Junior Cybersecurity Project Manager (Contract to Hire)

Job Title: Junior Cybersecurity Project Manager (Contract to Hire)
Location: Columbus, OH
Work Model: Hybrid — Tuesday through Thursday onsite, Monday and Friday remote
Local Candidates: Required
Rate: $53–$63/hour
Contract Term: August 24, 2026 – August 20, 2027
Temp to Hire: Yes
Employment Type: W-2 Only
Work Authorization: U.S. Citizens Only | Green Card holders also eligible; no visa sponsorship available

Position Overview

We are seeking a Junior Project Manager to support cybersecurity initiatives across IT and business functions. This role will be responsible for helping manage the full project lifecycle using Agile, Waterfall, and iterative delivery methods while coordinating cross-functional project teams, tracking risks and issues, supporting stakeholder communication, and ensuring project deliverables are completed on time and within budget.

The Junior Project Manager will support cybersecurity project planning, execution, vendor coordination, financial tracking, reporting, change management, and delivery governance. This role requires a strong foundation in project management best practices, business process analysis, SDLC methodologies, and stakeholder coordination. The ideal candidate is organized, proactive, detail-oriented, and comfortable working across both technical and business teams in a fast-paced enterprise environment.

This role is well suited for a project manager with 3+ years of experience who can manage project deliverables, communicate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders, and support cybersecurity initiatives involving risk, compliance, policy, standards, and secure technology delivery.

Key Responsibilities

Project Management & Delivery Execution

• Manage cybersecurity projects through the full project lifecycle using Agile, Waterfall, or iterative delivery methods.
• Support project planning, execution, monitoring, reporting, and closure activities.
• Develop and maintain project plans, schedules, milestones, risks, issues, decisions, dependencies, and action items.
• Coordinate work across IT, business, cybersecurity, vendor, and managed service provider teams.
• Ensure project deliverables are completed on time, within scope, and within budget.
• Support delivery of secure technology solutions aligned with cybersecurity objectives and organizational requirements.

Project Deliverables & Documentation

• Develop and maintain key project deliverables, including:
  • Project charters
  • Solution Design Documents
  • Technical documentation
  • Agile readiness checklists
  • UAT approvals
  • Deployment plans
  • Status reports
  • Risk, issue, decision, and dependency logs
  • Change management artifacts
  • Stakeholder assessments
  • Adoption strategies
• Ensure project documentation is accurate, complete, organized, and aligned with project management standards.
• Support statement of work development and vendor progress management as needed.

Cybersecurity Project Support

• Guide cross-functional cybersecurity teams to achieve project objectives.
• Maintain a working understanding of cybersecurity principles, risk management, compliance, and secure delivery practices.
• Support projects related to cybersecurity policies, standards, compliance activities, risk assessments, issue tracking, and exception management.
• Partner with cybersecurity stakeholders to align project goals with security requirements.
• Support risk mitigation efforts and escalate project or security-related concerns as needed.
• Experience with Archer, policy and standard management, compliance tracking, risk assessments, issue tracking, or exception management is a plus.

Financial, Resource & Capacity Management

• Support project cost management, budgeting, forecasting, accruals, and variance explanations.
• Track project financials, including capital versus O&M spend.
• Support resource capacity planning and demand management activities.
• Monitor labor and non-labor cost components for projects involving internal and external resources.
• Provide updates on budget status, forecast changes, and financial risks.

Stakeholder Communication & Reporting

• Facilitate collaboration across multiple functions, departments, and levels of the organization.
• Build effective relationships with executive sponsors, project stakeholders, technical teams, business partners, and vendors.
• Communicate project status, risks, issues, dependencies, and decisions clearly and professionally.
• Prepare and contribute to project presentations for business and technology stakeholders.
• Translate technical concepts into clear, business-friendly language for non-technical audiences.
• Serve as a role model for teamwork and collaboration across diverse project teams.

Process, Change & Continuous Improvement

• Support business process analysis and process mapping activities.
• Identify process gaps, improvement opportunities, and operational impacts tied to project delivery.
• Help implement change management approaches that support project adoption and successful transition.
• Support stakeholder assessments, adoption planning, communications, and readiness activities.
• Contribute to project management process improvement and consistent use of best practices.

Tools & Methodologies

• Apply project management and SDLC methodologies, including Waterfall, Agile, and iterative delivery approaches.
• Use project management and reporting tools such as ServiceNow, Power BI, Jira, and related enterprise tools.
• Support Agile ceremonies, UAT coordination, deployment planning, and readiness tracking as needed.
• Follow applicable project management methodology training and professional development requirements.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities

• Maintain project plans, schedules, status reports, trackers, and documentation.
• Facilitate meetings with cybersecurity, IT, business, vendor, and project stakeholders.
• Track risks, issues, decisions, dependencies, action items, and escalations.
• Prepare project updates, dashboards, and leadership reporting.
• Support budget tracking, forecasting, accruals, and variance explanations.
• Coordinate project deliverables such as charters, design documents, UAT approvals, and deployment plans.
• Assist with vendor progress tracking and statement of work support.
• Support business process mapping, change management artifacts, and stakeholder readiness activities.
• Partner with technical teams to understand cybersecurity requirements and communicate progress to non-technical stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Management Information Systems, Engineering, Business, or a related field, or equivalent work experience demonstrating technical project management and project leadership experience.
• 3+ years of experience in project management or a related role supporting IT and business functions.
• Experience supporting project management and leadership across IT and business teams.
• Experience supporting large or complex projects with internal/external and labor/non-labor cost components.
• Knowledge of project management best practices, including Waterfall, Agile, and SDLC methodologies.
• Experience with project planning, risk management, issue management, decision tracking, dependency management, status reporting, budgeting, forecasting, variance explanations, demand management, and capacity management.
• Experience with project cost management and resource capacity planning.
• Strong business process analysis and process mapping skills.
• Experience implementing change management approaches to support project delivery.
• Experience indirectly managing or coordinating team members, including assisting with work assignments, training, and project coordination.
• Strong communication, facilitation, organization, and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to work with diverse project teams across IT, business, vendors, and service providers.
• Ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Local availability for onsite work Tuesday through Thursday in Columbus, OH.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with the energy or utility industry.
• Project Management Professional certification.
• Agile certification such as Professional Scrum Master or Professional Scrum Product Owner.
• ITIL v3 or v4 certification or related ITSM experience.
• Experience using ServiceNow, Power BI, Jira, or similar project delivery and reporting tools.
• Experience with Archer or similar governance, risk, and compliance platforms.
• Experience supporting cybersecurity projects related to policy management, standards management, compliance, risk assessments, issue tracking, or exception management.
• Experience working with vendors, managed service providers, or statement of work-based delivery models.

Training Requirements

• Completion of 4 hours of project management methodology training prior to assuming the role.
• Completion of 20 hours of ongoing professional training per year.

Core Competencies

• Project Management
• Cybersecurity Project Support
• Agile / Waterfall / SDLC
• Risk, Issue & Dependency Management
• Budgeting & Forecasting
• Resource Capacity Planning
• Business Process Analysis
• Stakeholder Management
• Vendor Coordination
• Change Management
• UAT & Deployment Planning
• ServiceNow / Power BI / Jira
• Communication & Facilitation
• Team Collaboration

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a developing project management professional with strong IT project experience, cybersecurity exposure, and the ability to coordinate cross-functional work across business, technology, vendor, and security teams. They should be highly organized, comfortable managing project financials and delivery documentation, and able to communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Experience in utilities, cybersecurity governance, Archer, policy and standards management, or risk and compliance work would be especially valuable.