IT Project Operations Manager

Role Summary

As our newly formed enterprise brings together four previously independent and less-mature organizations, we are establishing clarity, discipline, and financial stewardship across a complex IT landscape. The IT Project Operations Manager is a critical role within the PMO responsible for creating financial rigor across all components of IT spend including projects, vendors, contracts, and taking the lead to work with the disparate finance processes across the company. This role ensures we invest intelligently, control costs, manage risks proactively, and enable our IT organization to scale efficiently as one unified company.

This individual will bring strong commercial acumen, program operations discipline, and a deep understanding of how to run IT like a business.

Key Responsibilities

Financial & Contract Management (Primary Focus)

• Own end-to-end financial governance for the IT department including budget tracking, forecasting, accruals, capitalization assessments, and portfolio-level financial reporting.
• Partner with Finance to establish consistent practices for purchase orders, contract renewals, spend approvals, and vendor invoice validation.
• Drive cost rationalization initiatives across the application and infrastructure landscape, identifying redundant systems and opportunities to consolidate spend.
• Ensure accurate capitalization vs. expense categorization of labor and project costs, including documentation and audit readiness.
• Maintain a rolling 12–24 month IT spend forecast to support enterprise planning cycles.

Vendor & Commercial Management

• Provide Financial support for the vendor lifecycle: including contract administration, renewals, and financial performance oversight.
• Maintain a centralized vendor repository including contracts, renewals, expirations, rate cards, and payment obligations.

Support the Financial Aspects DrivingOperational Excellence for the IT PMO

• Produce CIO-level reporting on portfolio performance, project financials, resource utilization, vendor spend, and savings outcomes.
• Ensure transparency of IT investments to executive stakeholders through dashboards, metrics, and structured communication.
• Identify underperforming projects or spend behaviors early and propose corrective actions.

Expected Impact (Internal Justification)

• Cost Savings:
• Consolidates and standardizes vendor contracts, identifies redundant spend, eliminates unmanaged renewals, and negotiates more favorable commercial terms.
• Financial Discipline:
• Establishes a unified, audit-ready approach to budgeting, accruals, forecasting, capitalization, and expense management across all legacy organizations.
• Operational Efficiency:
• Reduces complexity and friction across contracting, purchasing, vendor onboarding, and project financial tracking — freeing technical leaders to focus on delivery.
• Improved Delivery Outcomes:
• Introduces consistent financial project operations, predictable reporting, and stage-gate governance, resulting in fewer delays, budget overruns, and rework.
• Strategic Alignment:
• Ensures all IT investments support enterprise priorities and prepares the organization for higher levels of scale, maturity, and compliance.

Qualifications

• 7+ years experience in IT PMO, IT finance, vendor management, project operations, or similar roles.
• Strong understanding of IT financial management, including forecasting, asset capitalization, and contract structure.
• Experience managing third-party vendors, renewals, quotes/SOWs, and contract negotiations.
• Expertise with enterprise IT environments (infrastructure, SaaS applications, cloud platforms).
• Excellent communication skills; able to prepare executive-ready materials and partner effectively across IT, Finance, Procurement, and Legal.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and skilled in building structure in ambiguous or evolving environments.
• Experience integrating or rationalizing tools, contracts, or systems across merged or rapidly scaling companies is a strong plus.