Project Delivery Manager

Project Delivery Manager

About the role

Ignite Retail Technology is hiring a Project Delivery Manager to make sure our most important work actually gets finished.

We have more committed projects than we have people tracking them, and things slip in the space between teams. This role owns that space. You'll be the person who knows the real status of every commitment, who spots trouble before it becomes a missed date, and who gets people to follow through on what they said they'd do.

You won't have anyone reporting to you, and you won't be writing code. Your influence will come from being prepared, being trusted, and being relentless about follow-through. It is a demanding job and we're not going to pretend otherwise — but if you're the kind of person who cannot stand watching something drift, it's a good one.

What you'll do

• Keep 10+ active projects moving at once — knowing where each one stands, what it needs next, and who owes what to whom.
• Build simple, honest plans: who owns each piece, what has to happen first, and what "done" actually means. Update them when reality changes.
• Run the rhythm — weekly working sessions, monthly reviews with leadership, and one place where anyone can see real status without having to ask around.
• Catch problems early and go work them where they start, rather than reporting them and waiting.
• Get decisions unstuck. When two teams disagree, lay out the tradeoff, get an answer from whoever should make the call, and write it down so it stays decided.
• Hold vendors and partners to what they committed to.
• Tell leadership the truth about progress, especially about the things that are behind.

Who does well here:

We care much more about how you've operated than about what your last title was.

You've been responsible for outcomes you couldn't order anyone to deliver. You've had to get things done through people who didn't work for you — other departments, vendors, volunteers, contractors, partners.

You don't accept the first no. When you hit a wall, your instinct is to figure out what's really behind it, not to shrug and report back that it can't be done. You do this without steamrolling people, which is the harder version.

You've stayed through the ugly part. You've owned something for a year or more that got worse before it got better, and you were still there when it turned around.

You know when to push and when to let it go. Everyone we want for this role is persistent. The ones who succeed also have judgment about which fights are worth having.

You can be told you're wrong. Including by someone with less experience than you, without it becoming a whole thing.

You write clearly. Direct, with a high signal of information. A lot of what you send will be read in rooms you're not in.

What you'll bring

Required

• 5+ years in a management or operations role where you were accountable for results delivered by people outside your reporting line.
• A track record of carrying something difficult over a long stretch, including when it wasn't going well.
• Comfort working with incomplete information and shifting priorities.
• Solid written communication and the organizational discipline to keep a lot of moving parts straight.

Helpful, not required

• Experience around software, IT, or technology projects. You don't need a technical background, but you do need to be willing to learn enough to ask good questions of engineers.
• Experience running a P&L, a store or site, a department, a program, or an organization of your own.
• Project management training or certification. We don't require it and won't weight it heavily.

Backgrounds that tend to fit

We expect strong candidates to come from a range of places, including:

• Operations or general management — retail, manufacturing, distribution, agriculture, hospitality, healthcare
• Running a facility, plant, branch, or multi-site operation
• Military service, particularly roles with logistics, planning, or coordination responsibility
• Leading a nonprofit, school program, or community organization
• Construction or field project management
• Small business ownership

If you've done this kind of work under a different title, apply and tell us about it.

What success looks like

At 90 days: You know the people, the projects, and where the real risks are. You've taken ownership of the first few, and leadership is getting status from you rather than chasing it.

At 6 months: Projects are hitting their dates — or leadership knows well ahead of time why one won't and what you're doing about it.

At 12 months: People bring you problems before they turn into escalations, and the way you run projects is how Ignite runs projects.

How we hire

1. Recruiter screen (30 minutes)
2. Conversation with the hiring managers (45 minutes)
3. Team interview
4. References

We ask every candidate the same questions and evaluate everyone against the same criteria.