Ascension is seeking an accomplished Senior Program, Project & Enterprise Implementation Manager to provide senior-level leadership for complex business, technology, operational, and enterprise transformation initiatives supporting Frederick County, Maryland.

The successful candidate will be an experienced PMP-level project/program leader capable of taking complex initiatives from early planning and requirements definition through implementation, deployment, operational transition, and closeout. This individual should have demonstrated experience managing enterprise-scale initiatives involving multiple departments, stakeholders, vendors, systems, schedules, budgets, risks, and organizational priorities.

The ideal candidate brings substantial experience managing enterprise implementations, particularly Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), business systems modernization, technology implementation, or similarly complex transformation programs.

This is not simply a schedule-management role. Ascension is seeking a senior consultant who understands how to convert strategic objectives into an executable program; organize multiple interconnected workstreams; anticipate implementation risks; establish accountability; resolve cross-functional problems; communicate effectively with executives, operational leaders, technical personnel, vendors, and end users; and ensure that implemented solutions produce measurable operational results.

The person selected should be comfortable entering environments where all requirements may not initially be defined. The candidate must be capable of independently assessing conditions, organizing ambiguity, identifying decisions that must be made, recommending a practical path forward, and establishing the governance, controls, tools, and communications necessary to move an initiative successfully from concept through implementation.

RFP Service Areas Supported

This position is designed primarily to support the following Frederick County service areas:

• Project Management
• Enterprise Asset Management Project Management
• Enterprise Resource Planning Project Management
• Program Management
• Implementation Services

Depending upon the Task Order, the individual may also support related business-process, technology-analysis, strategic-planning, operations-analysis, quality-assurance, organizational-analysis, data-analysis, reporting, or process-and-procedure activities.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Senior Program, Project & Enterprise Implementation Manager will plan, organize, lead, monitor, and control complex County projects and programs while providing the County with a single, accountable point of coordination for assigned initiatives.

The contractor will translate County objectives into structured project or program plans that define scope, responsibilities, schedules, dependencies, resources, risks, costs, decision points, deliverables, performance measures, and implementation requirements.

For enterprise implementations, the manager will coordinate business owners, technical personnel, vendors, consultants, executives, and end users throughout the implementation lifecycle. Activities may include requirements validation, implementation planning, configuration oversight, interface and integration coordination, data conversion planning, testing, training readiness, organizational change, deployment, cutover, stabilization, and post-implementation review.

The successful candidate must be highly organized, analytical, responsive, diplomatically assertive, and comfortable operating with minimal supervision. The individual should be able to identify emerging issues before they become implementation failures and provide leadership with options, consequences, recommendations, and an actionable resolution.

This role requires a consultant who can simultaneously maintain executive-level visibility and detailed operational control—ensuring that strategic objectives remain aligned with everyday activities, assignments, decisions, schedules, budgets, risks, deliverables, and implementation milestones.

Characteristics of the Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is:

• Self-driven and effective when working from broad direction rather than detailed instructions.
• Highly organized and capable of managing multiple priorities, projects, stakeholders, and deadlines concurrently.
• Detail-oriented without losing sight of enterprise objectives and strategic outcomes.
• Skilled at anticipating problems, identifying root causes, evaluating options, and developing implementable solutions.
• Comfortable challenging assumptions and escalating issues when scope, schedule, cost, quality, or outcomes are at risk.
• Diplomatic and credible when communicating with executives, managers, technical teams, vendors, consultants, and operational personnel.
• Adept at establishing accountability without unnecessarily creating bureaucracy.
• Comfortable facilitating difficult discussions and helping stakeholders reach decisions.
• Experienced in environments involving competing priorities and organizational change.
• Focused on measurable outcomes rather than simply completing project activities.
• Able to simplify complex technical, operational, or programmatic information for decision-makers.
• Capable of rapidly becoming familiar with an organization’s operations, policies, procedures, systems, and stakeholder environment.

Position Day-to-Day / Task Order Activities

The Senior Program, Project & Enterprise Implementation Manager will:

• LEAD complex projects, enterprise implementations, and multi-workstream programs from initiation through completion.
• ESTABLISH project and program governance structures, operating cadences, decision authorities, escalation paths, roles, responsibilities, and performance expectations.
• DEVELOP project management plans, program management plans, implementation plans, integrated master schedules, resource plans, communications plans, stakeholder plans, and other required management artifacts.
• DEFINE project scope, objectives, deliverables, milestones, assumptions, constraints, dependencies, acceptance criteria, and success measures.
• TRANSLATE strategic and operational requirements into executable work plans and implementation roadmaps.
• COORDINATE County departments, business owners, subject matter experts, technical teams, vendors, consultants, and other stakeholders.
• MANAGE scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, risks, issues, dependencies, requirements, decisions, and deliverables throughout the project lifecycle.
• ESTABLISH and maintain RAID logs covering risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies.
• IDENTIFY potential obstacles, implementation risks, schedule conflicts, resource limitations, and organizational constraints before they adversely affect the project.
• ANALYZE alternative courses of action and provide leadership with concise, decision-ready recommendations.
• MONITOR project and program performance against approved scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk, and implementation baselines.
• CONTROL project changes through structured impact analysis, approval, documentation, and change-control processes.
• MAINTAIN integrated schedules identifying dependencies, critical paths, decision points, implementation milestones, testing activities, deployment activities, and deliverable dates.
• FACILITATE project kickoff meetings, requirements sessions, executive steering committee meetings, working groups, status meetings, risk reviews, implementation readiness reviews, and lessons-learned sessions.
• PREPARE executive briefings, dashboards, project status reports, decision papers, implementation reports, risk summaries, milestone reports, and recommendations.
• DIRECT enterprise ERP and EAM implementation activities when assigned, coordinating business-process, functional, technical, vendor, and organizational workstreams.
• COORDINATE implementation lifecycle activities including requirements validation, solution design, configuration, integration, data conversion, testing, training, deployment, cutover, stabilization, and operational transition.
• MANAGE relationships and dependencies between software vendors, system integrators, County departments, business process owners, technical teams, and end users.
• VALIDATE implementation readiness through structured reviews of outstanding risks, testing status, data readiness, training readiness, business readiness, support readiness, and deployment criteria.
• OVERSEE user acceptance testing planning, defect resolution, acceptance criteria, issue prioritization, and readiness decisions when applicable.
• COORDINATE data migration, interface, integration, configuration, security, infrastructure, or technical workstreams at the project-management level without replacing the responsible technical SMEs.
• ALIGN implementation decisions with operational requirements and expected business outcomes.
• TRACK decisions, financial commitments, action items, deliverable approvals, risks, changes, and project records so that information remains documented and retrievable.
• ESTABLISH quality-control checkpoints and progressive project reviews.
• REVIEW project deliverables for completeness, consistency, quality, compliance, and alignment with Task Order requirements.
• ASSESS contractor and vendor performance against applicable schedules, requirements, deliverables, and commitments.
• ESCALATE significant risks, decisions, deviations, or performance problems with sufficient analysis to support timely leadership action.
• COMMUNICATE project status clearly to stakeholders at all organizational levels.
• RESPOND to routine County inquiries within required contractual response windows and support urgent matters when assigned.
• DOCUMENT meetings, decisions, actions, milestones, approvals, changes, risks, and lessons learned.
• COORDINATE project closeout, transition-to-operations, lessons learned, final documentation, knowledge transfer, and post-implementation activities.
• MEASURE whether completed initiatives have produced the intended operational, financial, organizational, service-delivery, or technology outcomes.
• IDENTIFY opportunities to simplify processes, eliminate waste, improve organizational effectiveness, improve information visibility, and strengthen project delivery.

Anticipated Deliverables

Depending upon the Task Order, deliverables may include:

• Project Management Plan
• Program Management Plan
• Project Charter
• Program Governance Framework
• Integrated Master Schedule
• Implementation Roadmap
• Work Breakdown Structure
• Stakeholder Management Plan
• Communications Plan
• Responsibility Assignment Matrix / RACI
• Risk Register
• RAID Log
• Issue and Action Tracker
• Decision Log
• Change Request Log
• Resource Plan
• Project Budget / Cost Tracker
• Requirements Traceability Matrix
• Implementation Readiness Assessment
• Testing / UAT Management Plan
• Deployment / Cutover Plan
• Training Readiness Plan
• Vendor Performance Reports
• Executive Status Reports
• Program / Project Performance Dashboard
• Steering Committee Briefings
• Lessons-Learned Report
• Transition and Closeout Plan
• Post-Implementation Review

Recommended Project Management Tools and Processes

The RFP does not mandate a specific project-management software platform. Depending upon the Task Order and County environment, the successful candidate should be comfortable using or rapidly adapting to tools such as:

• Microsoft Project
• Microsoft Planner
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft SharePoint
• Microsoft Power BI
• Smartsheet
• Jira / Confluence
• Azure DevOps or similar work-management platforms
• Enterprise ERP/EAM implementation and vendor management tools

The candidate should have strong working knowledge of methodologies and practices including:

• PMI PMBOK
• Agile
• Scrum
• Waterfall
• Hybrid project delivery
• Program and portfolio governance
• Integrated master scheduling
• RAID management
• Risk management
• Requirements management
• Change control
• Configuration / release coordination
• SDLC
• Implementation lifecycle management
• User Acceptance Testing
• Data conversion / migration planning
• Organizational change management
• Deployment and cutover planning
• Quality assurance / quality control
• Lessons learned and continuous improvement