Engagement Manager (L1) - Seattle

IT Engagement Manager
Role Level: Level 1
Location(s): Seattle, WA or Austin, TX
Primary Role: IT Engagement Lead — Client-Directed Delivery

Role Purpose:
The Level 1 IT Engagement Manager is responsible for leading the day-to-day delivery of an IT project, service, or workstream where the client retains significant responsibility for strategic direction and tactical day-to-day work direction.

The Engagement Manager serves as the primary delivery leader between the client and the delivery team, ensuring that client priorities are translated into effective execution, resources are appropriately coordinated, and commitments are delivered according to agreed expectations.

The Level 1 Engagement Manager is primarily a delivery leadership and coordination role. The client remains actively involved in directing both the strategic priorities and, to some degree, the tactical execution of the work.

The Level 1 Engagement Manager is also focused on proactively serving as an objective advisor for the client to support additional opportunities to expand scope of current engagements as well as identifying opportunities for additional project/service engagements.

Core Responsibilities:
Client Engagement

• Serve as the primary day-to-day delivery contact for assigned client stakeholders.
• Establish and maintain productive working relationships with client counterparts.
• Translate client priorities, requirements, and direction into actionable team objectives.
• Facilitate regular status meetings, planning sessions, issue reviews, and operational communications.
• Ensure client expectations, priorities, and changes are clearly communicated to the delivery team.
• Escalate material risks, issues, dependencies, and decisions to appropriate client stakeholders.

Delivery Leadership

• Lead one or more IT teams supporting a defined project, service, or workstream.
• Coordinate team activities against client-defined priorities and objectives.
• Monitor budget progress, financial/delivery milestones, dependencies, deliverables, and commitments.
• Maintain visibility into delivery risks and take appropriate corrective action.
• Ensure work is appropriately documented and communicated.
• Support the team in resolving day-to-day delivery obstacles.

Team Leadership

• Provide operational leadership and coordination to assigned delivery resources.
• Establish clear accountability for assigned activities.
• Facilitate effective collaboration across technical and functional resources.
• Identify resource constraints and communicate them to client and internal leadership.
• Support development and performance management of team members where applicable.

Commercial & Operational Management

• Monitor engagement scope, utilization, hours, and basic financial performance.
• Identify potential scope changes or work outside the agreed engagement parameters.
• Support change-control processes.
• Escalate potential commercial issues before they materially affect the engagement.
• Maintain accurate reporting and engagement documentation.

Quality & Risk Management

• Monitor delivery quality against agreed client requirements.
• Identify emerging risks and dependencies.
• Maintain issue and risk logs where appropriate.
• Ensure agreed processes and controls are followed.
• Escalate issues that exceed the Engagement Manager's authority.

Level 1 Success Profile:
A successful Level 1 Engagement Manager can independently coordinate and lead delivery, but does not necessarily own the client's overall strategic direction.
The defining characteristic is:

The client provides substantial strategic direction and remains involved in tactical day-to-day direction; the Engagement Manager converts that direction into organized, accountable execution.

Ideal Professional Experience:
Typical experience: 3–6+ years of relevant IT experience, including approximately 1–3+ years in an engagement, project, program, delivery, or team leadership capacity.
Ideal candidates will have experience in several of the following:

• IT project or service delivery
• Client-facing consulting or managed services
• Application development or support
• Infrastructure/cloud operations
• Data and analytics
• DevOps/SDLC environments
• IT service management
• Agile or hybrid delivery methodologies
• Resource and team coordination
• Client status reporting and governance

Desired Professional Background:
Candidates should demonstrate:

• Experience leading technical teams without needing to be the team's deepest technical expert.
• Demonstrated client-facing communication skills.
• Experience translating business/client requirements into delivery activities.
• Ability to manage competing priorities and dependencies.
• Experience identifying and escalating delivery risks.
• Understanding of basic project financials and scope management.
• Strong organizational and communication skills.

Indicators of Readiness for Level 2:
A Level 1 Engagement Manager is generally ready for Level 2 when they consistently demonstrate the ability to:

• Operate with significantly less client tactical direction.
• Establish delivery plans and operating processes independently.
• Lead larger or more complex teams/workstreams.
• Make sound tactical decisions without requiring client approval.
• Anticipate client needs rather than simply respond to direction.
• Take greater ownership of delivery outcomes.
• Manage more complex stakeholder environments.