Technical Project Manager

Technical Project Manager

MSP4, LLC  |  Full-Time  |  Remote (United States)  |  Up to 25% Travel

About the Role

You own project delivery for MSP4's client infrastructure work: server and platform migrations, network segmentation builds, M365 and Azure tenant projects, compliance remediation ahead of CMMC L2 and SOC 2 assessment windows. A project that lands with you leaves with a schedule, a budget, named owners, and a closeout record that passes audit. You run intake through closeout and you answer for the outcome.

You also lead the engineers who do the work, and project authority here runs matrix-style across every tier. The L2 Field Support Technicians and L3 Systems Administrators assigned to your projects get active management from you: task assignment, escalation triage, coaching on the gap between work that is done and work that is documented, and direct input into their performance reviews. Platform administrators and Senior (L4) Engineers take project direction from you as well: their hours on your project, their deliverable dates, and their dependencies are yours to schedule and hold, even though their technical authority and reporting lines sit outside your role. Performance observations flow from you on everyone operating on your projects, every tier, to that person's manager. Directing the project work of people who outrank you technically, and going on record about how they delivered, is the job. This is not a coordination seat. We expect you to read a firewall change plan and catch the missing rollback step, to challenge an estimate with specifics, and to know when an engineer is stuck before they say so.

Two boundaries define the role. Solution design authority sits with the Principal Solutions Architect and Senior Engineering; you participate in design reviews and you enforce the approved design, but you do not redesign. And you are never a committed engineering resource on a project you manage. You unblock, you review, you pair with an engineer to get them moving. You do not assign yourself the task, because a project manager who is also the project's bottleneck resource cannot hold the schedule honestly.

The role is remote with travel up to 25% for project kickoffs, cutover windows, and client-site milestones. Compliance weight is real: CMMC L2, NIST 800-171, and SOC 2 are active requirements in this client base, and project records are audit evidence.

What You Will Do

• Own client infrastructure projects end to end: intake, scoping, work breakdown, scheduling, budget tracking, risk management, change management, closeout
• Build project plans that map work to the right tier: L2 for endpoint and site work, L3 for server and platform execution, Senior Engineering for complex implementation, the Principal Solutions Architect for design
• Manage the L2/L3 engineers assigned to your projects: assign and sequence tasks, run check-ins, triage escalations, clear blockers, and feed performance observations to the hiring manager
• Coordinate platform administrators and Senior (L4) Engineers in a matrix model: own their project task sequencing, deliverable dates, and cross-project dependency conflicts, and hold them to the same delivery standards (change records, closeout documentation) as the rest of the team. Feed performance observations on their project delivery to their line management. Their technical authority and line management stay with Senior Engineering leadership.
• Coach engineers on delivery discipline: change records, runbooks, closeout documentation, and client communication that holds up in front of an assessor
• Challenge estimates and plans with technical specifics, then commit to the number the accountable engineer owns
• Participate in design reviews; enforce the approved design during execution and route proposed deviations back to the Principal Solutions Architect rather than approving them in the field
• Run client communication for project work: kickoffs, status reporting, change windows, delay conversations, and the difficult middle ground where a client dependency is the thing slipping the date
• Integrate compliance into delivery: change control on CUI-relevant systems, evidence capture as the project runs (not reconstructed afterward), US-person access constraints, assessor-ready closeout packages
• Coordinate vendors and carriers inside project scope: circuit orders, hardware logistics, vendor remote-access requests evaluated against security policy
• Manage capacity conflicts between project work and the service desk in partnership with dispatch, and escalate to leadership when the math does not work
• Report project health to leadership with numbers: percent complete against baseline, budget burn, risk register movement, and what you need decided

What You Bring

• 7+ years in IT delivery combining hands-on infrastructure work and project management responsibility, with at least 3 years managing or supervising technical staff
• US person status and US-based work location. You must be based in the United States and qualify as a US person (US citizen, US national, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual under US law). This role's access to Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and export-controlled systems is restricted under CMMC L2 and US export control regulations.
• PMP certification, or delivery history that demonstrates the same discipline: baselined schedules, change control, risk registers, documented closeouts
• Technical depth in at least one of networking or systems administration at a level that earns engineer respect: you can read a switch configuration, follow a virtualization cutover plan, and spot the step that will fail. CCNP, CCNA, or equivalent network credentials are a strong signal; so is verifiable hands-on history.
• People management experience: hiring input, performance feedback, coaching, and the judgment to separate a skill gap from a will gap
• Matrix delivery experience: you have run projects where senior technical staff took project direction from you without reporting to you, and you can describe how you held their dates without holding their performance reviews
• Working knowledge of the compliance frameworks this client base lives under: CMMC L2, NIST 800-171, SOC 2. You do not need to be an assessor. You need to know why an undocumented change on a CUI system is a project failure even when the change worked.
• Ticketing and project discipline in a PSA (HaloPSA preferred; ConnectWise, Autotask, ServiceNow, or equivalent transferable) and fluency with at least one scheduling tool (Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, or equivalent)
• ITIL familiarity at a working level: change, incident, and problem management as practiced, not as vocabulary
• Communication that works three ways: with client executives and non-technical stakeholders, with the engineers you manage, and with Senior Engineering and the Principal Solutions Architect above your tier
• Prior experience in a multi-client service delivery environment (MSP, MSSP, or consulting delivery)

How We Work

MSP4 does not operate like a traditional IT department or a ticket-centric help desk. We function as embedded IT for our clients, accountable to their outcomes. Roles are tiered so a multi-client environment stays auditable and consistent under CMMC L2, NIST 800-171, and SOC 2. L2 owns the endpoint and site layer. L3 owns server and platform operations. Senior Engineers own implementation of complex infrastructure. The Principal Solutions Architect owns design. You own delivery: the schedule, the budget, the team executing it, and the record it leaves behind.

We are building the operating model in real time. Some procedures are documented; others are still being written. You will inherit projects mid-flight, write delivery process where none exists, and flag the gaps you find. Process improvement within delivery is yours to propose and run. Platform and architecture decisions are not.

Candidates who need design authority to feel effective should pass on this role. Candidates who want to run pure coordination without technical engagement should also pass. The job is the space between: deep enough to challenge the work, disciplined enough not to take it over.

About MSP4

MSP4, LLC provides infrastructure, security, and IT advisory services to mid-market professional services, manufacturing, distribution, legal, and government clients across the United States. Our commercial practice and regulated practice serve organizations with serious compliance requirements including SOC 2 Type II and CMMC Level 2.

We are a small team. Every person on it has direct impact on client outcomes. The ladder is tiered for scope and audit; access is not. Everyone here has direct access to everyone else, up to and including the CEO.

How to Apply

Alongside your resume, submit a one-page cover page in PDF. Name the file CoverPage_LastName_FirstName_TechnicalProjectManager.pdf. Include a header line with your name, the date, and the JD version string shown at the bottom of this posting.

On the cover page, answer the following in order:

1. Describe a project in the last 24 months that was slipping and that you brought back. What was slipping, what did you change in the plan, and what did you change about how the people on it were working?
2. Describe a time you disagreed with an engineer's estimate or with the quality of their delivered work. How did you handle it, what was the outcome, and what is your working relationship with that person now?

Close with the following statement exactly: "I understand that solution design authority sits with the Principal Solutions Architect and Senior Engineering, and that my role is delivery ownership and team leadership, not committed engineering task work on projects I manage."

One page. PDF only.

Other open positions are listed alongside this one.

JD v1.0. Retain this version string on your cover page.