Project Manager

About Element 84 

Element 84 is here to help accelerate and scale projects that have a positive impact on people and the planet. We solve challenging problems across a wide range of industries, but our super power is cloud-based geospatial data processing, remote sensing, and Earth science systems. We were founded by husband-and-wife engineers in 2010 and have grown into a skilled group of practitioners building high-performance systems for the biggest corporate and government clients in the world. Our main office is located in Alexandria, VA but we support a large remote workforce from Michigan to Texas and Pennsylvania to California.

A Few Other Things You Should Know

1. Element 84's values are: We Invest in Each Other, We are Reliable, and Our Work Benefits our World.
2. Element 84 works on meaningful projects that are challenging—from a technical, people, and team perspective. We make an impact on large projects through our leadership and expertise, both formal and informal.
3. Element 84 pays well but we care more about working on projects that matter.
4. Element 84 values life outside of work. We offer parental leave for everyone and support each other through family challenges like medical problems, adoptions, and new babies.
5. Element 84 has had a flexible work schedule since our founding in 2010.
6. Element 84 has made a commitment to diversity. We expect the entire team to share that same commitment. 

About You

You are curious about the world, are constantly learning, driven to lead (formally or informally), and have a strong work ethic. You're interested in solving impactful problems in science, medicine, and other projects that have a societal good. You can work independently or with a team, prioritize your projects, and be effective without micromanagement.

Job Description

Element 84 project managers serve a number of roles for the company. At Element 84, project managers are expected to be intimately involved with their team's performance, execution, budget, and customer satisfaction. While each project's team can be different, often an Element 84 PM will act in the role of Scrum Master in the Agile Development Process, work with customers to make sure their requirements are translated into work from the team, and manage the delivery schedule. Project managers also assist business development efforts at Element 84 by working on proposals and contributing to Element 84 team allocation planning. As a member of Element 84's Project Management Organization, you will also be expected to contribute as a thought leader for continual improvement.

Duties & Responsibilities

Teamwork & Leadership

You demonstrate the 'We Invest In Each Other' company value in the following ways:

• As a customer-facing leader, you help the team understand high-level customer goals and the value of individual feature requests so that the team may deliver the most value possible
• You help the customer understand Element 84's development process and advocate for better processes so that the development team is not hindered by external factors
• You seek opportunities to grow the team by engaging with the customer and driving a vision for your projects
• You collaborate cross-functionally with engineers, data scientists, business users, and other project managers to achieve elegant solutions
• You build and maintain working relationships with team members, vendors, and other departments involved in your projects

Execution

You demonstrate the "We Are Reliable" company value in the following ways:

• You set deadlines, assign responsibilities, and monitor progress of your projects
• You develop detailed project plans, evaluate and manage risks, and escalate the appropriate risks to the appropriate parties at the appropriate time
• You make reliable, real-world time estimates and take into account previous iterations to continually improve your estimates
• You incorporate quality measures and standards to project deliverables
• You run formal planning sessions with all stakeholders to set the direction of your team's development efforts for a set duration of time
• You assist or serve as the Scrum Master for your projects
• You approve timesheets for the development team and monitor budget

You'll care about writing. Our team is remote and written communication is essential. In addition to caring about a well-crafted email and a succinct conference abstract, you understand that good writing is good design and engineering.

Please submit your information, resume and cover letter if you are interested in this permanent position in the Washington, DC metro area.  Remote candidates welcome.

Qualifications

Here are the guidelines we're looking at to gauge experience and skillset:

Required Qualifications

• Project scheduling in various stages of structure from sprint scheduling to PI planning to Gantt chart-based longer term schedules
• Fit/Gap Analysis
• Atlassian tool suite (JIRA, Confluence, etc...)
• Microsoft Office & Google Docs
• Project Lifecycle Management (PLM)
• Budgetary Controls
• Project Estimation
• Project Scoping
• Conflict Resolution
• Maintain knowledge of best practices for Agile and possibly Scaled Agile Framework (on larger projects)
• Experience working with multi functional teams
• Experience gathering requirements and reporting status to external clients
• Experience serving as a Scrummaster
• Bachelor's Degree in math, science, business or related field or related technical expertise
• 5+ years of experience leading technical teams on at least 3 different projects

Preferred Qualifications

• Project Management Professionals (PMP) certification 
• Certified Scrum Master certification (CSM)

Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. At this time, Element 84 will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.

Benefits

Paying attention to who we are as a company–people, family members, friends, and colleagues–is our primary focus at Element 84. There are lots of ways to run a company and for us, it's wanting to come to work, being around people we enjoy, taking on big things with people you trust, and sharing our achievements as a team.

• You’ll get credit when things go right and we’ll have your back when things go wrong.
• We only take on work that is challenging and right for us. There are projects we will turn down and the team has a say.
• We may be a small company, but we have big company benefits meant to support the idea that we're here for the long term and happiness comes from much more than where you work. 
• We have an extraordinary retention rate because we hire extraordinary people. We hope that’s you.

Element 84 is an equal opportunity employer, with a company culture that values diversity.

We embrace inclusivity and believe that diversity of thought, perspective, and experience helps us reach higher and think bigger. Element 84 is committed to hiring the best person for the team and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class.