Associate Director, Technical Project Management

Job Title: Associate Director, Technical Project Management

Team: Systems

Location: Atlanta (GA), Chicago (IL), New York (NY), Newark (NJ)

Employment Type: Full-time

FLSA Classification: Exempt 

Start Date: ASAP

About Braven

Braven is a national nonprofit that prepares promising college students to secure a strong first opportunity after college graduation through a career-accelerating program.

We work with higher education and employer partners to offer a life-changing experience that begins with a semester-long course for college students, followed by support that lasts through graduation.  

Together, our ambition is to help rebuild the middle class and revitalize the American Dream.

To learn more, take a look at Braven’s Jobs.

About the Role

In order to achieve its ambition of serving 80,000-100,000 Fellows over the next decade, Braven is hiring an Associate Director, Technical Project Management. This role will serve as a technical project manager for a specific domain area within the Systems Team, ensuring a standard project management methodology is embedded across multiple high-impact, cross-functional projects. The Systems Team at Braven is a cross-functional technology function spanning Engineering, Data Operations, and Digital Product Management. We build and maintain the platforms, tools, and processes that power Braven’s program delivery and organizational operations. As a member of a growing Systems Team, you will manage a portfolio of projects to guide cross-functional project teams through the execution of complex technical work in order to deliver high-impact outcomes that support Braven’s ambitious goals.

This role is on the Systems team and reports directly to the Senior Director, Systems Strategy and Operations. 

What You’ll Do

Project Delivery & Execution (40%)

• Manage operational and tactical aspects of domain-specific cross-functional projects of varying size, scope, and technical level.
• Develop and maintain project plans, timelines, and milestones for Systems Team scrums.
• Create and maintain quality project documentation and other assets, including the project charter, project schedule, and lessons learned.
• Own backlog refinement, keep Jira groomed, stories well-defined, and sprints ready to pull.
• Partner with Digital Product Management on prioritization and roadmap alignment.
• Track delivery progress against commitments and proactively flag risks or delays.
• Run sprint planning and delivery check-ins within existing team scrums to ensure clear goals and realistic commitments.
• Maintain visibility into team capacity and upcoming work.
• Coordinate release planning and facilitate go/no-go decisions across technical teams.
• Drive sprint reviews and demos with internal and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Ensure timely completion of project deliverables and milestones, with overall success measured by stakeholder satisfaction and project quality.

Cross-Team Coordination & Dependency Management (30%)

• Identify and gain agreement on project requirements, objectives, scope, timing, and resources with domain stakeholders.
• Map and track dependencies between Systems, Product, and Volunteer teams.
• Facilitate cross-functional planning for domain initiatives, using existing meetings and async channels (Slack, Jira boards) rather than creating new standing meetings.
• Ensure smooth handoffs between teams.
• Proactively identify and resolve cross-team blockers before they impact delivery.
• Collaborate with teammates within and across projects to identify project risks and develop mitigation strategies.
• Develop, strengthen, and cultivate effective working relationships with project stakeholders to ensure cross-team communication, transparency, and consistency throughout project execution.

Stakeholder Communication & Reporting (15%)

• Prepare regular status reports for domain stakeholders and Systems leadership.
• Maintain risk and issue logs with clear owners, due dates, and escalation paths.
• Communicate sprint progress, capacity, and delivery forecasts to stakeholders.
• Shield teams from unnecessary interruptions by consolidating ad-hoc requests through structured channels.
• Collaborate and consult with domain stakeholders, including product owners, Program Managers, and subteam leads, to understand their needs, prioritize work effectively, surface and help resolve conflicts, and support consistency and alignment on project methodologies for successful project delivery.

Process Improvement & Tooling (15%)

• Track and report on delivery metrics (velocity, cycle time, sprint burndown) to surface trends.
• Identify process bottlenecks and propose incremental improvements scoped to the teams you support.
• Maintain and improve team documentation, workflows, and Jira/Confluence hygiene.
• Collaborate with fellow Technical Project Managers to standardize delivery practices across domains.
• Other duties, as assigned.