App Team Specialized Project Manager

APP TEAM SPECIALIZED PROJECT MANAGER

This full-time App Team Specialized Project Manager (SPM) role combines strong project management with technical understanding to support the development of custom sales applications, digital tools, and database-driven solutions for clients in complex or regulated industries. The SPM works closely with the App Team, project owners, and clients to translate project scope into clear plans, budgets, and timelines while ensuring work moves efficiently through the development lifecycle. By coordinating details, managing communication, and understanding the technical needs of the project, the SPM helps the team remain well-planned, responsive, and nimble as priorities evolve.

Successful SPM candidates are confident project leaders who can plan and manage app team initiatives from discovery through deployment. They are comfortable working with clients, project owners, and developers to keep projects organized, priorities clear, and teams moving forward. In this role, success means building strong project plans, keeping work on schedule and within budget, maintaining clear communication between clients and the development team, and ensuring deliverables meet quality expectations. The best candidates combine strong project management skills with technical curiosity, attention to detail, and a commitment to delivering exceptional client experiences.

Our app team is highly collaborative. This role is hybrid, with a preference for candidates able to work on-site in Grand Rapids approximately two to three days per week.

Your roles to support the App Team SPM function:

• Plan app team projects, translating scope and estimates into clear project plans including timelines, budgets, and resource needs.
• Manage day-to-day project execution, ensuring the team understands daily tasks, priorities, and project status.
• Serve as the bridge between clients and the app team, communicating updates, clarifying needs, and representing the client internally.
• Track project health, monitoring timelines, budgets, scope, and risks to keep projects on pace and within expectations.
• Coordinate the team to deliver quality solutions, aligning resources, supporting QA and testing, and removing roadblocks for successful delivery.
  
  
  

Specific duties and responsibilities to support your roles:

• Collaborate with the App Team project owner during planning and discovery to define scope, requirements, timelines, and task estimates, translating them into detailed project budgets, timelines with milestones, and resource allocations
• Document and route client-facing scope documents, Statements of Work (SOW), and internal project plans
• Be deeply ingrained with internal and external project management platforms (Jira, ServiceNow), ensuring Jira remains the primary source of truth for project tasks, timelines, and status
• Communicate project expectations, priorities, dependencies, and risks to the app team clearly and proactively
• Track project budgets weekly to ensure projects remain on pace and complete client billing documentation monthly
• Manage team capacity by aligning project timelines and priorities with available bandwidth using BigTime Resource Management
• Work with teams to identify, communicate, and document changes in project scope, helping prepare estimates and change orders when necessary
• Build strong client relationships by managing expectations, representing the client in internal discussions, and communicating updates back to the client
• Gain and maintain a detailed knowledge of the development lifecycle and the steps and tasks that go into app team projects
• Translate technical updates, development needs, and constraints into clear client-facing explanations and status updates
• Understand the app functionality and development cycle well enough to perform QA testing and coordinate user acceptance testing (UAT) to ensure deliverables meet project requirements and client expectations before deployment
• Participate in app ticket support workflows to help ensure efficient and responsive support cycles for ongoing client applications
• Recommend improvements to internal and client processes that support smoother project execution and more efficient deployments
• Schedule and lead internal and client meetings (planning, sprint, milestone, capacity, and status meetings), documenting clear notes, action items, and next steps
• Ensure app project documents and meeting recaps are complete, current, and stored properly
• Ensure the team enters project time correctly, and understands the budgets for the appropriate jobs in BigTime
• Maintain a utilization rate of at least 25 billable hours per week
  
  
  

Professional skills and qualifications needed for consideration:

• Deep familiarity and experience with Jira project management software
• Significant experience managing or supporting sales application development projects, including database-driven systems and integrations.
• 5 years' experience preferred in Project Management
• Understanding of app team development methodologies, tools, and dependencies
• Experience managing projects in Agile or hybrid Agile/traditional environments.
• Scrum certification preferred
• Experience supporting clients in an agency setting is preferred
• Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to prioritize multiple projects and tasks
• Proven ability to support clients through effective verbal and written communication
• Excellent attention to detail, especially when testing deliverables
• Ability to work both independently with little supervision and in a collaborative team environment
• Well-organized and detail-oriented; persistent and reliable on follow-up with multiple clients/projects
• Flexible during times of change; able to conform to shifting priorities, demands, and timelines promptly and efficiently
• Persuasive, encouraging, and motivating
• Willing to learn, understand, and apply new technologies and competencies
  
  
  

WHO IS DDM?

Some specifics that guide expectations of all team members:

Know our passion: Amaze our clients

Understand our niche: Delivering extraordinary service and amazing solutions to highly complex or

regulated industries.

Exhibit our core values:

• Puts the Team in Teamwork
• Communicates Effectively
• Goes the Extra Mile
• Builds Trust Daily
• Gets Creative
• Shows Grit and Determination
  
  
  

EEO Statement

ddm is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age, or veteran status.