Project Manager

Australia’s Academic and Research Network (AARNet) was established in 1989 and is widely regarded as the founder of the Internet in Australia and renowned as the architect, builder and operator of world-class network infrastructure for research and education. 

As Australia’s National Research and Education Network (NREN). We connect over one million users — researchers, faculty, staff, students, hospitals, vocational training providers, schools and museums — across Australia.

We are an organisation of innovators, doers, and courageous thinkers. We don’t settle for the status quo; instead, we anticipate the future needs of our customers and build solutions today. If you share our imagination, foresight, and drive to shape the future, why not come and join us?

https://www.aarnet.edu.au/

The Role

The Project Manager is responsible for leading the delivery of complex projects across technology, corporate, and security initiatives within a telecommunications environment. The role provides end-to-end accountability for project planning, delivery oversight, governance, and execution, ensuring outcomes are achieved in line with agreed scope, timeframes, budgets, and strategic objectives.

Working across business and technical areas, the Project Manager applies strong judgement, delivery discipline, and a structured approach to projects that carry operational, commercial, and organisational impact. The role requires an experienced professional who can lead with confidence, manage competing priorities, navigate complexity, and maintain alignment across stakeholders while driving projects through to successful completion.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end delivery of complex projects from initiation through to closure
• Establish and maintain dedicated project plans, schedules, milestones, and resource requirements
• Manage scope, budget, timelines, dependencies, and deliverables to achieve successful outcomes
• Drive project activity across business and technical teams to maintain momentum and alignment
• Monitor delivery performance and take timely action to address delays, blockers, and competing priorities
• Oversee implementation, transition, and closure activities to support effective delivery outcomes
• Maintain high quality project documentation, records, and delivery artefacts
• Provide clear and accurate reporting on status, budget, risks, issues, dependencies, and delivery progress
• Proficient in using project management tools to build detailed work breakdown structures, assign tasks, and track dependencies
• Lead project governance activities, including forums, approvals, reporting, and delivery oversight
• Ensure projects are delivered in accordance with agreed frameworks, standards, and controls
• Build strong working relationships with sponsors, stakeholders, vendors, and delivery teams
• Communicate clearly on project progress, priorities, risks, decisions, and delivery impacts
• Lead cross functional teams to maintain alignment, accountability, and delivery focus
• Escalate issues, risks, and decisions in a timely, structured, and practical manner
• Identify, assess, and actively manage project risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies
• Maintain accurate registers and ensure actions are tracked through to resolution
• Raise concerns early and work with stakeholders to develop practical responses and solutions
• Support sound decision making by presenting issues, options, impacts, and recommendations clearly
• Monitor project risk and delivery health throughout the lifecycle and adjust actions as required

Expertise, Experience and Qualifications

• 5+ years of project management experience in complex business and technology settings
• Demonstrated experience delivering complex projects across technology, corporate, or security environments
• Experience working within an enterprise PMO environment, applying established governance, frameworks, and delivery controls
• Strong understanding of project planning, budgeting, scheduling, resourcing, and lifecycle management
• Experience applying a range of project delivery methodologies, including PRINCE2, Waterfall, Agile, and hybrid approaches
• Experience engaging with a broad range of stakeholders across business and technical teams
• Relevant project management qualifications or equivalent practical experience
• Exposure to telecommunications or other large scale enterprise environments would be advantageous

Important Skills

• Strong planning, coordination, and organisational skills
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to engage confidently across all levels of the organisation
• Strong stakeholder engagement and relationship management skills
• Ability to manage competing priorities and work in a structured manner
• Practical understanding of project delivery within a telecommunications environment
• Able to work flexibly by leveraging whiteboarding, workshops, and informal sessions to shape ideas early, then transpose them into structured work packages or artefacts
• Experience using project and collaboration tools such as Jira, Confluence, SharePoint, or similar systems to track work from initiation through to delivery