Senior Project Manager at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA

Company Description

By working at Harvard University, you join a vibrant community that advances Harvard's world-changing mission in meaningful ways, inspires innovation and collaboration, and builds skills and expertise. We are dedicated to creating a diverse and welcoming environment where everyone can thrive.

Why join Harvard University Central Administration?

Harvard University's Central Administration (CADM) is a 5,000+ employee organization that supports the university's overall excellence by understanding and serving the needs of its schools, students, faculty, staff, alumni, and surrounding communities. Through dynamic and collaborative partnerships, CADM provides high-quality and efficient services to the schools to help them achieve their goals.

Harvard University Information Technology (HUIT) is a community of Information Technology professionals committed to understanding our users and devoted to making it easier for faculty, students, and staff to teach, research, learn, and work through the effective use of information technology. We are recruiting an IT workforce that has both breadth in their ability to collaborate and innovate across disciplines – and depth in specific areas of expertise. HUIT offers opportunities for IT professionals to learn and work in a unique technology landscape and service-focused environment. If you are a technically proficient, nimble, user-focused and accountable IT professional who also connects with the importance of collaborating well in a team environment we are looking for you!

More About HUIT:

Our Mission: huit.harvard.edu/about

We empower the Harvard community with essential and transformative technologies to advance education, knowledge, and discovery.

HUIT’s core values are:

• Human-centered
• University-focused
• Innovation-driven
• Team-oriented

IT Academy (designed for IT Staff):

HUIT’s IT Academy aims to enable each IT staff person to grow professionally and become a trusted partner to her or his team. The IT Academy is built on the belief that every IT staff member across the University (including technology employees at each school and campus) can grow in her or his area of expertise as well as building strong people and project management skills. Learn more here: https://itacademy.harvard.edu/.

Job Description

The Project Manager – Network is responsible for the end-to-end delivery of network infrastructure projects across campus, including LAN/WAN, wireless, structured cabling, and data center connectivity work. This role leads project execution for a defined set of Network Services initiatives, coordinating closely with engineering, security, vendors, and campus stakeholders to ensure that projects are delivered on scope, on schedule, and within budget.

This position ensures that network-related projects and initiatives are well-managed, clearly documented, and operationally sound. The Project Manager partners closely with Network Engineering leadership, service owners, campus IT partners, and vendors to translate project requirements into executable plans, track delivery, manage risk, and support consistent, repeatable project practices.

This role is primarily execution-focused, providing structure, coordination, and day-to-day project management rigor that allows technical leads and service owners to focus on design, architecture, and long-term strategy.

Service Context

Project Management – Network Infrastructure

• Manage a portfolio of network infrastructure projects and maintain visibility into:
• Project status and milestones across planning, design, implementation, and turnover.
• Dependencies between network projects and related Voice, OT, security, and facilities work.
• Risks related to budget, schedule, vendor lead times, and site or access constraints.
• Resource and capacity constraints across internal engineering teams and vendor/contractor partners.

Support consistent project practices by:

• Preparing project status reporting tailored to network and infrastructure stakeholders.
• Tracking decisions, design changes, and follow-ups that affect project scope, cost, and schedule.
• Escalating risks and issues appropriately to service owners and engineering leadership.
• Helping ensure network initiatives deliver against agreed scope, timeline, budget, and outcomes.

Operational Discipline & Process Improvement

• Support consistent operational practices for network project delivery.
• Assist in developing, maintaining, and operationalizing standard project processes, playbooks, and checklists for network infrastructure work, from intake through turnover.
• Maintain documentation and reporting standards to ensure traceability of design decisions, changes, and as-built network information.
• Participate in post-project and post-incident reviews, helping track follow-up actions and improvements across future projects.
• Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, clarity, and coordination among engineering, vendors, and project stakeholders.

Stakeholder Coordination & Communication

• Serve as a primary coordination point between network engineering, vendors, service owners, and project stakeholders.
• Coordinate closely with network engineering, security, facilities, and vendor teams to align project plans and schedules.
• Coordinate procurement, installation, testing, and cutover activities with project milestones.
• Support preparation of materials for leadership updates, project reviews, and stakeholder communications.
• Help ensure information flows clearly and consistently across engineering, vendor, and stakeholder teams.
• Build effective working relationships with peers across Infrastructure, HUIT, and external vendor partners.

Business Operations & Financial Support

• Support project stakeholders in maintaining well-managed business operations for network projects, including:
• Budget tracking and reporting for assigned network infrastructure projects.
• Cost transparency that clearly connects scope decisions to budget impacts.
• Partnering with engineering leads and finance to document assumptions, trade-offs, and funding decisions.
• Supporting vendor and contract administration, including tracking renewal dates, change orders, and vendor performance.

Ownership – Network Project Delivery

• Serve as a primary point of contact for status, risks, and issues on assigned network infrastructure projects.
• Maintain a clear project plan and delivery schedule for assigned initiatives, ensuring outcomes meet expectations for availability, performance, security, and usability.
• Ensure network requirements are represented in broader project planning discussions so that scope, sequencing, and resourcing are appropriately managed.

Service Delivery and Performance Management

• Define and maintain clear project and service definitions for assigned network work, including scope, ownership, dependencies, and escalation paths.
• Establish and monitor schedule and risk indicators for network projects (e.g., design completion milestones, procurement lead times, site readiness, cutover windows).
• Use project data to drive prioritization, highlight project risk, and communicate transparently with leadership, engineering, and stakeholders.
• Manage and balance discretionary (new build/upgrade) and operational workloads (moves/adds/changes, incident or ticket resolution tied to project activities).

Security, Process Compliance, and Risk Coordination

• Help maintain clear security, compliance, and risk management practices for network infrastructure delivered through assigned projects.
• Partner closely with Information Security and related teams to implement appropriate controls and align projects with identity, access, and broader security strategies.
• Ensure compliance controls are operationally feasible for project teams, auditable, and clearly communicated to stakeholders and vendors.
• Surface and help manage trade-offs between usability, security, cost, and compliance in design and implementation decisions.

Vendor Coordination and Fiscal Support

• Support ongoing coordination of vendor relationships tied to assigned network projects (cabling vendors, network integrators, equipment suppliers).
• Provide input to contract renewals, scopes of work, and vendor evaluations in collaboration with HUIT VMO and Procurement.
• Contribute to budget planning and cost tracking for assigned projects in partnership with finance and engineering leads.

User Experience, Adoption, and Change Management

• Coordinate and manage user-visible changes resulting from network projects (e.g., network re-cuts, wireless upgrades, cutovers), balancing innovation with stability.
• Ensure major changes are well-coordinated with schools, departments, and distributed IT, clearly communicated, and supported with appropriate documentation and cutover support.
• Reduce friction between central services and distributed IT organizations by setting clear expectations and integrating feedback into project planning.

Cross-Functional & Enterprise Partnership

Partner closely with:

• Information Security and Data Privacy teams for the secure design and deployment of network solutions.
• Identity & Access Management for alignment of access and provisioning with new and updated network environments.
• Platform and Infrastructure Services for hosting, automation, monitoring, and operational dependencies associated with network projects.
• Schools and distributed IT leaders across a federated environment to ensure network projects support local needs while aligning with enterprise standards.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications:

Basic Qualifications are the minimum threshold a candidate must meet in order to be considered for this role.

• Minimum of five years’ progressive project management experience, including experience with IT or network infrastructure projects post-secondary education or relevant work experience

Additional Qualifications:

The following qualifications are strongly preferred. If you meet some, but not all, you are still encouraged to apply; we value employees with a willingness to learn.

• Proven ability to manage project budgets, schedules, vendors, and resources across multiple concurrent projects.
• Working knowledge of networking concepts (LAN/WAN, wireless, structured cabling, data center connectivity).
• Strong knowledge of ITIL or equivalent service management frameworks.
• Experience developing and reporting on project status, schedules, and budgets for technical stakeholders.
• Exceptional communication, stakeholder engagement, and coordination skills with the ability to work across diverse technical and non-technical groups.
• Experience in higher education IT environments strongly preferred.

Certifications:

• PMP certification or equivalent project management credential preferred.
• Completion of Harvard IT Academy Project Management Foundations course (or external equivalent) preferred

Additional Information

• Working Conditions: Onsite work is performed in an office setting.
• Hybrid: Onsite as needed with advance notice.
• Visa Sponsorship Information: Harvard University is unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position
• Pre-Employment Screening: Identity
• Other Information:
  Please provide a cover letter and resume as one document with your application.
  This position has an 180-day orientation and review period.

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Work Format Details

This position has been determined by school or unit leaders that some of the duties and responsibilities can be effectively performed at a non-Harvard location. The work schedule and location will be set by the department at its discretion and based upon operational needs. When not working at a Harvard or Harvard-designated location, employees in hybrid positions must work in a Harvard registered state in compliance with the University’s Policy on Employment Outside of Massachusetts. Additional details will be discussed during the interview process. Certain visa types and funding sources may limit work location. Individuals must meet work location sponsorship requirements prior to employment.

Salary Grade and Ranges

This position is salary grade level 058. Please visit Harvard's Salary Ranges to view the corresponding salary range and related information.

Benefits

Harvard offers a comprehensive benefits package that is designed to support a healthy work-life balance and your physical, mental and financial wellbeing. Because here, you are what matters. Our benefits include, but are not limited to:

• Generous paid time off including parental leave
• Medical, dental, and vision health insurance coverage starting on day one
• Retirement plans with university contributions
• Wellbeing and mental health resources
• Support for families and caregivers
• Professional development opportunities including tuition assistance and reimbursement
• Commuter benefits, discounts and campus perks

Learn more about these and additional benefits on our Benefits & Wellbeing Page.

EEO/Non-Discrimination Commitment Statement

Harvard University is committed to equal opportunity and non-discrimination. We seek talent from all parts of society and the world, and we strive to ensure everyone at Harvard thrives. Our differences help our community advance Harvard's academic purposes.

Harvard has an equal employment opportunity policy that outlines our commitment to prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, religion, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law or identified in the university's non-discrimination policy. Harvard's equal employment opportunity policy and non-discrimination policy help all community members participate fully in work and campus life free from harassment and discrimination.