Technical Project Manager

Technical Project Manager - Data, Cloud & AI

Engagements

Location: Chennai, India (Hybrid) Experience: 8+ years Reports to: Director of Engineering

Team: Delivery / Engineering

About SquareShift

SquareShift is a boutique consulting firm specializing in cloud modernization, data engineering,

AI/ML, and observability. We are a Google Cloud Premier Partner, Looker Delivery-Verified

Partner, and Elastic SI/Reseller Partner, with deep expertise in BigQuery, Vertex AI, Looker, and

Elasticsearch. We deliver enterprise-grade work without the enterprise overhead - selective,

expert-led, and senior-staffed end to end.

We work with ISVs, SaaS companies, and enterprises across financial services, retail,

insurance, and e-commerce. Our engagements span Snowflake-to-BigQuery migrations,

Tableau-to-Looker modernizations, agentic AI products, and large-scale observability rollouts.

The Role

We are looking for a Technical Project Manager who started their career in technology -

engineering, QA, technical support, BA, or similar - and pivoted into project management. You

are technically literate. You can sit through an architecture review and follow the conversation.

But your strength is delivery, not code, and you have built your career on running teams and

shipping outcomes.

This is a deeply client-facing role. You will be the face of SquareShift to multiple clients at

once - running steering committees, leading status calls, walking senior client stakeholders

through progress and decisions, and handling escalations directly. Strong written and spoken

communication, executive presence, and the ability to build trust quickly with senior client

stakeholders are non-negotiable.

You will run 4-6 concurrent engagements at different phases - one in discovery, two

mid-build, one ramping down - and you need to context-switch cleanly between them. Each

client will feel like you are giving them your full attention. Juggling parallel engagements without

dropping balls is the core operational skill of this role.

Our engagements are technical - data pipelines, cloud architectures, AI/ML systems,

observability platforms. You do not need to design or build these. You need to understand the

broad shape of what is being built, ask sensible questions, translate between engineering and

the client, and partner closely with your tech leads who carry the technical depth.

We are a boutique. You will have ownership, autonomy, and impact from week one.

What You Will Do - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Own the client relationship across 4-6 concurrent engagements - you are the

primary point of contact, the escalation path, and the trusted advisor on the ground

Run client governance for each engagement - weekly status, monthly steering

committees, executive updates, escalations, and change requests - and keep all of

them on track simultaneously

Build executive presence with senior client stakeholders (Directors, VPs, CTOs) and

represent SquareShift in the room with credibility and clarity

Context-switch cleanly across multiple engagements at different phases -

discovery, build, stabilization, ramp-down - without losing thread on any of them

Run delivery governance across all your engagements - sprint planning, milestone

reviews, demos, retros - and ensure each team has the cadence it needs

Maintain a broad, high-level understanding of what each team is building, enough to

translate progress and risks to non-technical client stakeholders

Partner with tech leads on scoping and estimation - your job is to ask the right

questions, surface assumptions, and ensure delivery risks are visible; technical judgment

stays with the leads

Maintain a single, current view of all your projects - plans, RAID logs, resource

forecasts, financial health - so you can answer any leadership question on any

engagement at any time

Flag scope creep early and manage change orders cleanly with the client

Drive Agile and hybrid delivery models (Scrum, Kanban, milestone-based) - pick the

right tool for each engagement, not dogma

Track financial health across your portfolio - burn, margin, utilization - and partner

with leadership on commercial decisions

Lead pre-sales support on selected opportunities - discovery questionnaires, proposal

walk-throughs, SOW reviews (effort estimation done with tech leads)

Coach delivery leads on PM rigor; raise the bar on documentation, communication, and

predictability

Improve internal delivery playbooks and governance templates as the firm scales

What We Are Looking For

Must-have - - - - - - - - - -

8+ years total experience in IT/technology delivery, with an early-career foundation in

a technical role (engineering, QA, technical support, business analysis, or similar)

before transitioning into project management

3+ years in a directly client-facing PM, TPM, or delivery lead role at a consulting

firm, GSI, or product company with a services arm - you have personally owned senior

client relationships, not just supported them

Proven track record running multiple parallel engagements (3+ at a time) with

distinct clients, timelines, and tech stacks - and the operating habits to keep them all on

track

Strong executive presence and stakeholder management skills - comfortable

presenting to and pushing back on Directors, VPs, and CTOs on scope, timeline, and

commercial topics

Broad technical literacy - you can follow a high-level conversation about cloud, data,

or AI systems, ask sensible questions, and translate between engineering and business;

you do not need to be hands-on

Strong command of delivery methodologies - Agile/Scrum, Kanban, milestone/waterfall

- and the judgment to know when to use which

Excellent written and verbal communication in English - you can write a crisp status

update, run a steering committee, lead a difficult escalation call, and de-escalate a tense

client conversation

Process-driven mindset balanced with startup pragmatism - you build structure where it

is missing, but you do not let process become the work

Result-oriented - you measure success by what shipped and what the client got, not by

tickets closed

Comfort with project tooling (Jira, Confluence, Asana, Notion) and reporting tools

(Looker, Sheets, Excel)

Strongly preferred - - - - -

Exposure to GCP, BigQuery, Looker, Snowflake, Databricks, or Elasticsearch in past

delivery roles

Experience delivering data platform, BI migration, or AI/ML engagements

Experience managing fixed-price and T&M engagements, including commercial

governance and change orders

PMP, PRINCE2, CSM, or SAFe certification

Pre-sales / solution-shaping experience

Who You Are - - - - - - - - -

You started your career in technology and never lost your curiosity for it - but you found

your strength in running teams and delivering outcomes, not in writing code

You are at your best in front of clients. You build trust fast, communicate with clarity,

and stay composed when the conversation gets difficult

You can hold five engagements in your head at once without dropping context -

each client feels like they have your full attention

You partner closely with tech leads - you trust their technical judgment, you ask sharp

questions, and you make sure delivery risks get surfaced early

You bring calm to chaos; when a project is on fire, you are the person clients and

engineers both want in the room

You write well - your status updates are read because they are useful, not because

they are mandatory

You are direct: you raise risks early, push back on scope creep, and have hard

conversations with clients and engineers when needed, with respect

You take ownership - you do not wait for a process to exist before you solve a problem

You stay curious about the modern data, cloud, and AI landscape we operate in

Why SquareShift - - - - -

Senior-led firm - you will work with experts, not be the only adult in the room

Real ownership from week one - boutique scale, enterprise-grade work

Diverse portfolio - data engineering, AI products, cloud migrations, observability - you

will not get bored

Direct exposure to leadership and clients - your work is visible and impactful

Active investment in AI tooling and ways of working - we use Claude Code, Gemini,

and modern delivery tooling across the firm