CDTO Project Manager

Overview

Tergar International is a global nonprofit bringing the benefits of meditation to people in more than 100 countries. As we scale toward our North Star of supporting 100,000 practitioners, our technology, data and AI capabilities have become central to how we reach and serve them — and that work now needs dedicated project management.

We are looking for a Project Manager to own a connected portfolio of four interconnected areas: our data program, our stage 1 instrumentation, our AI implementation roadmap and the cross-functional interface with the rest of the organisation. No one of these is the main focus — they draw on the same engineers, analysts and designers and share the same stakeholders, so they are planned and run as a single portfolio rather than as separate projects.

This is a building role. You will establish the planning function that sits in front of our technology teams: a single intake path for incoming work, scoping and prioritisation before delivery begins, capacity planned by decision rather than by whoever asks loudest, and reporting reliable enough to take straight to our leadership team. If you like creating order where there is currently goodwill and no structure, this is that role.

It is not a reporting or administrative role. Dashboards and status updates are the smallest part of it. The substance is relational and structural — understanding what is blocking each team, negotiating capacity between competing priorities, and holding the discipline that lets ambitious cross-functional work actually land.

The portfolio

What it involves

Data Program

The full project management cycle across our data and analytics work: partnering with each team, understanding blockers and needs, scoping and prioritising incoming requests, planning against real capacity, and holding a standing cadence of visible boards and written status. Includes coordinating measurement and funnel work with our product and marketing teams against one agreed source of truth.

Stage 1 Instrumentation

Next year's largest cross-functional body of work: data and marketing planned as one against the campaign calendar rather than arriving as emergencies. It carries our north-star conversion experiment programme — A/B tests on free-event and product transitions in three-month cycles, measured on leakage and next-product KPIs — coordinated across engineering, data, marketing and product.

AI Implementation Roadmap

A multi-year roadmap of workflow automations across our functional areas, each delivered for a named internal client. Live work is already underway, scaling through 2027. The discipline is what makes it fast: scoped workflows with a real client, delivering visible value area by area rather than adopting tools that later have to be unwound.

Cross-functional Interface

When initiatives elsewhere in the organisation need capacity from our technology teams, you negotiate it manager-to-manager against a published priority list, with any displaced work recorded. Nothing starts without scope, dates, and a sponsor.

Key Responsibilities

• Run a single intake path. Requests for your teams arrive through one route, are classified within an agreed window, and land on a published priority list.
• Ensure nothing starts without a plan. Every accepted project carries scope, milestones, dependencies, and dates before work begins.
• Hold the priority order. Maintain a published order across the portfolio, with changes going through an agreed process rather than around it.
• Plan capacity as a decision. Cross-functional work draws on a defined, published share of each team's time. When demand exceeds it, the tradeoff is negotiated in writing and recorded.
• Own your stakeholders. Be the person requesters come to for expectations, status, tradeoffs, and dates — and give them answers they can plan against.
• Maintain a standing reporting cadence. An always-current board and written monthly status on every body of work, reliable enough to go straight to leadership without chasing.
• Manage change deliberately. Scope growth and mid-flight additions are impact-assessed, decided visibly, and recorded.
• Build a demand forecast. Gather quarterly demand plans from requesting teams so annual capacity and budget are sized against stated demand.
• Work inside an AI-supported system. Our project management backend carries documentation, boards, transcripts, and reporting, so your time goes to judgment, relationships, and delivery. You will help shape that system as one of the first automations on the roadmap you manage.

Scope boundary: capacity allocation, technical priorities, and assignments within the technology teams sit with those teams and their managers. You coordinate, plan, negotiate, and report.

Profile & Requirements

• Experience: 5+ years in project management, including real experience holding a portfolio of concurrent projects in a technical environment — data, engineering, platform or digital product work.
• Credentials:
  Formal project management training from PMI is desired — PMP, CAPM or equivalent PMI coursework. Comparable formal training from another recognised body will also be considered.
• Technical fluency: Comfortable working closely with engineers, analysts and designers. You do not need to build, but you need to understand the work well enough to scope it, sequence it and question an estimate.
• Structure in ambiguity: A proven track record of standing up intake, prioritisation and reporting where none existed — and making it stick past the first month.
• Negotiation and judgment: Able to hold a priority list under pressure, and to say no with a reason to peers and senior stakeholders alike.
• Communication: Clear, direct, low-noise written communication. Written status is a core deliverable of this role, not an afterthought.
• Technical proficiency: Advanced experience with Asana and Jira — this role bridges the engineering team and the rest of the organisation, so you need to be fluent in both worlds. Working knowledge of Notion and a strong interest in using AI tools to automate routine coordination and documentation.
• Mission alignment: A commitment to the values of awareness, compassion and wisdom in how we work together.

What Success Looks Like

Success criteria are agreed in writing at the start of the role, with a baseline set in month one and a review at ninety days.

• One intake path. Requests to the technology teams arrive through a single route, scoped and prioritised before work begins.
• Less unplanned work. The share of team capacity consumed by unscoped urgent requests is measured in month one and reduced by month three.
• The priority order holds. A published order across the portfolio that survives contact with the quarter, with changes made visibly rather than informally.
• Reporting lands on time. Fixed-cadence written status across the portfolio, dependable enough to take straight to the leadership team.
• Requesters get real answers. Teams asking for technology capacity know where their request stands and what it is competing with.

Standard practice expected from month one: intake and charter before work starts, a scope and dependency map, a RAID log kept current, documented change control, a decision log so choices made in one function are visible to others, fixed-cadence status reporting, and a close-out review on completion.

Structure

• Reports to: Project Management Lead / PMO.
• Internal client: The office of the Chief Digital & Technology Officer.
• Collaboration: Data, engineering, design and support teams; project managers across marketing, community and product; functional leads requesting technology capacity.
• Initial scope: Full-time. The portfolio is sized as roughly one full-time load today and is expected to grow through 2027.
• Location: Remote, within a global nonprofit team. Substantial real-time collaboration with our technology and data teams is required.

Location & Schedule:

• Remote position: We are open to non-US-based candidates if they meet the criteria.  
• Work Hours: Standard work hours are M-F and are aligned with US Central/Eastern time zones. 
• Requirements: A reliable personal workspace and high-speed internet.

Compensation & Benefits:

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience
• Health insurance, Dental, Vision, Life insurance, STD/LTD, HSA (US-based employees)
• 200 hours of PTO annually
• 40 hours of Paid Retreat Time (PRT) annually
• Professional development opportunities
• Complimentary access to all Tergar meditation programs
• Reduced fees for retreats with Mingyur Rinpoche

Application Deadline: Oct 18th, 2026, or until a suitable candidate is selected. 

Compensation: $55,000- $65,000/year BOE