Special Projects Manager

Job Title: Special Projects Manager

Industry: Nonprofit / Education

Location (city, state): Washington, DC

Assignment Type: Contract to hire

Pay: $48 - $55 / hour

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 9:00am - 5:00pm (37.5 hours per week). Hybrid: 4 days on site, 1 day remote.

Benefits: This position is eligible for medical, dental, vision, and 401(k).

About The Company: Our client is a well-established, mission-driven nonprofit with a decades-long record of expanding access to higher education. They have raised billions in private support and helped hundreds of thousands of students reach graduation and launch careers. They are looking for a polished project leader to join their executive office.

Job Description: This role acts as a strategic partner to the executive office, driving the organization's highest-priority leadership initiatives and special projects. The ideal candidate is a proactive, self-directed project manager who can take work from scoping to delivery on their own while keeping visibility across the full portfolio. You will build strong relationships across the organization to make sure initiatives are resourced, measured against outcomes, and protected from risk.

Key Responsibilities:

• Partner with executive leadership to define, prioritize, and communicate key initiatives for the office
• Build and maintain a live dashboard that tracks initiatives, open issues, and action items
• Independently own a portfolio of projects, keeping each aligned with goals, timelines, and budgets
• Spot dependencies, risks, and opportunities early across the portfolio
• Track special projects that fall outside core strategy but support the organization's mission
• Coordinate cross-functional teams and outside partners to carry out special initiatives
• Manage budget planning, tracking, and reconciliation for the office, and report on spending against allocations
• Create and maintain project plans, status reports, dashboards, and post-project reviews
• Develop and improve project tools, templates, and processes that strengthen office operations

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of progressive experience in project and program management, strategy, operations, or process improvement, ideally supporting an executive office, C-suite, or Chief of Staff
• Proven success managing several projects at once, from scoping through delivery, while holding to timelines and budgets
• Strong ability to coordinate schedules and keep senior leaders, internal teams, and outside partners aligned
• Advanced skills in Excel, PowerPoint, and Word
• Experience with project management tools such as Microsoft Project, Asana, Monday.com, or Smartsheet
• Comfortable with SharePoint and Teams
• Power BI or Tableau experience preferred
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with executive presence and strong discretion
• Sound judgment on when and how to escalate issues
• Bachelor's degree required; Master's preferred (Organizational Development, Business, Technology, or related)
• PM certification is a plus

Perks:

• Meaningful, mission-driven work supporting access to education
• Direct exposure to executive leadership

Addison Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Addison Group provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. Addison Group complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. Reasonable accommodation is available for qualified individuals with disabilities, upon request.