Project Manager

At Exelab, we build custom, innovative solutions that directly target our clients' unique business objectives. Each client engagement is essentially treated as a mini product development cycle: we start from a specific business goal or problem and craft a tailor-made solution (which might involve software, AI models, systems integration, etc.) to deliver measurable business impact. The Project Manager is responsible for ensuring that each project is delivered on time, on budget, and with the client properly informed and aligned throughout the process. This is not a role where you manage one large program for months. At Exelab, the PM follows several projects simultaneously across different clients, industries, and complexity levels: from ambitious custom product builds to smaller support and assistance contracts. This variety demands strong organizational discipline, the ability to context-switch rapidly, and enough understanding of each project to govern it effectively without needing to be involved in every detail.

The Project Manager ensures the operational health of multiple client engagements simultaneously. Their core responsibilities include:

• Budget, Timeline & Resource Governance: Own the financial and operational dimension of each project. Plan and track budgets, define realistic timelines, and ensure the right resources are allocated on a weekly basis. When trade-offs arise between scope, time, and cost, the PM structures the options, communicates them clearly to the client, and ensures a decision is made without stalling the project.

• Client Communication & Expectation Setting: Serve as the primary day-to-day point of contact for clients: handling scheduling, responding to questions and escalations, planning activities, and keeping the client informed about progress. The PM sets expectations firmly and fairly, ensuring the client understands what will be delivered, when, and at what cost. When things don't go as planned, the PM communicates transparently and works toward a resolution rather than over-promising to keep the client happy.

• Delivery Monitoring & Project Control: Track the progress of each project across its phases, ensuring deliverables are completed within the agreed timeline and budget. The Value Builder owns the product and its outcomes, and keeps the PM aligned on progress. The PM's focus is operational governance. In smaller engagements without a Value Builder, the PM takes on a broader scope, including more direct involvement in planning and client-facing decisions.

• Multi-Project Organization: Maintain clarity and control across a portfolio of parallel projects at different stages and of varying sizes. This requires disciplined personal organization, effective use of project management tools, and the ability to switch context rapidly without losing track of anything. The PM proactively flags risks before they become problems and maintains a clear picture of each project's status at all times. AI tools are used directly in daily work to accelerate planning, documentation, and tracking.

In summary, the Project Manager at Exelab is the person who makes sure projects actually get delivered. They own the operational dimension (budget, timeline, resources, client communication) and ensure that the team's work translates into results the client can see. They treat each engagement as a delivery commitment with clear scope, timeline, and budget, adapting their level of involvement to the project's complexity but always maintaining visibility and control over what's happening and what comes next.

Our ideal candidate combines operational discipline with enough understanding of the solutions being delivered to govern projects credibly. This is not a role that requires doing the technical work, but it requires understanding it well enough to know when things are on track and when they're not.

• Multi-Project Management Experience: Solid track record of managing several projects simultaneously, with direct accountability for budgets, timelines, and deliverables. Experience in consulting, agencies, system integrators, or similar multi-client environments is particularly relevant. We want someone who has managed the full lifecycle of projects (from kick-off to go-live), including the phases where things don't go as planned and trade-offs need to be made quickly.

• Client-Facing Communication & Firmness: Excellent communication is essential, but we specifically need someone who can set expectations and hold the line when necessary. Not someone who accommodates every client request to keep them happy, but someone who builds trust through reliability, transparency, and the ability to say "no" (or "not now, and here's why") without damaging the relationship. Experience managing client relationships where you had to deliver difficult messages and maintain trust is directly relevant.

• Solution Understanding: The PM must understand the solutions well enough to govern projects credibly. Experience with CRM platforms, system integrations, or enterprise software helps, but we are not looking for a technical specialist. We need someone who can follow a technical discussion, understand what's being built, and recognize when something is off track. Prior hands-on experience with implementation projects is valued because it builds this intuition, but the PM role itself is about governance, not execution.

• Learning Agility & Domain Flexibility: Every project is a different client in a different industry. The PM must be able to rapidly understand new business contexts and adapt. Deep expertise in one domain matters less than the demonstrated ability to quickly become effective in unfamiliar territory. A candidate who has successfully managed projects across several different industries will stand out over someone with many years in a single vertical.

• Organizational Rigor & Autonomy: Managing multiple projects simultaneously requires disciplined self-organization and the ability to work autonomously. We need someone who prioritizes proactively, maintains clarity across parallel workstreams, and flags issues before they become emergencies. Practical, adaptive rigor matters more than rigid adherence to heavy methodologies. 

• Native Italian and at least B2-level English required.

In summary, an ideal candidate profile might read: "Experienced project manager with a track record of managing multiple client projects simultaneously; able to set expectations firmly while maintaining trust; understands technical solutions well enough to govern delivery without doing the work; adapts rapidly to new industries and client contexts; organized, autonomous, and focused on making sure things actually get done."