Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Website Project Manager

🎯 Role Definition

The Website Project Manager owns planning, execution and delivery of website initiatives and digital experiences from discovery through launch and post-launch optimization. This role coordinates cross-functional teams (design, development, content, SEO, QA, marketing), manages timelines and budgets, enforces quality and accessibility standards, and drives continuous improvement of website performance, conversion and user experience. The Website Project Manager acts as the single point of accountability for scope, risks, stakeholder expectations and successful delivery of web projects across CMS platforms and custom builds.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Web Producer / Digital Producer
Project Coordinator (Digital)
Front-end Developer or UX Designer transitioning to PM

Advancement To:

Senior Web Project Manager / Program Manager
Director of Digital / Head of Web Operations
Product Manager (Digital Experience) or Digital Project Director

Lateral Moves:

UX/Product Owner
Digital Marketing Manager
Technical Project Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Lead end-to-end delivery of website projects and feature launches, creating and maintaining project plans, timelines, milestones and deliverables while coordinating cross-functional teams (design, front-end/back-end engineering, content, SEO, analytics, and QA) to meet scope, budget and schedule.
Act as primary stakeholder liaison: facilitate requirements workshops, capture business goals and acceptance criteria, translate them into actionable user stories or functional specifications, and maintain transparent communication with executives and product owners.
Manage project scope and change control by evaluating change requests, assessing impact on timelines and budgets, negotiating priorities with stakeholders, and ensuring formal approval and documentation of all scope changes.
Define, plan and monitor project budgets and resource allocations including vendor contracts, third-party integrations, development sprints and hourly estimates; report on burn rates and forecast to leadership.
Drive Agile delivery practices for web teams: write and prioritize user stories, manage the product backlog, run sprint planning, stand-ups, retrospectives and ensure consistent velocity and on-time sprint delivery.
Oversee CMS implementations and migrations (e.g., WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore, Contentful), including content modeling, migration strategy, QA of migrated content, and coordination with content authors and editorial teams.
Ensure technical requirements and non-functional requirements (performance, security, SEO, accessibility, cross-browser/device compatibility) are captured, prioritized and validated through testing and acceptance criteria.
Coordinate UX and design efforts: approve design iterations, ensure adherence to brand and usability standards, facilitate design handoffs to developers and manage design QA post-implementation.
Plan and execute release management and deployment activities including staging and production releases, rollback plans, deployment windows, and communication plans to internal and external stakeholders.
Organize and manage user acceptance testing (UAT) and QA cycles, document defects, manage defect triage, and drive fixes through to closure while protecting release dates and quality standards.
Partner with SEO and analytics teams to define tracking requirements, ensure accurate implementation of tags and events, validate Google Analytics/GA4 and other analytics setups, and measure KPIs (traffic, engagement, conversion, load time).
Implement and monitor website performance optimization initiatives (page speed, image optimization, caching strategies) and coordinate with infrastructure and CDN vendors to meet SLAs and performance goals.
Conduct risk identification and mitigation planning (technical, schedule, vendor, compliance) and escalate critical issues with proposed remediation and contingency plans to stakeholders.
Manage third-party vendors and agency partners: negotiate SOWs, manage delivery expectations, track milestones, approve invoices tied to deliverables, and ensure adherence to security and privacy requirements.
Lead content strategy execution, including editorial schedules, governance, metadata, taxonomy and content workflows; coordinate content freezes and migrations during release windows.
Drive accessibility (WCAG) and compliance testing: coordinate audits, prioritize remediation, and validate fixes to ensure legal and usability standards are met.
Create and maintain comprehensive project documentation and knowledge transfer materials (requirements, architecture diagrams, release notes, runbooks, training guides) to ensure continuity and post-launch supportability.
Facilitate stakeholder communications and executive reporting: produce weekly status reports, highlight risks, dependencies and decisions required, and present project health metrics and roadmap updates.
Coordinate launch readiness activities: finalize cutover plans, perform launch rehearsals, validate DNS and SSL changes, and execute communications and training for internal teams and external partners.
Measure post-launch success: run analytics reviews, A/B test hypotheses, capture feedback, prioritize enhancements and create a roadmap for iterative improvements.
Establish and improve web project processes and governance (templates, checklists, intake processes, change control) to increase delivery predictability and reduce time-to-market.
Mentor junior project managers, coordinators and cross-functional contributors on best practices for digital delivery, Agile workflow and web-specific QA.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc analytics requests and collaborate with data teams to provide web performance insights and customer journey analysis.
Contribute to the website strategy and roadmap by providing feasibility assessments, ROI estimates and prioritization recommendations.
Collaborate with security and legal teams to ensure compliance with privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA) and corporate security policies for web properties.
Coordinate training programs and documentation for content authors and marketing teams on CMS usage, editorial workflows and governance.
Participate in vendor selection and procurement activities, including RFP creation, vendor scoring, and reference checks.
Conduct periodic site audits (SEO, accessibility, content quality, analytics tagging) and create remediation roadmaps with cross-functional owners.
Facilitate cross-team workshops and sprint reviews to promote transparency, continuous improvement and shared ownership of digital outcomes.
Support incident response and post-incident reviews for site outages, leading root cause analysis and tracking corrective actions.
Maintain an up-to-date knowledge of web technologies, browser capabilities and emerging trends to advise stakeholders on technical tradeoffs.
Assist in building and tracking OKRs and KPIs tied to website performance, revenue impact and customer experience.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Proven project management expertise with Agile (Scrum/Kanban) and Waterfall methodologies; experience using Jira, Trello or Asana for backlog and sprint management.
Hands-on experience managing CMS platforms such as WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore, Contentful or similar headless CMS implementations.
Solid understanding of front-end technologies (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript) and web delivery concepts (CDN, caching, responsive design) to communicate effectively with engineers.
Working knowledge of SEO best practices (technical SEO, structured data, canonicalization, redirects) and tools (SEMrush, Ahrefs, Screaming Frog).
Experience with web analytics implementations (Google Analytics/GA4, Google Tag Manager), event tracking, funnel analysis and data-driven decision-making.
Familiarity with performance optimization techniques (image optimization, lazy loading, critical CSS, TTFB reduction) and tools (Lighthouse, PageSpeed Insights).
Knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG 2.x) and experience coordinating remediation and accessibility testing tools.
Experience managing integrations with third-party platforms (CRM, marketing automation, e-commerce platforms, payment gateways) and API-based projects.
Vendor and contract management experience including SOWs, milestones-based payments and vendor performance evaluation.
Proficiency in release management, CI/CD basics and working with DevOps/Infrastructure teams for deployment coordination.

Soft Skills

Strong stakeholder management and executive communication skills; ability to translate technical details into business impact.
Excellent organizational skills and ability to manage multiple concurrent projects with competing priorities and tight deadlines.
Leadership and team facilitation skills with a collaborative, servant-leader approach to unblock teams and drive outcomes.
Problem-solving mindset and risk mitigation capability; able to identify issues early and present clear mitigation strategies.
Detail-oriented with strong QA instincts and a focus on delivering high-quality, user-centric digital experiences.
Negotiation and conflict resolution skills to align teams and vendors on timelines, scope and priorities.
Analytical mindset with comfort interpreting data and turning insights into prioritised action plans.
Empathy and user-focused thinking to balance business objectives with exceptional user experiences.
Change management and training experience to drive adoption across content and marketing teams.
Time management and prioritization skills to balance tactical delivery with strategic planning.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Business, Computer Science, Information Systems, Digital Media, Marketing, Communications, or related field OR equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor's or Master's degree in a relevant discipline with coursework or certifications in project management (PMP, PMI-ACP), Agile (Scrum Master), or digital marketing/UX.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Computer Science / Information Technology
Marketing / Communications / Digital Media
Human-Computer Interaction / Design
Business Administration / Project Management

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

3 to 8 years of progressive experience managing website, digital product or web development projects.

Preferred:

5+ years delivering complex website projects or digital platforms, with experience leading cross-functional teams, managing CMS migrations, and demonstrating measurable improvements in web KPIs (traffic, conversion, load time). Certifications such as PMP, Scrum Master, or relevant vendor CMS certifications are a plus.