This is a Management Service position and serves at the pleasure of the Appointing Authority.
GRADE
Grade 21
LOCATION OF POSITION
120 East Baltimore Street Baltimore, Maryland 21202
Main Purpose of Job
The Project Manager for the Business Operations Office is responsible for planning, leading, coordinating, and delivering SRA's business process re-engineering, technology, product enhancement, and organizational development initiatives using Agile Project Management methodologies. The position serves as a key liaison among business units, technology teams, vendors, and other stakeholders to ensure projects align with SRA's strategic and operational objectives and are delivered effectively.
The Project Manager manages the full project lifecycle, including requirements gathering, planning, design, development, testing, implementation, training, and transition to ongoing operations and support. The position develops and maintains project plans, monitors schedules and deliverables, manages risks, issues, dependencies, and resources, and ensures timely escalation and resolution of project impediments.
The position works closely with Product Owners, Product Managers, business users, developers, vendors, and leadership to translate business requirements into effective solutions. The Project Manager also coordinates testing, quality assurance, stakeholder communication, training, and implementation activities.
Overall, the position ensures SRA's business transformation initiatives are successfully implemented, adopted, and continuously improved to enhance operational efficiency, automation, service delivery, and stakeholder experience.
POSITION DUTIES
The position manages projects from initiation through development, testing, implementation, stabilization, and transition to ongoing operations.
Key duties and responsibilities include:
Agile Project Planning and Management: Develop and maintain Agile project plans, roadmaps, schedules, milestones, deliverables, resource requirements, and success criteria. Ensure projects remain aligned with SRA's strategic and operational objectives.
Agile/Scrum Facilitation: Facilitate sprint planning, daily stand-ups, backlog refinement, sprint reviews, retrospectives, and other Agile ceremonies. Promote collaboration, transparency, accountability, continuous improvement, and timely delivery.
Cross-Functional Team Coordination: Coordinate Business Operations Office staff, Product Owners, business analysts, developers, testers, technology teams, vendors, and business users. Establish responsibilities, monitor assignments, and address resource or dependency issues.
Requirements and Delivery Coordination: Work with Product Owners and stakeholders to translate business needs into epics, features, user stories, acceptance criteria, and actionable deliverables. Coordinate prioritization based on business value, operational needs, dependencies, and implementation readiness.
Risk, Issue, and Impediment Management: Proactively identify and manage risks, issues, dependencies, and impediments. Facilitate timely resolution, develop mitigation strategies, and escalate matters requiring management decisions.
Project Monitoring and Reporting: Monitor project scope, schedules, milestones, deliverables, resources, and performance. Maintain project dashboards and Agile tracking tools and provide regular status reports to Business Operations Office leadership and executive management.
Stakeholder and Vendor Management: Serve as a central point of communication among internal stakeholders, technology teams, vendors, consultants, and external partners. Monitor vendor deliverables and ensure external activities remain aligned with project requirements.
Testing and Quality Assurance: Coordinate testing throughout the Agile lifecycle, including functional, integration, regression, performance, and user acceptance testing. Ensure defects are resolved and products meet established acceptance and quality standards.
Implementation and Change Management: Coordinate implementation, release readiness, training, communications, documentation, and operational transition. Assess the impact of changes on business processes, systems, and users.
Continuous Improvement and Transition: Conduct retrospectives, document lessons learned, identify process improvements, and support post-implementation stabilization. Ensure knowledge and responsibilities are transitioned effectively to Product Management, Application Support, and operational teams.
Overall, the Project Manager serves as the primary coordinator and delivery leader, ensuring that people, processes, technology, vendors, and stakeholders work together effectively to transform approved business requirements into successfully implemented and sustainable solutions.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
Education: Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in Business Administration, Management, Information Technology, Computer Science, Public Administration, Business Process Management, or a related field.
Experience: Five (5) years of progressively responsible experience in project management, including experience planning, coordinating, and delivering complex business, technology, or organizational improvement projects.
DESIRED OR PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
• Professional certification such as Project Management Professional (PMP), PMI-ACP, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Professional Scrum Master (PSM), or equivalent Agile/project management certification. (If yes, make sure to include them in the application under certifications)
• Experience managing complex Agile projects involving multiple business units, technology teams, vendors, and external stakeholders.
• Experience in business process re-engineering, workflow automation, operational improvement, and implementation of technology-enabled business solutions.
• Experience managing enterprise application implementations and integrations, including CRM, ERP, financial systems, portals, document management, workflow, or other business applications.
• Strong Product Management/Product Owner experience, including development and prioritization of product roadmaps, epics, features, user stories, acceptance criteria, and release plans.
• Experience with Agile project-management tools, such as Azure DevOps, Jira, Confluence, or comparable platforms, including project tracking, reporting, backlog management, and performance monitoring.
• Experience managing software testing and quality assurance, including test planning, user acceptance testing, defect management, release readiness, and post-implementation validation.
• Experience managing vendors, consultants, and technology partners, including coordinating deliverables, schedules, contracts, implementation activities, and issue resolution.
• Experience in a government, public-sector, retirement/pension, financial services, benefits administration, or other regulated environment, with an understanding of organizational governance and compliance requirements.
• Demonstrated experience leading organizational change and stakeholder adoption, including implementation communications, user education and training, process documentation, and transition to ongoing operations and support.
SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
Due to the confidential nature of the work, selected candidates must undergo and pass a background check.
A resume and cover letter combined into one pdf file is required to be uploaded as part of the application.
SELECTION PROCESS
Please make sure that you provide sufficient information on your application to show that you meet the minimum for this recruitment. All information concerning your qualifications must be submitted by the closing date. We will not consider information submitted after this date.
Successful candidates may be ranked as Best Qualified, Better Qualified, or Qualified and placed on the employment (eligible) list for at least one year, or all qualified candidates may be placed on a register list of qualified candidates for at least one year. The list will be used by the hiring agency to select employees.
For education obtained outside the U.S., a copy of the equivalent American education as determined by a foreign credential evaluation service must accompany the application.
EXAMINATION PROCESS
The examination will consist of a rating of your education, training, and experience as presented on your application and as they relate to the requirements of the position. You may be asked to complete a supplemental questionnaire. The supplemental questionnaire may be used as part of the rating process. Therefore, it is important that you provide complete and accurate information on your application. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
BARGAINING UNIT STATUS
This position is exempt from bargaining.
BENEFITS
STATE OF MARYLAND BENEFITS
As an employee of the State of Maryland, you will have access to outstanding benefits, including: health insurance, dental, and vision plans offered at a low cost.
• Personal Leave - new State employees are awarded six (6) personnel days annually (prorated based on start date).
• Annual Leave - ten (10) days of accumulated annual leave per year.
• Sick Leave - fifteen (15) days of accumulated sick leave per year.
• Holidays - State employees also celebrate at least thirteen (13) holidays per year.
• Pension - State employees earn credit towards a retirement pension.
• Positions may be eligible for telework.
FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS
The online application process is STRONGLY preferred. If you are unable to apply online, you may mail a paper application and supplemental questionnaire to:
Maryland State Retirement and Pension Systems
Human Resources Section
120 E. Baltimore Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
ATTN: Nick Pindale
Must be postmarked by the closing date.
Email: npindale@sra.state.md.us
PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT UNSOLICITED DOCUMENTATION
The resulting certified eligible list for this recruitment may be used for similar positions in this or other State agencies.