Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Web Project Manager

🎯 Role Definition

The Web Project Manager is responsible for planning, executing and delivering complex website and digital product initiatives on time, on budget and to agreed quality standards. This role serves as the primary point of contact between creative, engineering, marketing and business stakeholders, translating business goals into actionable roadmaps, sprint plans and release schedules. A Web Project Manager combines technical literacy (CMS, front-end technologies, analytics) with proven project management discipline (Agile, Waterfall, scope control) and strong communication skills to ensure high‑impact, SEO‑optimized web experiences that meet business objectives.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Junior Project Manager (Digital/Web)
Digital Producer or Producer (agency/in-house)
Front‑end Developer or UX Designer transitioning into PM

Advancement To:

Senior Web Project Manager / Program Manager
Digital Delivery Manager / Head of Web Operations
Director of Digital Product or Director of UX & Web

Lateral Moves:

Product Manager (Digital Products)
Digital Account Director / Client Services Director

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Own end‑to‑end delivery of website projects including discovery, requirements gathering, project planning, resource allocation, development, QA, launch and post‑launch support, ensuring each milestone is met and outcomes align with business KPIs.
Lead cross‑functional teams (design, UX, front‑end/back‑end engineering, QA, SEO, content, marketing) to execute website builds, redesigns, migrations and feature releases while removing blockers and managing dependencies.
Create, maintain and communicate detailed project plans, Gantt charts, sprint backlogs and release schedules; update stakeholders proactively on scope, timeline, budget and risk.
Facilitate discovery and requirements workshops with stakeholders to translate business needs into user stories, acceptance criteria and technical tasks for the delivery team.
Manage project scope and change control processes: evaluate change requests, quantify impact on schedule and budget, secure approvals and update plans and documentation accordingly.
Define and track project budgets, forecast resource needs, manage vendor and contractor costs, and ensure projects deliver within agreed financial parameters.
Coordinate site migrations and complex CMS implementations (WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore, headless CMS) including content inventories, redirects, data migrations and launch checklists to minimize SEO impact and downtime.
Drive quality assurance and testing strategy including functional testing, cross‑browser/device compatibility, regression testing, accessibility (WCAG) checks and UAT with business stakeholders.
Oversee content strategy execution: manage content workflows, version control, migration mapping, editorial calendars and sign‑offs to ensure content is published correctly and timely.
Serve as the primary liaison between technical teams and non‑technical stakeholders; translate technical constraints into business language and vice versa to align expectations and decisions.
Implement SEO best practices throughout the project lifecycle—URL structure, metadata, canonicalization, schema, page speed optimizations—and coordinate with SEO specialists to preserve and improve organic performance.
Monitor web analytics and performance metrics (page speed, bounce rate, conversion rate, goal completions) during development and post‑launch; recommend and prioritize iterative improvements based on data.
Manage vendor relationships (development shops, design agencies, QA firms, hosting providers), negotiate scopes of work and SLAs, and ensure third‑party deliverables meet quality and timeline requirements.
Run Agile ceremonies (daily standups, sprint planning, retrospectives) when using Scrum; tailor Agile/Waterfall practices to project context to optimize delivery cadence and predictability.
Create and maintain comprehensive project documentation: scope documents, technical and functional specifications, release notes, runbooks and post‑launch retrospectives to ensure knowledge transfer.
Coordinate deployment and release management activities including build validation, staging approvals, rollback plans and production handoffs to operations or hosting teams.
Identify, assess and mitigate project risks; maintain a risk register, escalate issues appropriately and implement contingency plans to protect delivery timelines and business outcomes.
Lead stakeholder communications and governance: schedule steering committee meetings, produce executive summaries, status reports and project dashboards that surface critical information and decisions.
Drive conversion rate optimization (CRO) activities by coordinating A/B testing, personalization experiments and post‑launch performance reviews to iteratively increase site effectiveness.
Ensure compliance with legal, privacy and security requirements (GDPR, cookie consent, data protection) as they relate to web projects and coordinate with legal/compliance teams for sign‑off.
Mentor and onboard junior project staff and producers, sharing best practices in delivery, documentation and stakeholder management to build project delivery capability.
Manage post‑launch support and maintenance: define SLAs, triage incidents, prioritize defect backlogs and coordinate regular maintenance windows with operations and hosting partners.
Partner with product managers and business owners to define roadmaps, prioritize features and align website initiatives with broader digital strategy and marketing objectives.
Drive process improvement for web delivery: establish repeatable templates, checklists and playbooks (launch checklists, QA matrices, migration templates) to reduce delivery risk and increase efficiency.
Coordinate accessibility testing and remediation efforts, ensuring sites meet WCAG 2.1 AA (or applicable) standards and collaborating with designers and developers on fixes.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
Develop and maintain relationships with external vendors for performance monitoring, CDN and security services.
Assist marketing teams with campaign landing pages, tracking implementation and post‑campaign reporting.
Conduct post‑launch project retrospectives and capture lessons learned to improve future projects.
Maintain knowledge of web industry trends, new CMS offerings, headless architectures and front‑end frameworks to advise on appropriate technical approaches.
Coordinate training sessions and documentation for content editors and site administrators on CMS workflows and best practices.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Proven experience managing website projects using Agile (Scrum/Kanban) and Waterfall methodologies; skilled at tailoring the delivery approach to project size and complexity.
Strong proficiency with content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore or headless CMS implementations (Contentful, Strapi).
Familiarity with front‑end technologies (HTML5, CSS3, basic JavaScript) and an ability to read technical specs, assess feasibility and communicate technical tradeoffs.
Experience with project tracking and collaboration tools: Jira, Confluence, Trello, Asana, Monday.com or similar.
Practical knowledge of version control basics (Git workflows) and CI/CD concepts as they relate to web deployments and build pipelines.
SEO fundamentals and technical SEO: sitemaps, redirects, canonical tags, metadata, structured data, core web vitals and page speed optimization.
Web analytics and tracking implementation experience: Google Analytics / GA4, Google Tag Manager, Adobe Analytics; ability to interpret data and produce recommendations.
QA and testing proficiency: functional testing, regression testing, cross‑browser/device testing, accessibility testing tools and methodologies.
Experience managing web hosting, CDNs, performance optimization and basic security practices (HTTPS, TLS, WAF basics).
Vendor and contract management: drafting SOWs, evaluating vendor proposals, SLA negotiation and third‑party coordination.
Familiarity with A/B testing and optimization platforms (Optimizely, VWO, Google Optimize or similar) and interpreting experiment results.
Basic understanding of APIs and integrations (CRM, payment gateways, marketing platforms) and how they impact web architecture and project scope.

Soft Skills

Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills — able to present complex topics clearly to executives and translate strategy into actionable plans.
Strong organizational skills and attention to detail with the ability to manage multiple concurrent projects and competing priorities.
Leadership and team facilitation: capable of motivating cross‑functional teams, mediating conflicts, and driving accountability.
Problem solving and critical thinking: quickly assess issues, identify root causes and implement practical, scalable solutions.
Negotiation skills for scope changes, budget discussions and vendor management.
Customer-focused mindset: understands user experience and business goals and balances technical constraints with commercial needs.
Time management and prioritization under pressure with a results‑orientation toward meeting deadlines and KPI targets.
Adaptability and continuous improvement mindset; comfortable learning new tools, methodologies and web trends.
Empathy and stakeholder diplomacy to manage expectations without compromising delivery quality.
Mentoring and coaching ability to grow junior team members and uplift project delivery standards.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Web Development, Digital Media, Marketing, Business Administration or a related field; or equivalent professional experience.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Digital Media, Human‑Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer Science, Marketing or MBA.
Relevant certifications such as PMP, PRINCE2, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI‑ACP) or Google Analytics Certification are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Computer Science / Software Engineering
Digital Marketing / Communications
Human‑Computer Interaction / UX Design
Business Administration / Project Management

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3–8+ years managing website or digital product projects; mid‑level to senior candidates commonly have 5+ years of relevant experience.

Preferred:

Demonstrable track record delivering enterprise websites, large redesigns or complex site migrations.
Experience in agency environments or in‑house digital teams coordinating multiple stakeholders and tight timelines.
Portfolio or case studies showing projects with measurable business impact (improved traffic, conversion lift, reduced load times, successful migrations).
Experience working with marketing, UX, analytics and engineering teams to deliver integrated digital initiatives.