Technical Project Manager

Technical Project Manager \u2014 Data, Cloud & AI \nEngagements \nLocation: Chennai, India (Hybrid) Experience: 8+ years Reports to: Director of Engineering \nTeam: Delivery / Engineering \nAbout SquareShift \nSquareShift is a boutique consulting firm specializing in cloud modernization, data engineering, \nAI/ML, and observability. We are a Google Cloud Premier Partner, Looker Delivery\-Verified \nPartner, and Elastic SI/Reseller Partner, with deep expertise in BigQuery, Vertex AI, Looker, and \nElasticsearch. We deliver enterprise\-grade work without the enterprise overhead \u2014 selective, \nexpert\-led, and senior\-staffed end to end. \nWe work with ISVs, SaaS companies, and enterprises across financial services, retail, \ninsurance, and e\-commerce. Our engagements span Snowflake\-to\-BigQuery migrations, \nTableau\-to\-Looker modernizations, agentic AI products, and large\-scale observability rollouts. \nThe Role \nWe are looking for a Technical Project Manager who started their career in technology \u2014 \nengineering, QA, technical support, BA, or similar \u2014 and pivoted into project management. You \nare technically literate. You can sit through an architecture review and follow the conversation. \nBut your strength is delivery, not code, and you have built your career on running teams and \nshipping outcomes. \nThis is a deeply client\-facing role. You will be the face of SquareShift to multiple clients at \nonce \u2014 running steering committees, leading status calls, walking senior client stakeholders \nthrough progress and decisions, and handling escalations directly. Strong written and spoken \ncommunication, executive presence, and the ability to build trust quickly with senior client \nstakeholders are non\-negotiable. \nYou will run 4\u20136 concurrent engagements at different phases \u2014 one in discovery, two \nmid\-build, one ramping down \u2014 and you need to context\-switch cleanly between them. Each \nclient will feel like you are giving them your full attention. Juggling parallel engagements without \ndropping balls is the core operational skill of this role. \nOur engagements are technical \u2014 data pipelines, cloud architectures, AI/ML systems, \nobservability platforms. You do not need to design or build these. You need to understand the \nbroad shape of what is being built, ask sensible questions, translate between engineering and \nthe client, and partner closely with your tech leads who carry the technical depth. \nWe are a boutique. You will have ownership, autonomy, and impact from week one. \nWhat You Will Do \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \nOwn the client relationship across 4\u20136 concurrent engagements \u2014 you are the \nprimary point of contact, the escalation path, and the trusted advisor on the ground \nRun client governance for each engagement \u2014 weekly status, monthly steering \ncommittees, executive updates, escalations, and change requests \u2014 and keep all of \nthem on track simultaneously \nBuild executive presence with senior client stakeholders (Directors, VPs, CTOs) and \nrepresent SquareShift in the room with credibility and clarity \nContext\-switch cleanly across multiple engagements at different phases \u2014 \ndiscovery, build, stabilization, ramp\-down \u2014 without losing thread on any of them \nRun delivery governance across all your engagements \u2014 sprint planning, milestone \nreviews, demos, retros \u2014 and ensure each team has the cadence it needs \nMaintain a broad, high\-level understanding of what each team is building, enough to \ntranslate progress and risks to non\-technical client stakeholders \nPartner with tech leads on scoping and estimation \u2014 your job is to ask the right \nquestions, surface assumptions, and ensure delivery risks are visible; technical judgment \nstays with the leads \nMaintain a single, current view of all your projects \u2014 plans, RAID logs, resource \nforecasts, financial health \u2014 so you can answer any leadership question on any \nengagement at any time \nFlag scope creep early and manage change orders cleanly with the client \nDrive Agile and hybrid delivery models (Scrum, Kanban, milestone\-based) \u2014 pick the \nright tool for each engagement, not dogma \nTrack financial health across your portfolio \u2014 burn, margin, utilization \u2014 and partner \nwith leadership on commercial decisions \nLead pre\-sales support on selected opportunities \u2014 discovery questionnaires, proposal \nwalk\-throughs, SOW reviews (effort estimation done with tech leads) \nCoach delivery leads on PM rigor; raise the bar on documentation, communication, and \npredictability \nImprove internal delivery playbooks and governance templates as the firm scales \nWhat We Are Looking For \nMust\-have \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \n8+ years total experience in IT/technology delivery, with an early\-career foundation in \na technical role (engineering, QA, technical support, business analysis, or similar) \nbefore transitioning into project management \n3+ years in a directly client\-facing PM, TPM, or delivery lead role at a consulting \nfirm, GSI, or product company with a services arm \u2014 you have personally owned senior \nclient relationships, not just supported them \nProven track record running multiple parallel engagements (3+ at a time) with \ndistinct clients, timelines, and tech stacks \u2014 and the operating habits to keep them all on \ntrack \nStrong executive presence and stakeholder management skills \u2014 comfortable \npresenting to and pushing back on Directors, VPs, and CTOs on scope, timeline, and \ncommercial topics \nBroad technical literacy \u2014 you can follow a high\-level conversation about cloud, data, \nor AI systems, ask sensible questions, and translate between engineering and business; \nyou do not need to be hands\-on \nStrong command of delivery methodologies \u2014 Agile/Scrum, Kanban, milestone/waterfall \n\u2014 and the judgment to know when to use which \nExcellent written and verbal communication in English \u2014 you can write a crisp status \nupdate, run a steering committee, lead a difficult escalation call, and de\-escalate a tense \nclient conversation \nProcess\-driven mindset balanced with startup pragmatism \u2014 you build structure where it \nis missing, but you do not let process become the work \nResult\-oriented \u2014 you measure success by what shipped and what the client got, not by \ntickets closed \nComfort with project tooling (Jira, Confluence, Asana, Notion) and reporting tools \n(Looker, Sheets, Excel) \nStrongly preferred \- \- \- \- \- \nExposure to GCP, BigQuery, Looker, Snowflake, Databricks, or Elasticsearch in past \ndelivery roles \nExperience delivering data platform, BI migration, or AI/ML engagements \nExperience managing fixed\-price and T&M engagements, including commercial \ngovernance and change orders \nPMP, PRINCE2, CSM, or SAFe certification \nPre\-sales / solution\-shaping experience \nWho You Are \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \- \nYou started your career in technology and never lost your curiosity for it \u2014 but you found \nyour strength in running teams and delivering outcomes, not in writing code \nYou are at your best in front of clients. You build trust fast, communicate with clarity, \nand stay composed when the conversation gets difficult \nYou can hold five engagements in your head at once without dropping context \u2014 \neach client feels like they have your full attention \nYou partner closely with tech leads \u2014 you trust their technical judgment, you ask sharp \nquestions, and you make sure delivery risks get surfaced early \nYou bring calm to chaos; when a project is on fire, you are the person clients and \nengineers both want in the room \nYou write well \u2014 your status updates are read because they are useful, not because \nthey are mandatory \nYou are direct: you raise risks early, push back on scope creep, and have hard \nconversations with clients and engineers when needed, with respect \nYou take ownership \u2014 you do not wait for a process to exist before you solve a problem \nYou stay curious about the modern data, cloud, and AI landscape we operate in \nWhy SquareShift \- \- \- \- \- \nSenior\-led firm \u2014 you will work with experts, not be the only adult in the room \nReal ownership from week one \u2014 boutique scale, enterprise\-grade work \nDiverse portfolio \u2014 data engineering, AI products, cloud migrations, observability \u2014 you \nwill not get bored \nDirect exposure to leadership and clients \u2014 your work is visible and impactful \nActive investment in AI tooling and ways of working \u2014 we use Claude Code, Gemini, \nand modern delivery tooling across the firm
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