Information Technology Project Managers

What the job really is

Plan, initiate, and manage information technology (IT) projects. Lead and guide the work of technical staff. Serve as liaison between business and technical aspects of projects. Plan project stages and assess business implications for each stage. Monitor progress to assure deadlines, standards, and cost targets are met.

At a glance

• Sector: Computer & Mathematical
• O*NET-SOC code: 15-1299
• O*NET job zone: 4 — considerable preparation
• Work sample tasks on file: 12
• Tools and technologies listed: 12

What you actually do

Work sample tasks recorded for this occupation:

• Manage project execution to ensure adherence to budget, schedule, and scope.
• Confer with project personnel to identify and resolve problems.
• Monitor or track project milestones and deliverables.
• Submit project deliverables, ensuring adherence to quality standards.
• Assess current or future customer needs and priorities by communicating directly with customers, conducting surveys, or other methods.
• Initiate, review, or approve modifications to project plans.
• Schedule and facilitate meetings related to information technology projects.
• Direct or coordinate activities of project personnel.
• Develop implementation plans that include analyses such as cost-benefit or return on investment (ROI).
• Identify need for initial or supplemental project resources.
• Develop or update project plans for information technology projects including information such as project objectives, technologies, systems, information specifications, schedules, funding, and staffing.
• Perform risk assessments to develop response strategies.

Tools and technology

AJAX, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Creative Cloud software, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud EC2, Amazon Redshift, Amazon Web Services AWS software, Ansible software, Apache Cassandra

What employers expect you to already be comfortable with.

Where this job leads

Related occupations — the usual moves up and sideways:

• Project Management Specialists
• Management Analysts
• Computer and Information Systems Managers
• Software Developers
• Computer Systems Analysts
• Computer Systems Engineers/Architects
• General and Operations Managers
• Database Administrators

Getting in

O*NET assigns this occupation job zone 4 (considerable preparation). The related occupations above are the realistic routes in and out.

Find openings

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Check this against the source

O*NET OnLine: Information Technology Project Managers — the authoritative public-domain profile this page is derived from, including the full task list, reported skills and the wage estimates for your region.

Derived and rewritten from the public-domain O*NET database (U.S. Department of Labor / Employment and Training Administration). Figures are observations, not promises — always confirm salary, licensing and visa requirements with the employer and the relevant authority.