Technical Project Manager: Software & Data Platform

About the Role
ANDECO is building a data platform for a federal customer. A subcontractor will do most of the engineering. ANDECO owns the program, accepts the deliverables, and maintains the platform after delivery. The Technical Project Manager makes sure the right work gets done on schedule. You will sit between ANDECO leadership and the subcontractor's engineers, track execution against milestones, test reported progress against working software, and keep leadership informed.

The initial requirements and milestones are already defined, so your early focus is execution: keeping the subcontractor on plan and catching problems early. As the platform matures, you will take a larger role in its design, writing user stories and building requirements for later phases. This is a technical role. You need enough depth to question engineering decisions, and the judgment to turn that detail into short assessments that nontechnical leaders can act on.

Manage delivery against the plan

• Track subcontractor work against the approved project plan, milestones, deliverables, and demonstration schedule, and hold the subcontractor to them.
• Maintain the schedule, risk register, and decision log. Catch schedule and cost slips early and bring leadership options before a problem becomes a surprise.
• Run change control so that changes to requirements, architecture, schedule, cost, or deliverables are surfaced, priced, and approved before work proceeds.
• Own the acceptance test plan. Define the tests and demonstrations each milestone must pass, run or witness them, and recommend acceptance or rejection to ANDECO leadership.
• Confirm that source code, build instructions, infrastructure code, and documentation are deposited with ANDECO at each milestone, and that they are complete enough for another team to build and run the platform.
• Keep a productive working relationship with the subcontractor while holding it to ANDECO's requirements.
• Make sure ANDECO receives the documentation, tests, and handoff materials it needs to maintain the platform after delivery.

Evaluate technical work

• Take part in architecture discussions, design reviews, demonstrations, and sprint reviews.
• Test reported progress against working software, test results, and documentation, and challenge estimates and technical approaches the evidence does not support.
• Judge whether the implementation meets approved requirements and security constraints, and flag integration problems and deployment blockers.
• Make sure changes to the data model and ontology are reviewed and approved by ANDECO before the subcontractor builds on them.
• Make sure testing, documentation, and security get attention alongside feature completion.

Shape requirements as the platform evolves

• Write user stories and acceptance criteria, and keep requirements traceable to deliverables, testing, and acceptance.
• Prioritize the backlog with ANDECO leadership and engineers.
• Contribute to design decisions and later phase requirements as the project moves beyond its initial plan.

Brief Leadership

• Give senior executives short assessments of progress, risk, cost, schedule, and subcontractor performance, along with the decisions coming due.
• Translate technical issues into business and program consequences for nontechnical decision makers.
• Create the dashboards and slide decks that executives rely on to make decisions.
• Distinguish completed, tested work from work still in progress.

Coordinate across teams

• Serve as the coordination point among ANDECO leadership, engineers, analysts, government sponsors, and the subcontractor.
• Set the meeting and reporting rhythm for technical reviews and risk management, and keep the paperwork light for engineers.
• Follow ANDECO processes and recommend improvements where they would help.
• Use ANDECO provided AI tools in your daily work and help the team put them to use.

Required Qualifications

• At least 6 years of experience, including managing software or data development projects from requirements through delivery.
• Experience overseeing subcontractors, vendors, or other external engineering teams.
• Experience accepting deliveries from an external engineering team, including checking that the delivered code can be built and deployed by someone else.
• Technical depth in software and data architecture, APIs, and cloud infrastructure, enough to evaluate engineering work and question its assumptions. Project management experience alone is not sufficient for this role.
• Experience writing user stories, requirements, milestones, and acceptance criteria, and managing scope, schedule, and risk.
• Experience judging progress from demonstrations, technical artifacts, and test results, and willingness to push back on reported status the evidence does not support.
• Ability to explain complex technical issues to senior leaders and nontechnical stakeholders, in writing and in person.
• Experience using AI tools in professional work, and willingness to adopt ANDECO provided AI tools.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, or Business Administration.
• U.S. citizenship and the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance.
• Employment is contingent on a successful preemployment background check.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or Systems Engineering, or an MBA.
• Active security clearance.
• Experience on software or data platform projects for the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, Special Operations, or other U.S. Government missions.
• Experience on subcontracted development where the prime organization keeps technical and program accountability.
• Experience with Agile, Scrum, Kanban, or similar iterative methods, including backlog management.

Benefits
ANDECO offers paid time off, medical, dental, and vision coverage, voluntary life insurance, and a 403(b) retirement plan

Pay: $138,000.00 - $180,000.00 per year

Work Location: Hybrid remote in McLean, VA 22102