{"id":3275064,"url":"https://alion.io/job/stable-kernel-contract-principal-project-manager","title":"Contract Principal Project Manager","company":{"id":6911,"name":"Stable Kernel","domain":"stablekernel.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/stable-kernel","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":null},"role":"Management","role_family":"Management","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"contractor","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Houston, United States","Atlanta, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":135000,"max":null,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":135000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":8,"visa_sponsorship":true,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Claude","optional":false},{"name":"GitHub","optional":false},{"name":"Kanban","optional":false},{"name":"Miro","optional":false},{"name":"Notion","optional":false},{"name":"Scrum","optional":false},{"name":"Slack","optional":false},{"name":"Waterfall","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-26T13:45:09Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-26","last_verified_at":"2026-10-27T09:06:30Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":0,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":0},"description":"About the Company:\nStable Kernel is a technology services firm and custom software developer building scalable software solutions for cutting-edge, innovative enterprises to move their business forward. We are headquartered in Atlanta, GA. \nWe’re a privately held, Great Place to Work Certified Company™ with a multi-award-winning culture and impressive 10+ year trajectory of sustainable growth. At Stable Kernel, we support our employees in ways that help them do some of the best work of their lives.\nAbout the Role:\nAs a Stable Kernel Contract Principal Project Manager, you play an essential role in setting our portfolio of world-class clients up for success through the on-time and on-budget development and delivery of their most innovative, transformational initiatives. You are equal parts delivery expert and trusted advisor to internal and external project stakeholders. Your positivity, candor, and effectiveness make you the Project Manager that clients request to have assigned to their projects time and again.\nYou are a true partner to our sales, strategy, technical, and client services professionals and collaborate with them throughout the client life cycle to ensure outstanding work, documentation, and customer experiences.\nPrincipal Project Managers report directly to our Director of Project Management. You may be classified as individual contributors or as people managers with individual contributor responsibilities.\nCore Responsibilities Include:\nTechnical Impact: \nEstablishes scalable delivery solutions and defines the approach, phasing, and sequencing across complex, multi-project programs, making strategic trade-offs that account for cross-functional dependencies and evolving client needs.\nEstablishes scope governance and change control discipline across the program, coaching project managers on managing scope creep and change requests.\nSets standards for engagement health and quality benchmarks across multiple project teams; mentors project managers on interpreting delivery health indicators.\nEvaluates tool effectiveness at program scale, identifying gaps and making recommendations for procurement, integration, or retirement.\nDesigns AI-enabled delivery workflows and leads responsible AI adoption across program teams.\nServes as the bridge between technical, design, product, and business teams across enterprise-level programs, establishing cross-departmental coordination norms.\n Business Alignment: Identifies and pursues opportunities to expand service offerings within existing programs.\n\nClarifies strategic outcomes and defines integrated roadmaps across multiple projects; translates high-level client goals into actionable program-level objectives and anticipates shifts in client priorities.\nEstablishes project planning standards across the program, coaching project managers on plan development, baselining, and tracking discipline.\nSupports statement of work (SOW) development and RFP and paid discovery engagements.\nHelps lead estimation and financial calibration across the program; oversees burn tracking and forecasting and works with finance and account leadership to translate estimates into business forecasts.\nInteracting with Others: Mentors junior project managers on handling difficult stakeholder situations and advancing their delivery practice.\n\nLeads coordination across the full program, orchestrating collaboration between multiple project teams, account leadership, technical leads, and senior business stakeholders.\nLeads program-level status reporting with governance cadences tailored to different stakeholder audiences.\nInfluences the program and broader organization to drive adoption of new methodologies, tools, or practices across multiple teams through demonstration and consensus-building.\nAdvises teams across the company, including executive leadership, on complex program challenges and strategic decisions.\nLeads communication during critical situations, including escalations, major milestones, and strategic decisions.\nConsulting: Coaches project managers on stakeholder mapping, dependency management, and navigating political complexity.\n\nPartners with leadership to shape delivery approaches; coaches project managers on large-scale initiatives and complex stakeholder dynamics.\nLeads stakeholder navigation across the full program, managing relationships with senior client stakeholders, cross-functional partners, and delivery teams across multiple interconnected projects.\nOperates comfortably in ambiguous, high-stakes environments, helping program teams establish clarity when strategic direction is still evolving.\nCoaches project managers on developing an advisory mindset, moving from reactive execution to proactive strategic partnership with clients.\nPoses probing questions and challenges proposed solutions to drive teams toward the best possible outcome.\nProblem-Solving: Coaches project managers to think critically and analytically when problem-solving.\nHelps clients and colleagues understand and respond to risk.\n\nLeads program-level problem solving and serves as the escalation point for assigned project managers, applying structured methodologies to diagnose root causes.\nEstablishes risk management and escalation frameworks across multiple project teams and coaches project managers on early warning signals.\nEscalates business-impactful issues with context, impact assessment, and recommended solutions while solving in parallel; establishes escalation pathways across the program.\nAnalyzes patterns across multiple projects to identify systemic issues; establishes metrics and measurement frameworks for tracking program health.\n Leadership: Exhibits strong capabilities in stakeholder management, negotiating, and problem-solving in complex situations.\nIdentifies and nurtures potential in others, providing strategic guidance and supporting career path development for team members.\n\nSets the strategic direction for how projects are managed within the program; leads multiple project teams or large programs.\nProposes and leads process improvements across key program areas, such as team throughput, delivery quality, and engagement management, establishing standards that serve as models for broader adoption.\nAdvocates for the iteration of practices and delivery philosophy across the program and organization; evaluates industry standards for applicability to program contexts.\nHelps lead resource management across the program, maintaining staffing plans, forecasting resourcing needs, and partnering with account and delivery leadership.\nExhibits exceptional mentoring abilities, developing other leaders within the program team.\nTakes initiative in leading department-level activities, including facilitating team meetings, driving internal PMO initiatives, and contributing to hiring, onboarding, and team culture.\nIntimate, Working Familiarity With:\nJIRA, Notion, Slack Claude, Github, Miro, and any budget tracking tools.\nFluent in Scrum, Kanban, Waterfall and other project management methodologies, but willing to adapt as the SDLC evolves.\nGeneral Requirements:\n8-10 years of experience in project management for consulting, professional services, or similar services-based organizations.\nHas PMP, CSM (Certified Scrum Master), CSPO (Certified Scrum Product Owner), or similar Project Management certifications.\nProven track record of successful delivery of projects of all sizes and complexities.\nExceptional communication skills, including client and stakeholder management.\nExperience crafting deliverable components of SOWs and writing business requirements documents.\nA Bit More Info:\nBase Compensation Range: $135,000\nThis is a 4-6 month contract position.\nStable Kernel operates a People Before Place Hybrid model, allowing most employees to choose where they can do their best work most days.\nMinimal travel is associated with this role.\n*Note - We are not sponsoring employment visas at this time. If you are currently in possession of an employment visa, it will need to be effective for at least 3 years from the date of your application for your candidacy for employment to be considered.\nStable Kernel’s culture is inclusive and expansive. We celebrate diversity in its many glorious forms and do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender role orientation, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.\nHowever, we will discriminate against those unwilling to comply with the practice of our company values:\nwe work with integrity always\nwe respect our work and each other\nwe are dedicated to life-long learning and sharing\nwe stay hungry for new challenges\nIf you are like-minded in this regard, we hope you will apply. We look forward to meeting you.","description_format":"text","description_chars":8767,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":8,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Mobile App Development Services","Custom Software Development"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-26T14:01:39Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":26,"reasons":["conf:1","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-27T05:46:45Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":135000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/stable-kernel-contract-principal-project-manager","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/stable-kernel-contract-principal-project-manager.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-27T09:27:35Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":10622,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-28T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":6911},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=6911"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fstable-kernel-contract-principal-project-manager"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fstable-kernel-contract-principal-project-manager"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fstable-kernel-contract-principal-project-manager"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/stable-kernel-contract-principal-project-manager\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fstable-kernel-contract-principal-project-manager"}]}