Senior Platform & Infrastructure Engineer, Senior Data Engineer, and service delivery staff to validate technical approach, sequencing, and cutover plans; hands-on build and configuration remain with engineering staff.
• Assess the downstream impact of engineering decisions on schedule, budget, end-user readiness, and facility operations, and adjust delivery plans accordingly.
• Help the engineering team keep technical and process documentation current for systems affected by assigned initiatives.

Governance Board Operations, ITGB

• Attend and present at the weekly Information Technology Governance Board meeting as a standing, mandatory participant, providing initiative status, flagging risks and blockers, and securing approvals for scope, budget, or timeline changes.
• Support ITGB operations including agenda input, project intake review, decision documentation, and follow-up tracking.
• Partner with the Director of IT Business Operations to standardize and continuously improve governance processes, decision-making frameworks, and intake criteria.

Stakeholder Engagement and Reporting

• Develop executive-level project status reports, portfolio dashboards, and briefing materials for IT and Operations leadership; communicate technology changes clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Coordinate with vendors, consultants, implementation partners, and standards bodies on assigned initiatives, managing timelines, deliverables, and performance.
• Maintain stakeholder maps and communication plans for all assigned initiatives, ensuring proactive communication during planned outages, system cutovers, and deployment events.
• Escalate risks, resource conflicts, and compliance concerns, including HIPAA and PHI related considerations, to appropriate leadership in a timely manner.

Required Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Business Management, or a related field.

Engineering Experience

• Minimum 3 years of hands-on infrastructure or systems engineering experience across cloud, networking, endpoint, or server platforms, sufficient to lead technical initiatives with engineer-level credibility. This requirement is the non-clinical counterpart to the registered nursing requirement held by the IT Project Lead, Clinical Informatics.

Project Management Experience

• Minimum 4 years of demonstrated project management experience leading multi-stakeholder IT initiatives, including workplan development, budgeting, resource allocation planning, risk and issue management, and executive-level status reporting.

Certification

• Project Management Professional (PMP) or CompTIA Project+ required. Candidates without PMP at time of hire are expected to obtain certification within 18 months of start date. Nexus Health Systems funds preparation and exam costs.

Governance

• Demonstrated experience presenting to and being held accountable by a governance body, steering committee, or governance board on a recurring basis, including status reporting, risk escalation, and change request approval.

Communication

• Demonstrated ability to develop executive-ready reports, presentations, and briefing materials, and to negotiate plans, proposals, and options with technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• PMP certification in hand at time of hire.
• Master's degree in Information Technology, Engineering, Business Management, or a related field.
• Healthcare or hospital IT experience, including working knowledge of HIPAA, HITECH, and Joint Commission requirements as they apply to technology delivery.
• Experience managing enterprise infrastructure rollouts in a multi-facility environment, including wireless, telephony, physical security, or badge access deployments.
• Experience coordinating with plant operations, facilities management, municipal authorities, or fire marshal approval processes on technology projects with physical components.
• Microsoft certifications (AZ-104 or AZ-305), CompTIA Network+ or Security+, or ITIL Foundation.
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Prosci Change Management certification.

Technical Competencies

• Enterprise platforms. Engineering-level working fluency across Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Active Directory, Intune, Citrix, AWS, Cloudflare, and Aruba networking, sufficient to scope, sequence, and lead initiatives credibly with engineering staff. Hands-on build and configuration are not expectations of this role.
• Project management tooling. Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Azure DevOps, or Planner for workplan development, dependency tracking, resource planning, and portfolio-level status reporting.
• Microsoft 365. Advanced proficiency in Excel (pivot tables, formula-driven trackers), PowerPoint (executive-ready slides), SharePoint (project sites, document libraries), and Teams (collaboration, governance meeting facilitation).
• Governance documentation. Experience producing project charters, decision papers, RAID logs, change logs, and committee briefing packages.
• Clinical systems awareness. Working familiarity with Meditech EMR sufficient to coordinate shared dependencies with Clinical Informatics during interdisciplinary initiatives. Clinical system build and configuration are out of scope for this role.

Physical Requirements and Work Conditions

This is a hybrid position based at Nexus Corporate. Onsite presence at Nexus Corporate is required on a monthly cadence at minimum, with additional onsite days expected to support governance board meetings, deployment events, system cutovers, and key stakeholder engagements. Specific onsite scheduling is coordinated with the supervisor. Travel to other Nexus facilities across the greater Houston area is required as project work demands. Remote work is supported between required onsite engagements. The role requires the ability to sit, stand, and walk for extended periods, work in clinical environments including patient care units during deployment activities, and occasionally lift up to 25 pounds. After-hours availability is expected to support system cutovers, planned maintenance windows, and critical project milestones. The role operates in a hybrid clinical and corporate environment subject to HIPAA, HITECH, and Joint Commission requirements.