Freelance IT Project Manager (Cloud & Digital Transformation)

Role overview

This freelance opportunity is for an experienced IT Project Manager to steer large-scale cloud and digital transformation programmes for an international organisation. The assignment focuses on enterprise-level change, including cloud migration, modernisation, and adoption across multiple business units.

The engagement runs for 12 months, offers up to €700 per day, and is mainly remote within Germany, with roughly one onsite visit per month in Essen.

Key responsibilities

• Take ownership of complex IT and digital transformation initiatives from launch through final delivery.
• Oversee scope, timelines, budget, risk, quality, and stakeholder alignment throughout the project lifecycle.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams, external vendors, and technical experts spread across several locations.
• Lead cloud migration and modernisation workstreams and help ensure the business adopts the new solutions effectively.
• Maintain governance, status reporting, RAID tracking, and project documentation in Jira.
• Develop trusted relationships with business and IT stakeholders, including senior leaders.
• Run workshops, steering committee sessions, and other project meetings.
• Track project spend and manage suppliers effectively.
• Support change management activities and user adoption during delivery.

What the client is looking for

• Hands-on experience delivering large enterprise IT programmes.
• Strong capability in at least one of these areas: Azure Cloud, AWS, Microsoft 365 (SharePoint, Teams, Entra ID), infrastructure, applications and integrations, or data management.
• Recent involvement in cloud transformation work, ideally including on-premises to Azure migrations, Azure Virtual Desktop, identity/email/device migrations, or file server to SharePoint migration.
• Confident stakeholder management skills, including engagement with C-level leaders.
• Experience leading distributed teams and managing third-party suppliers.
• Good working knowledge of Agile, Waterfall, and Jira.
• Background in change management and business adoption.
• Consulting experience is an added advantage.
• ITIL familiarity is desirable.
• Native or C1-level German and fluent English are required.

Contract details

• Freelance contract for an initial 12 months.
• Compensation of up to €700 per day.
• Work is predominantly remote.
• Onsite presence in Essen is required about once per month.