Senior Project Manager, Professional Services
Remote, U.S.
WHO WE ARE
Certinia (formerly FinancialForce) delivers a Services-as-a-Business platform that powers and connects all aspects of services operations, from services estimation and delivery to customer success management and financial planning and accounting. The company's Professional Services Automation (PSA), Customer Success, and ERP solutions delivered on Salesforce's leading cloud platform provide the ability to run a connected services business, deliver with intelligence, and achieve business agility. Headquartered in Austin, TX with offices around the world, Certinia is backed by Haveli Investments, General Atlantic and Salesforce Ventures. For more information, visit .
THE ROLE
As Senior Project Manager, you bring a consulting mindset to every engagement. You aren’t just managing tasks and timelines, but guiding clients through complex implementations, proactively managing risk, and ensuring that Certinia delivers outcomes that matter.
We are looking for someone who takes ownership of the client relationship, communicates with confidence at the executive level, and knows how to lead when the path forward is unclear. You will manage multiple concurrent enterprise implementations in a matrixed environment, and your success will be measured by delivery quality, client satisfaction, project margin, and the strength of the relationships you build.
WHAT YOU WILL DO IN THE ROLE
Client Leadership & Stakeholder Management
- Serve as the primary point of contact and accountability for stakeholders throughout the engagement lifecycle
- Lead steering committee meetings, status reviews, and escalation conversations with a prepared, confident point of view
- Communicate project progress in business terms, connecting delivery milestones to client goals and outcomes, not just RAG statuses
- Proactively identify and address stakeholder misalignment, change resistance, and organizational readiness gaps before they become project risks
- Set and manage realistic expectations on scope, timeline, and budget, and have the difficult conversations when reality diverges from the plan, maintaining precise and absolute command of the projects scope, SOW and contractual phases at all times
- Build reference relationships and identify opportunities to expand Certinia’s footprint within existing accounts
Implementation Ownership
- Own end-to-end delivery accountability across all project phases from initiation through stabilization
- Develop and maintain structured project governance including charter, project plan, RAID log, status reports, and change management processes using Certinia’s standard methodology and toolset
- Lead proactive risk identification and mitigation — escalating issues with a clear recommended path forward, not just a status update and demonstrate a history of pre-emptive Change Order mitigation strategies
- Manage scope with discipline; manage project financials accurately, including revenue forecasting, utilization tracking, and milestone billing
- Maintain accurate project records in Certinia’s PSA platform, keeping schedules, milestones, project resource allocations, and financials current at all times
- Demonstrate full financial command over project delivery, including rigorous P&L accountability, proactive management of the Estimate at Completion (EAC) and Estimate to Complete (ETC) models, and a focus on maximizing project margin through the strategic management of resource mix, and highly accurate revenue forecasting and recognition
Team & Consulting Collaboration
- Partner with Delivery Leads, Solutions Architects, and functional consultants to ensure a cohesive, well-prepared experience for every client
- Collaborate with partner resources integrated into the engagement, aligning them to the overall delivery approach
- Support the transition from implementation to support, ensuring a smooth handoff and strong client continuity
- Serve as a mentor for junior Project Managers, actively guiding them in adopting Certinia’s standard methodology and best practices for consultative client management
Operational Excellence
- Conduct formal lessons learned and contribute findings to the PMO knowledge base
- Leverage available AI and automation tooling to reduce administrative overhead and focus PM capacity on higher-value client work
- Contribute to the ongoing development of the PM methodology, delivery standards, and service offerings
- Act as a subject matter expert and change agent within the PMO, actively contributing to initiatives to evolve delivery standards and ensure cross-project consistency
WHAT YOU NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN THIS ROLE
Consulting Mindset & Communication
- Comfortable engaging with executive-level stakeholders. You can hold your own in a steering committee and adapt your communication style from project team to the Vice President level
- Consultative approach to client engagement. You ask the right questions, surface issues early, and advise rather than just report
- Experience navigating organizational change and managing stakeholder dynamics on enterprise software implementations
- Ability to frame complex delivery realities in plain business language, without hiding behind project management jargon
- Confident leading difficult conversations around scope, budget, and timeline without over-promising to make them go away
- Comfortable operating in ambiguity and providing direction when requirements are still evolving
- Demonstrated ability to produce and present executive-level steering committee materials and presentations that are consistently tailored to a C-suite audience with clarity, financial grounding and a professional demeanor
Project Management & Delivery
- A minimum of 8-10 years of progressive, dedicated experience successfully leading and owning a portfolio of 3-5 complex, full-lifecycle enterprise software implementations, demonstrating a consistent track record in superior client satisfaction, optimizing project margins, and delivering measurable business outcomes.
- Experience managing multiple concurrent projects in a matrixed environment
- Prior experience in a client-facing professional services or implementation consulting role, with demonstrated ownership of customer outcomes
- Active PMP Certification (or equivalent such as PRINCE2) is required
WHAT ELSE WOULD BE GREAT
- Familiarity with ERP and/or PSA implementation methodologies; comfortable with cloud delivery models
- Hands-on experience with one or more of the following platforms: Certinia, NetSuite, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Salesforce, SAP, Lawson, JD Edwards, Microsoft Dynamics, or Workday
- Experience with the Salesforce.com platform or ecosystem
- Change management certification (Prosci or CCMP)
- Experience supporting or leading pre-sales discovery and scoping conversations
- Experience mentoring junior project managers or consultants
- Prior experience in or working knowledge of Professional Services, Accounting, Human Capital Management, and/or Supply Chain business processes
- Experience working within federal contracting environments, including familiarity with government compliance requirements or regulated delivery frameworks
The reasonably expected base salary range for this full-time position is $120,000-$147,000. Please note that the final offer will be determined by a variety of factors, including the candidate’s relevant experience, skills, and qualifications, as well as internal equity and market data.