Technical Relationship Manager

Company Description

A best-in-class city that attracts best-in-class talent, Philadelphia is an incredible place to build a career. From our thriving arts scene and rich history to our culture of passion and grit, there are countless reasons to love living and working here. With a workforce of over 30,000 people, and more than 1,000 different job categories, the City of Philadelphia offers boundless opportunities to make an impact. 
As an employer, the City of Philadelphia values inclusion, integrity, innovation, empowerment, and hard work above all else. We offer a vibrant work environment, comprehensive health care and benefits, and the experience you need to grow and excel. If you’re interested in working with a passionate team of people who care about the future of Philadelphia, start here.

What We Offer:
Impact - The work you do here matters to millions. 
Growth - Philadelphia is growing, why not grow with it? 
Diversity & Inclusion - Find a career in a place where everyone belongs.
Benefits - We care about your well being.

The Office of Innovation & Technology (OIT) is the central IT agency for the City of Philadelphia headed by the Chief Information Officer (CIO). OIT oversees all major information and communications technology initiatives for the City of Philadelphia - increasing the effectiveness of the information technology infrastructure, where the services provided are advanced, optimized, and responsive to the needs of the City of Philadelphia’s businesses, residents, and visitors. OIT responsibilities include: identifying the most effective approach for implementing new information technology directions throughout city government; improving the value of the city’s technology assets and the return on the city’s technology investments; ensuring data security continuity; planning for continuing operations in the event of disruption of information technology or communications services; and supporting accountable, efficient and effective government across every city department, board, commission and agency.

This role ensures that department needs are evaluated against existing OIT services, approved platforms, available tools, and internal capabilities before new technology purchases or custom development efforts are considered. The position helps departments identify practical technology options that improve operations, reduce manual processes, limit duplication, and strengthen service delivery to residents.

The  Technical Relationship Project Manager serves as a trusted advisor to departments and a strategic liaison between department leadership and OIT. The position is responsible for ensuring that technology recommendations are aligned with business needs, OIT standards, cybersecurity requirements, data governance expectations, service catalog offerings, and long-term supportability.

This position will lead the initial 9-department service model, manage team priorities, provide guidance to department-facing staff, coordinate with technical teams, and report outcomes to OIT leadership.

Job Description

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Team Leadership and Program Oversight

• Lead the Technical Business Relationship Management and Department Solutions Team.
• Establish team priorities, service standards, intake procedures, documentation expectations, and reporting cadence.
• Manage the initial service model for up to 9 departments.
• Assign department portfolios and monitor workload across the team.
• Provide guidance and coaching to Technical Relationship Managers and Technical Specialists.
• Ensure the team provides responsive, professional, and solution-oriented service to departments.
• Coordinate with OIT leadership to align department requests with organizational priorities.
• Develop procedures for request review, solution recommendation, escalation, and post-implementation assessment.
• Support consistent service delivery across assigned departments.

Department Relationship Management

• Serve as the senior relationship lead for assigned departments.
• Build and maintain trusted relationships with department executives, operational leaders, program managers, and administrative staff.
• Conduct recurring meetings with department leadership to understand operational needs, technology concerns, service gaps, and upcoming priorities.
• Serve as a strategic interface between departments and OIT service teams.
• Help departments understand available OIT services, technology options, intake pathways, and implementation requirements.
• Ensure department requests receive clear follow-up, documented recommendations, and appropriate next steps.
• Identify common needs across departments that may require shared services, enterprise solutions, or service catalog updates.
• Promote a customer-centered approach that helps departments move from issue identification to responsible solution delivery.

Service Catalog Ownership and Advisory

• Serve as the team owner for OIT service catalog and service directory advisory.
• Maintain a strong understanding of OIT-approved services, platforms, tools, service owners, licensing requirements, support models, intake processes, technical limitations, and escalation paths.
• Ensure all department requests are reviewed against existing services and approved tools before new development or new purchases are recommended.
• Identify opportunities to reduce duplicate tools, redundant systems, fragmented processes, and unsupported technology investments.
• Work with service owners to confirm service availability, eligibility, timelines, costs, and implementation requirements.
• Recommend improvements to the service catalog based on department feedback and recurring needs.
• Ensure the service catalog is positioned as a business enablement tool, not only an internal IT reference.
• Help departments understand which services are available immediately, which require configuration, and which require formal project or procurement review.

Technology Platform Advisory

• Ensure department requests are evaluated against approved low-code, no-code, CRM, workflow automation, reporting, dashboard, and AI-assisted application platforms.
• Maintain functional awareness of platforms such as Quickbase, Microsoft Power Platform, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Power Pages, Copilot Studio, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Creatio, Airtable Enterprise, SmartSuite, Retool, Appian, Mendix, OutSystems, ServiceNow where appropriate, AI-assisted application builders, and AI-assisted CRM tools.
• Coordinate with platform owners and technical experts to validate solution feasibility.
• Help determine whether a department request is best suited for an existing service, low-code configuration, CRM-style solution, dashboard, workflow automation, formal project intake, procurement, enterprise architecture review, cybersecurity review, or another governance process.
• Support a platform-neutral recommendation process that prioritizes business need, security, licensing, supportability, data sensitivity, user experience, integration requirements, and long-term maintainability.

Business Needs Discovery and Solution Strategy

• Lead complex discovery sessions with departments.
• Help departments define business problems, current-state processes, desired outcomes, user groups, resident impact, reporting needs, data requirements, and operational constraints.
• Evaluate whether department needs can be addressed through an existing service, approved platform, low-code solution, CRM-style tool, reporting solution, dashboard, workflow automation, or formal project intake.
• Develop practical solution options that distinguish between immediate service enablement, configurable platform solutions, and longer-term enterprise needs.
• Ensure recommendations are feasible, secure, supportable, cost-conscious, and aligned with OIT standards.
• Support departments in understanding tradeoffs, dependencies, timelines, and roles required for implementation.

Technology Governance and Escalation

• Establish criteria for determining whether a request should proceed through service catalog fulfillment, low-code delivery, project intake, procurement, cybersecurity review, enterprise architecture review, or another governance process.
• Identify requests that may involve sensitive data, integrations, resident-facing systems, payment processing, regulatory requirements, records retention, or significant operational risk.
• Coordinate with cybersecurity, data governance, infrastructure, applications, GIS, PMO, procurement, legal, and enterprise architecture teams when additional review is required.
• Ensure solutions do not create unnecessary technical debt or unsupported applications.
• Confirm that each implemented solution has a business owner, support model, documentation, user access approach, and maintenance plan.

Reporting and Continuous Improvement

• Track department engagement, requests received, solutions recommended, services used, implementations completed, duplicate purchases avoided, and service catalog gaps.
• Develop monthly or quarterly reports for OIT leadership.
• Identify trends across departments and recommend opportunities for shared services or broader enterprise improvements.
• Measure department satisfaction and service effectiveness.
• Use performance data and department feedback to improve the team’s operating model.
• Prepare executive summaries, briefing materials, and decision documents as needed.

Qualifications

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong knowledge of IT service delivery, business relationship management, service catalogs, and enterprise technology support.
• Ability to serve as a trusted advisor to department leaders.
• Ability to understand business operations and translate department needs into actionable technology recommendations.
• Working knowledge of low-code, no-code, CRM, workflow automation, reporting, dashboarding, and AI-assisted application platforms.
• Ability to compare available technology options and recommend the most appropriate service path based on business need, risk, cost, supportability, and governance requirements.
• Strong knowledge of service management practices, request intake, solution evaluation, and technology governance.
• Ability to identify duplicative tools, service gaps, technical debt, and opportunities for shared solutions.
• Understanding of platform governance, service ownership, data sensitivity, user access, and long-term support models.
• Ability to coordinate across technical and non-technical teams.
• Strong facilitation, presentation, documentation, and executive communication skills.
• Ability to manage multiple department relationships and competing priorities.
• Strong judgment in determining when requests require escalation to formal project, procurement, security, data, or architecture review.
• Commitment to high-quality customer service and accountable follow-through.

Preferred Experience

• Experience in IT business relationship management, technology consulting, public-sector technology, service delivery, business analysis, or portfolio coordination.
• Experience working with or advising on platforms such as Quickbase, Microsoft Power Platform, Salesforce, Dynamics 365, Creatio, Airtable Enterprise, SmartSuite, Appian, Mendix, OutSystems, Retool, ServiceNow, AI-assisted application builders, AI-assisted CRM tools, or comparable business application platforms.
• Experience supporting multiple business units or departments.
• Experience evaluating technology requests and determining whether needs can be met through existing services, configurable platforms, workflow automation, dashboards, CRM tools, or formal project intake.
• Experience supporting technology governance, service catalog management, business process improvement, or department-facing technology advisory services.
• Experience working with government agencies, public-sector services, or large enterprise environments.
• Experience preparing executive reports, business cases, solution recommendations, or technology roadmaps.

Additional Information

Salary Range: $90,000 - $100,000

Salary cannot exceed $100,000

Starting salary to be determined based on experience and qualifications. 

All applications should include the following: 
•    Cover Letter clarifying your interest and qualifications for the role.
•    Resume
We won’t accept or review incomplete applications.

Work Setting: in-person (onsite)

Discover the Perks of Being a City of Philadelphia Employee:
•    We offer Comprehensive health coverage for employees and their eligible dependents
•    Our wellness program offers eligibility into the discounted medical plan
•    Employees receive paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays
•    Generous retirement savings options are available
•    Pay off your student loans faster - As a qualifying employer, City of Philadelphia employees are eligible to participate in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Join the ranks of hundreds of employees who have already benefited from this program and achieved student loan forgiveness.
•    Enjoy a Free Commute on SEPTA - Starting September 1, 2023, eligible City employees will no longer have to worry about paying for SEPTA public transportation. Whether you're a full-time, part-time, or provisional employee, you can seize the opportunity to sign up for the SEPTA Key Advantage Program and receive free Key cards for free rides on SEPTA buses, trains, trolleys, and regional rails.
•    Unlock Tuition Discounts and Scholarships - The City of Philadelphia has forged partnerships with over a dozen esteemed colleges and universities in the area, ensuring that our employees have access to a wide range of tuition discounts and scholarships. Experience savings of 10% to 40% on your educational expenses, extending not only to City employees but in some cases, spouse and dependents too!
Join the City of Philadelphia team today and seize these incredible benefits designed to enhance your financial well-being and personal growth!

*The successful candidate must be a city of Philadelphia resident within six months of hire

Effective May 22, 2023, vaccinations are no longer required for new employees that work in non-medical, non-emergency or patient facing positions with the City of Philadelphia. As a result, only employees in positions providing services that are patient-facing medical care (ex: Nurses, doctors, emergency medical personnel), must be fully vaccinated.

The City of Philadelphia is an Equal Opportunity employer and does not permit discrimination based on race, ethnicity, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, marital status, source of income, familial status, genetic information or domestic or sexual violence victim status. If you believe you were discriminated against, call the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations at 215-686-4670 or send an email to faqpchr@phila.gov.