Principal Project Manager

Principal Project Manager

Enterprise Technology – Engagement and Experience

Location:

Austin, TX

Hours:

40 per week, FLSA Status:
Exempt
Earliest

Start Date:

Aug 01, 2026
Position Duration:
Until Jul 31, 2029

The Principal Project Manager provides strategic leadership for Enterprise Technology’s most complex and high-impact technology initiatives, helping shape how transformational programs are planned, governed, and delivered across the university. This role partners with executive leadership and stakeholders across the institution to lead enterprise-wide initiatives that advance strategic priorities, improve operational effectiveness, and deliver meaningful outcomes for the university community.

• Serve as program or project lead for the organization’s most complex, multi-year technology initiatives, including major enterprise system implementations, institutional transformation programs, and cross-functional modernization efforts.
• Maintain end-to-end accountability for program outcomes including scope, schedule, budget, quality, risk, and benefits realization across the full program lifecycle.
• Establish comprehensive program governance structures ensuring appropriate oversight and decision-making at each level.
• Drive resolution of escalated risks, issues, and strategic decisions by coordinating across institutional units, technical teams, and senior leadership.
• Ensure all program reporting and documentation meet institutional governance, compliance, and audit requirements throughout the program lifecycle.
• Serve as a central point of contact for project updates, status reporting, and key stakeholder communication.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to university leadership on program strategy, delivery risk, and institutional technology priorities, providing expert guidance on complex program decisions and trade-offs.
• Contribute to Enterprise Technology’s long-range planning and portfolio prioritization processes.
• Support governance bodies ensuring sound oversight of major initiatives and clear documentation of institutional decisions.
• Advise stakeholders across academic and administrative units on the delivery implications of strategic decisions, recommending approaches that balance institutional priorities with program integrity.
• Oversee coordination across the broadest organizational scope, spanning academic units, administrative departments, external implementation partners, and technology vendors for the university’s most complex programs.
• Identify and manage strategic-level dependencies across concurrent institutional initiatives, proactively surfacing conflicts, capacity constraints, and integration risks to senior leadership.
• Design and facilitate governance structures and cross-institutional working groups that enable effective decision-making and accountability at the enterprise level.
• Lead change management efforts for enterprise-scale technology transformations, applying structured methodologies such as PROSCI ADKAR or equivalent to plan and execute comprehensive change strategies.
• Partner with academic and administrative unit leaders to assess organizational readiness, tailor change approaches to institutional culture and operating context, and address resistance effectively.
• Build long-term institutional capability for managing change and sustaining adoption, evaluating and reporting on change effectiveness throughout each program.
• Define, maintain, and continuously improve the organization’s project management standards, frameworks, tools, templates, and governance processes, ensuring alignment with industry best practices, higher education norms, and institutional requirements.
• Establish and facilitate communities of practice that promote knowledge sharing, methodological consistency, and professional development across all Enterprise Technology project managers.
• Assess organizational PM maturity and develop improvement roadmaps covering tooling, training, process changes, and governance enhancements.
• Identify, evaluate, and implement automation opportunities across the project management lifecycle including AI-assisted drafting of project charters, status reports, meeting summaries,…