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Portfolio / Project Manager with Aviation Systems experience (Ref: 5644)

Remote•United States•Contract
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About the Job
Portfolio / Project Manager with Aviation Systems experience (Ref: 5644)
Location: Remote within the Continental US.
Duration: 12 months
Rate: DOE
 
Portfolio / Project Manager – Aviation IT Systems
Position Overview
Estrada Consulting is seeking a senior Portfolio / Project Manager with aviation systems and airport IT experience to support the City of Philadelphia Department of Aviation’s Computer and Information Systems Management initiative. This role will support the Airport’s IT Project Management Office by providing hands-on project delivery, portfolio visibility, stakeholder coordination, schedule control, dependency management, risk tracking, and executive-level reporting.

The role is intended for a consultant who can operate in a complex airport environment where IT systems directly support airport operations, passenger services, business functions, regulatory compliance, operational reliability, and stakeholder alignment. The RFP describes the PMO as responsible for planning, execution, governance, documentation, communication, quality, transparency, and accountability across the airport’s IT project portfolio.

The ideal candidate will have experience managing IT initiatives for airports, aviation departments, transportation agencies, or other mission-critical public-sector environments. The candidate should be comfortable coordinating across infrastructure, applications, service management, operations, vendors, airline partners, and executive stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

  • Lead and manage aviation IT projects from planning through execution, implementation, and operational handoff.
  • Support the Airport IT PMO in maintaining structure, transparency, and accountability across active, planned, and deferred technology initiatives.
  • Manage project intake, prioritization, registration, and tracking of IT initiatives, enhancements, operational projects, and work requests.
  • Maintain a centralized portfolio view of Airport IT projects, including schedules, status, risks, issues, dependencies, constraints, resource needs, and executive reporting.
  • Develop and manage practical project plans, schedules, task trackers, milestone plans, status reports, RAID logs, decision logs, and project documentation.
  • Define project scope, objectives, deliverables, success criteria, timelines, assumptions, and constraints in collaboration with Airport stakeholders.
  • Coordinate multi-team technical efforts across Airport IT functions, including infrastructure, applications, service management, field support, operations, vendors, and external partners. The RFP specifically emphasizes coordination across Infrastructure, Applications, Field Support, Cybersecurity, and vendors, while this role will remain focused on the PM/portfolio coordination function rather than technical cyber delivery.
  • Manage cross-project dependencies, resource conflicts, schedule risks, and operational constraints that may affect delivery.
  • Support project execution through active facilitation, meeting management, follow-up, issue resolution, and escalation.
  • Ensure project activities align with Airport governance requirements, ITIL practices, ITSM workflows, change management processes, security requirements, and operational readiness expectations.
  • Coordinate closely with IT Infrastructure and Service Management teams to ensure project work aligns with production support needs and does not disrupt airport operations.
  • Support Change Enablement / Change Management activities to reduce operational risk during deployments, cutovers, upgrades, and system transitions.
  • Ensure operational readiness activities are completed prior to go-live, including documentation, training coordination, support handoffs, communications, and stakeholder acceptance.
  • Facilitate regular project status meetings, technical working sessions, steering committee updates, vendor meetings, and stakeholder briefings.
  • Prepare clear, concise, and actionable communications for operational teams, technical teams, business stakeholders, vendors, and executive leadership.
  • Support portfolio-level reporting focused on schedule, risk, dependencies, operational impact, resource availability, regulatory drivers, and business priorities.
  • Apply right-sized project methodologies, including Agile, hybrid, or waterfall approaches, based on project scope, risk, complexity, and Airport direction.

Required Qualifications
  • Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Business Administration, Public Administration, Aviation Management, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
  • Minimum of 10-15 years of project management experience, including delivery of enterprise IT, infrastructure, application, operational technology, or public-sector technology projects.
  • Prior experience supporting aviation, airport, transportation, transit, logistics, or other mission-critical operational environments.
  • Demonstrated experience managing large-scale or critical IT projects from planning through implementation, including project plans, budgets, vendor coordination, stakeholder reporting, and delivery oversight. The RFP’s Senior Project Manager classification requires 8–10 years of project management experience, proven delivery of enterprise or infrastructure projects, and PMP or equivalent certification.
  • Experience with IT portfolio management, program management, or PMO support, including project intake, prioritization, portfolio reporting, executive communication, and alignment of schedules and budgets to IT strategy.
  • Strong understanding of airport or transportation IT environments, including passenger-facing systems, operational systems, infrastructure dependencies, applications, vendors, and 24/7 operational constraints.
  • Experience coordinating projects involving systems such as airport operations systems, passenger processing systems, flight information displays, digital signage, wayfinding, common-use systems, access control, cameras, network infrastructure, telecom, data center/MDF/IDF environments, enterprise applications, or related aviation technologies.
  • Experience with ITIL, ITSM workflows, change management, incident/problem/service request alignment, operational readiness, production support handoffs, and post-implementation stabilization.
  • Strong vendor management experience, including coordination with software vendors, infrastructure vendors, managed service providers, implementation partners, and public-sector client teams.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills, including ability to communicate effectively with executives, IT leadership, business users, vendors, technical teams, airport operations, and external stakeholders.
  • Ability to work in a complex airport environment where technology initiatives must be coordinated around operational continuity, safety, security, passenger experience, and regulatory considerations.
Certifications
  • PMP certification required or strongly preferred.
  • PgMP, PMI-ACP, ScrumMaster, ITIL, or related project / program / service management certifications are preferred.
  • The RFP identifies PMP or equivalent certification as required for the Senior Project Manager labor category and PMP or PgMP preferred for the Portfolio Manager labor category.
Preferred Qualifications
  • Experience working with airport authorities, departments of aviation, airlines, TSA/FAA-adjacent environments, or transportation agencies.
  • Experience supporting technology initiatives in large, complex, highly available, 24/7 environments.
  • Experience supporting public-sector IT projects, including procurement support, documentation standards, governance, vendor coordination, reporting, and executive briefings.
  • Experience managing portfolios that include infrastructure, applications, operational technology, passenger-facing systems, data/reporting, enterprise systems, or service management initiatives.
  • Experience with airport systems or aviation technology such as FIDS, CUPPS, CUSS, baggage systems, access control, CCTV, digital signage, wayfinding, network/telecom, parking systems, airport operations databases, GIS, asset management, work order systems, document management, or enterprise applications.
  • Experience supporting IT modernization, system upgrades, cloud migration, application replacement, infrastructure refreshes, vendor transitions, system integrations, operational cutovers, and go-live readiness.
  • Experience preparing portfolio dashboards, executive reports, project governance materials, meeting agendas, minutes, risk registers, implementation plans, and operational handoff documentation.
Desired Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
  • Strong understanding of how IT projects affect airport operations, passenger services, airline coordination, operational readiness, safety, security, and stakeholder communications.
  • Ability to manage multiple concurrent IT projects while maintaining visibility into dependencies, risks, deadlines, resource constraints, and business priorities.
  • Ability to balance formal project governance with the RFP’s emphasis on lightweight, execution-focused delivery.
  • Ability to work across technical and non-technical stakeholder groups and translate complex project information into clear status updates and decision points.
  • Strong facilitation skills, including the ability to lead meetings, resolve ambiguity, document decisions, escalate risks, and drive follow-through.
  • Strong organizational skills and attention to documentation, reporting, scheduling, budget tracking, and status transparency.
  • Ability to coordinate project work in a live airport environment with operational constraints, restricted-access areas, vendor dependencies, change windows, and production support considerations.

About Estrada Consulting Incorporated
Estrada Consulting, Inc. (ECI) delivers technology-enabled services and solutions to clients all over the USA and British Columbia. We provide system integration, custom application development, data warehouse and business intelligence, project management, custom reporting solutions and consulting services to mid-size and large enterprises in all major industries. The Company headquarters is in Sacramento, California, and was established in year 2000. Visit http://www.estradaci.com/ to learn about our projects, managed services, awards and certifications delivering value for a range of businesses and government agencies.
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