The Role
We are looking for a technical project manager who can manage delivery across client engagements and internal product development. The word “technical” is not decorative here. You will manage projects that involve API integrations, database migrations, AI agent deployments, and multi-platform product releases. If you cannot read a pull request, understand why a migration is risky, or have a productive conversation with a developer about architectural trade-offs, this role will not work for you.
This is not a traditional PM role where you maintain a Gantt chart and relay messages between a client and a development team. At our size, the project manager is in the room when technical decisions are made, understands the implications of those decisions for timeline and budget, and communicates directly with clients about both the business logic and the technical reality of their project. You are the person who spots that a requirement is more complex than it appears before it becomes a problem, who knows when to push back on scope and when to accommodate it, and who keeps the development team focused on the work that matters most.
The role covers both client projects and internal product work. On the client side, you manage engagements from discovery through delivery and into ongoing support — scoping requirements, managing timelines, coordinating development work, and maintaining the client relationship throughout. On the product side, you help coordinate releases across the Beacon product suite, where a backend change in the Dashboard might require corresponding updates in the mobile app, the browser extension, and the desktop application.
What the Day-to-Day Looks Like
A typical week might include running a discovery session with a new client to scope a client portal build, reviewing the current sprint progress on two active client projects, coordinating a Beacon product release that involves API changes across multiple client applications, drafting a project proposal for a legacy modernisation engagement, and having a difficult conversation with a client about why a feature request will take longer than they expected and what the alternatives are.
You will spend time in code reviews — not to approve code, but to understand what is being built and whether it aligns with what was scoped. You will use project management tooling to track progress, but the real management happens in conversations: with developers about technical approach, with clients about priorities and trade-offs, and with the business about resource allocation and capacity.
The hardest part of this role is the honest conversations. Telling a client that their timeline is unrealistic, telling a developer that a technically elegant solution is not worth the complexity for this particular project, or telling the business that we need to say no to a new engagement because the team is at capacity. If you are uncomfortable with direct, honest communication, this is not the right fit.
What We Are Looking For
Required:
- Genuine technical literacy — you do not need to write production code, but you must understand software architecture, API design, database concepts, and deployment processes well enough to have substantive conversations with developers and make informed decisions about technical trade-offs
- Experience managing software development projects end to end, including scoping, estimation, delivery, and handover
- Strong client communication skills — the ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, manage expectations honestly, and maintain relationships through difficult conversations
- Track record of managing multiple concurrent projects without dropping quality or communication standards
- Understanding of how to balance scope, timeline, and budget — and the discipline to push back when all three are being squeezed simultaneously
Valuable but not required:
- Development background (even if you no longer write code daily)
- Experience with Laravel, React, or similar web application stacks
- Familiarity with agile methodologies applied practically, not dogmatically
- Experience managing product development alongside client work
- Understanding of AI implementation projects, including the specific estimation and scoping challenges they present
- Experience in a small company where the PM role extends into business development, estimation, and proposal writing
What We Offer
- Real authority — you make decisions about project direction, not just relay decisions made by someone else. When you say a timeline needs to change, it changes
- Technical environment — you are surrounded by engineers building interesting systems, not managing a team of junior developers on repetitive projects
- Client variety — projects across healthcare, legal, recruitment, finance, and professional services, each with different domain challenges
- Product involvement — contribute to the Beacon product roadmap alongside client work, with influence over what gets built and when
- Remote flexibility — UK-based, remote-first, with flexibility around core hours
- Small team impact — your management directly shapes project outcomes. There is no bureaucracy between your decisions and their execution
How to Apply
Send an email to careers@digitalroyalty.co.uk with your CV and a note on why this role interests you. If you can share examples of projects you have managed — how they were scoped, what challenges arose, and how you handled them — that is more useful than a list of methodologies you have been trained in. We do not use recruitment agencies.
The process: an initial conversation about your experience and approach, a scenario-based discussion where we walk through a realistic project situation together, and a final conversation about the role specifics. No abstract management theory tests — we want to see how you think through real problems.