Senior Project and Portfolio Manager

Overview

Lynker is seeking an experienced Senior Project and Portfolio Manager to establish and operate a centerwide project management portfolio at the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC). The position will help SWPC replace its existing Annual Operating Plan (AOP) process with continuous planning across fiscal years, while supporting required annual planning and reporting. The manager will turn the developing portfolio process into a practical, consistently used way to plan work, track delivery, and support leadership decisions.

This is a hands-on implementation and management role. The manager will be responsible for integrated planning and tracking across the portfolio, developing plans with designated project leads and sponsors, maintaining reliable resource and schedule information, and bringing unresolved conflicts to SWPC leadership. Detailed planning will follow authorization and match each project’s stage and complexity. The role requires experience introducing project management practices in an organization where those practices are new.

SWPC operates around the clock to monitor and forecast space weather that affects critical technologies on Earth and in space. The portfolio includes scientific models and observations, software and infrastructure modernization, research transitions to operations, forecast and customer services, training, workforce initiatives, and events. Operational responsibilities take precedence when determining project capacity. The Ideal Senior Project and Portfolio Manager will be able to work a hybrid schedule, working 2-3 days per week from the NOAA office in Boulder, CO, and the remaining 2-3 days per week from home.

Responsibilities

Duties of the Senior Project and Portfolio Manager will include the following:

Establish the portfolio management function

• Develop and implement a phased transition from the AOP process to the portfolio. Reconcile existing projects and commitments, preserve required NOAA and NWS milestone reporting, and recommend how ongoing work enters the new process.

• Translate SWPC’s Project Portfolio Lifecycle into usable procedures, templates, responsibilities, review schedules, and decision records. Propose solutions for unresolved process details and obtain Government approval before implementation.

• Apply predictive, Agile, or hybrid methods according to the work. Keep documentation proportionate to complexity and risk, and help SWPC focus available capacity on a limited set of projects through completion.

Maintain portfolio records and tools

• Administer SWPC’s approved portfolio system and linked records. Maintain unique project IDs, consistent phases and decisions, reliable roster and assignment data, and traceable links among concepts, plans, milestones, costs, and leadership actions.

• Maintain controlled templates, field definitions, update responsibilities, and version history within SWPC’s quality management system. Validate calculations and imports, protect access, and reduce duplicate data entry across portfolio and annual reports.

Support intake and authorization decisions

• Administer the portfolio from idea submission and concept development through evaluation, planning authorization, plan development, execution authorization, execution, and closure. Record the accountable lead, sponsor, status, next decision, and conditions for each effort.

• Help concept leads describe measurable outcomes, scope boundaries, mission and user value, timing drivers, strategic alignment, resource needs, delivery uncertainties, and readiness for adoption. Help divide overly broad efforts into useful projects with clear completion points.

• Support evidence-based management scoring using SWPC’s approved rubric. Keep priority and readiness assessments separate, document the basis and uncertainty, and prepare recommendations for refinement, deferral, combination, division, planning, execution, or closure.

• Prepare review materials and capture the Director’s decisions, rationale, conditions, owners, and follow-up dates. Maintain a clear distinction between approval to plan and approval to execute, and identify work proceeding without documented authorization.

Develop integrated project plans

• Lead collaborative planning with project leads, sponsors, technical experts, and affected users. Document objectives, requirements, deliverables, exclusions, acceptance criteria, work breakdown, responsibilities, effort estimates, funding needs, dependencies, and risks.

• Build schedules from the work and resource estimates. Identify the sequence of activities, key milestones, external commitments, approvals, and critical dependencies. Use critical path analysis where warranted by project complexity and maintain a portfolio roadmap across fiscal years.

• Distinguish staff effort from elapsed duration, fixed commitments from target dates, and assumptions from confirmed resources. Include acquisition, security review, infrastructure preparation, testing, training, documentation, and transition work in plans where applicable.

• Maintain approved scope, schedule, and resource baselines with current forecasts and actual results. Document unresolved planning gaps and establish who will resolve them and when, rather than converting unknowns into unsupported commitments.

Plan and track shared resources

• Maintain a rolling capacity and assignment view, supported by longer-range demand estimates. Track skills, assignment dates, hours per week, organizational affiliation, and requested versus approved commitments with the responsible managers and employer representatives.

• Determine realistic project availability after forecast operations, maintenance, incident response, leave, training, and other obligations. Track planning effort as well as execution effort, identify scarce skills and competing assignments, and present options to sequence or defer work.

Track funding and delivery constraints

• Track authorized funding information, estimated and actual costs where available, remaining resource needs, procurement lead times, equipment, software, cloud services, and partner contributions. Identify recurring support costs and distinguish resource estimates from funding commitments.

• Work with authorized financial, acquisition, contract, and cooperative agreement personnel to reconcile project plans with available funding and approved work scope. Surface changes requiring formal action through the appropriate Government and employer channels.

Monitor execution and manage change

• Coordinate regular progress reviews with project leads and teams. Validate progress against deliverables and acceptance criteria, update forecasts and capacity, and follow actions through resolution. Tailor check-ins, backlog reviews, and retrospectives to the project.

• Maintain integrated risk, issue, assumption, and dependency records. Identify owners, likelihood and consequences, mitigation actions, due dates, and escalation needs. Track technical debt, integration, security, partner, and resource risks that threaten delivery.

• Analyze proposed scope, schedule, funding, and assignment changes before a decision. Show effects on other projects and operational obligations, prepare recovery or sequencing options, and preserve the original baseline and approved change history.

• Provide concise leadership updates showing milestone health, delivery confidence, constraints, resource conflicts, and decisions needed. Escalate material threats promptly through agreed channels with a clear recommendation and the consequence of delay.

Build participation and support operational transitions

• Coach leads and sponsors in practical planning, estimation, risk management, and reporting. Facilitate work across federal employees, contractor personnel, and university or cooperative agreement staff through their established responsibilities and approval channels.

• Engage forecasters, scientists, developers, technology staff, service delivery personnel, and affected partners early. Document user feedback, resolve coordination gaps, and bring disagreements over priorities or responsibilities to the responsible decision authority.

• Document accepted results and lessons learned, close outstanding actions or transfer them to an accountable owner, and release project assignments after closure. Track agreed measures of user or mission benefit with the designated benefit owner.

Qualifications

The Senior Project and Portfolio Manager selected should have the following:

• Bachelor’s degree in project management, business, engineering, computer science, atmospheric or space science, or a related field, or equivalent relevant education and experience where permitted by the applicable contract labor category.

• At least seven years of progressively responsible project management experience, including at least three years coordinating multiple concurrent projects, shared resources, or a project portfolio in a technical, scientific, engineering, or operational organization.

• Demonstrated experience establishing or substantially improving project management practices, including intake, governance, planning, resource tracking, reporting, and adoption by teams with differing levels of project management experience.

• Strong practical skills in work breakdown, effort estimation, integrated scheduling, capacity planning, cost tracking, risk management, change control, and project closeout. Ability to tailor predictive, Agile, and hybrid approaches to different kinds of work.

• Experience coordinating multidisciplinary teams without direct supervisory authority, facilitating difficult discussions, and securing reliable planning input from technical specialists and managers.

• Ability to produce clear plans, analyze resource and schedule tradeoffs, and communicate concise recommendations to senior leaders. Strong attention to data quality and experience administering spreadsheets and project management systems.

The Ideal Senior Project and Portfolio Manager will have the following:

• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification or a comparable recognized project management credential. Portfolio, program, Agile, or organizational change certifications are also useful.

• Experience with federal organizations, mixed federal and contractor teams, cooperative agreements, enterprise IT modernization, and quality management systems. Advanced relevant education is desirable.

Working Relationships and Authority

The manager supports the SWPC front office and works with the Director, Deputy Director, management team, project sponsors and leads, and authorized contract representatives. The manager administers the approved portfolio process, develops plans and recommendations, requests agreed reporting inputs, and coordinates follow-through.

About Lynker

Lynker is a growing, employee owned business, specializing in professional, scientific and technical services. Our continually expanding team combines scientific expertise with mature, results-driven processes and tools to achieve technically sound, cost effective solutions in hydrology/water sciences, geospatial analysis, information technology, resource management, conservation, and management and business process improvement.

We focus on putting the right people in the right place to be effective. And having the right people is critical for success. Our streamlined organization enables and empowers our talented professionals to tackle our customers' scientific and technical priorities – creatively and effectively.

Lynker offers a team-oriented work environment, and the opportunity to work in a culture of exceptionally skilled professionals who embrace sound science and creative solutions. Lynker's benefits include the following:

• Comprehensive healthcare for the employee at no monthly cost

• Healthcare benefit covers medical, prescription drug, dental, and vision

• Personal Time Off (PTO) Policy plus paid holidays

• Highly competitive compensation plan regularly calibrated against industry and location benchmarks

• 401(k) retirement plan with company-matching

• Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) – we're all company owners!

• Flexible spending accounts

• Employee assistance program (EAP)

• Short- and long-term disability insurance

• Life and accident insurance

• Tuition assistance/Training/Workforce improvement reimbursement per year

• Spot bonuses for exceptional performance

• Annual Employee Recognition Awards with bonuses

• Employee Referral Program

• Free centralized, self-directed Learning Management System to learn at your own pace

• Personalized career growth plans for every employee

Lynker is an E-Verify employer.

Lynker is an equal opportunity employer and makes all employment decisions based on merit, qualifications, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, veteran status, or any other legally protected status under federal, state, or local laws.