DataKind is looking for a Technical Project Manager to support the technical development and scaling of products!
Location
Remote position available anywhere in the U.S. with working hours primarily between 8am-6pm Eastern Time.
Salary Range
The salary range is $95,000 - $110,000.
This range is based on DataKind's senior manager level salary band. Actual salary within this range will be based on the candidate's experience and internal salary equity scan of active employee(s) with similar role and experience. Candidates who meet the role's requirements are typically positioned in the lower to middle of the range, with higher placement reserved for candidates who bring significantly above-required experience or expertise.
About the Opportunity
Reporting to the Vice President, Technology, the Technical Project Manager will have the exciting opportunity to provide technical project management expertise to build a platform solution that makes a meaningful difference in higher education. The Technical Project Manager will collaborate with our Research, Education, and Product teams by capturing features or requests, converting them into technical project plans and tasks, and managing those to completion by the Engineering and Data Science teams. This role translates program technology priorities and planning outputs into coordinated, high-quality delivery. It involves coordinating and managing a large, complex project with many high profile external and internal stakeholders, including internal management team members, technical leaders, end users, donors, university leaders, and implementation partners.
Core Responsibilities
Strategic Planning & Solution Design
- Partner with Engineering and Data Science teams to plan and execute the technical roadmap for the product
- Facilitate planning sessions that balance feature delivery, technical debt, and platform stability
- Define and track project milestones, deliverables, and success metrics development
- Identify technical dependencies, integration risks, and scalability challenges early, then drive mitigation plans
- Document technical requirements and propose pathways forward based on stakeholder needs and compliance requirements
Product Development & Delivery
- Manage end-to-end project lifecycle for multiple concurrent development and enhancement workstreams
- Implement and maintain agile methodologies to ensure timely delivery of project milestones
- Track, coordinate, and communicate project schedules, including sprint plans and release dates
- Identify, document and manage project risks, issues, and dependencies
- Facilitate cross-functional team meetings and ensure clear communication between stakeholders
- Create and maintain technical documentation including status reports, change requests, and project plans
- Scope, schedule, and manage resources to deliver projects on time and within budget
- Monitor project progress and make adjustments as needed to maintain alignment with goals
Ensure Quality & Compliance
- Ensure delivery processes incorporate appropriate validation, documentation, risk management, and quality control without adding unnecessary complexity
- Implement quality assurance processes to ensure adherence to technical standards, data security requirements, and accessibility guidelines
- Work with relevant teams to coordinate proper testing and validation of new features and releases
- Monitor and report on project quality metrics throughout the development lifecycle
- Partner with Data Security team to integrate security and data privacy requirements into development processes
Stakeholder Management
- Facilitate regular status meetings with stakeholders to provide updates and address technical concerns
- Manage stakeholder expectations through clear communication of project scope, timeline, and deliverables
- Escalate critical issues appropriately and work with leadership to resolve blockers
- Develop and maintain relationships with key stakeholders across technical and business units
- Present project status, risks, and outcomes to various levels of management
- Document and communicate changes to project scope, schedule, or resources to all stakeholders
What Success Looks Like
- Manage technical deliverables being produced by three partners, ensuring thorough documentation and all requirements are met
- Facilitate successful handoff of MVP and initial research work done by firms to staff to build
- Maintain detailed technical roadmap for our product
- Support integration of AI experimentation elements into unified data system
- Lead agile sprints to enable technical teams to complete build of long-term backend infrastructure and frontend web app for unified data system, utilizing software engineering best practices and deploying versions iteratively using gitflow
Qualifications
Required
- Deep alignment with DataKind's mission and values, and demonstrated commitment to educational equity and data-driven social impact
- 5+ years managing software/data engineering projects with demonstrated ability to review technical designs, and participate in architecture discussions
- 3+ years working directly with engineering teams using modern SDLC practices (CI/CD, Git workflows, API development)
- 2+ years working on data engineering, ETL/ELT pipelines, or analytics platform projects
- History of successful technical product launches
- Proficiency with project tracking tools (Asana, Jira, Linear) and documentation platforms
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; can explain technical concepts to non-technical audiences and business priorities to engineers
- Proven ability to deliver multi-quarter projects with cross-functional teams (engineering, data science, product)
- Experience creating and maintaining project documentation, roadmaps, and status reports
- Expert at converting ambiguous business needs into technical requirements and vice versa
Preferred
- Previous experience and/or knowledge of education, edtech, or student information systems
- A proactive approach to identifying and mitigating risks and blocks associated with project momentum
- Understanding of data privacy, security requirements, and accessibility requirements
- Experience as a software engineer, data scientist, or similar technical role
About DataKind
At DataKind, we believe in the transformative power of data science and AI to create a more promising future. Since our founding in 2012, we've been at the forefront of designing scalable, data-driven tools that address some of the world's toughest challenges—ranging from frontline health, humanitarian action, climate and environment, economic opportunity, education, and more. As both a product innovator and a movement catalyst, we set new standards in the social sector, empowering organizations to harness the full potential of data science and AI while putting communities first.
Why Work with DataKind
At DataKind, we believe that people are the most important asset to delivering on our mission. As a people-first remote organization, we offer the following for all our employees:
Flexibility and time off. Enjoy genuine flexibility that goes beyond adjustable hours. We build in shared time off, organization-wide recharge days, bi-weekly meeting-free days, and flexible PTO (with a minimum of 20 vacation days encouraged annually).
Comprehensive Wellness Support. We care for your total wellbeing with 100% employer-paid medical, vision, and dental benefits for employees (72% for dependents), a wellness reimbursement program for the activities and purchases that matter to you, and 12 weeks paid parental leave when you need it most.
A Culture of Growth. Every team member receives professional development funding each year, alongside mentorship and advancement opportunities. We invest in your future with a 401(k) plan with 5% employer matching.
Meaningful Connection. Despite being distributed across time zones, we value being able to come together in person for conferences, strategic planning, and at our annual staff retreat.
Living our Values. DataKind is committed to a diverse, equitable and inclusive work environment in our day-to-day work and via special initiatives driven by our DEI Steering Committee.
DataKind is an Equal Opportunity Employer
DataKind is an equal opportunity employer and strongly encourages candidates from underrepresented groups in tech to apply. DataKind does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, disability, religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected category.
Applicants must have a U.S.-based permanent address and be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis indefinitely without employer visa sponsorship.
