Director of Software & Implementation

B I R G E & H E L D

Investing in Communities to Transform Lives.

WHO WE ARE

It's fun to work in a company where people truly believe in what they are doing. At Birge & Held, we are committed to bringing excitement and energy to the business of multifamily housing. We expect every employee within our organization to be a leader working in a collaborative environment towards a shared vision.

At Birge & Held, our employees have a Passion for People, demonstrate Leadership at Every Level, and are Always Learning & Innovating. Through these core values, we make our purpose a reality, “Investing in Communities to Transform Lives.”

POSITION OVERVIEW

The Director serves as the internal execution lead for major software initiatives, including the planned property-management platform transition, integrations, data-conversion readiness, testing, training, cutover, stabilization, and legacy-system retirement. The role also oversees recurring software activities tied to acquisitions, dispositions, new clients, lease-ups, application releases, vendor management, and ongoing support.

This is a hands-on leadership role requiring multifamily operating knowledge, property-management software expertise, disciplined project execution, team leadership, and practical change-management skills. The Director partners closely with Property Operations, Accounting, Affordable Housing, Marketing, Talent Development, Data/BI, IT, Transactions, Construction, and external partners.

This position preferably works out of our corporate office to support collaboration with team members and cross-functional partners. This role reports directly to the Vice President of Technology.

Starting salary is $100,000 annually, with final compensation determined based on the candidate's qualifications, skills, and experience.

WHAT YOU WILL OWN

Software Administration & Application Management

• Serve as the primary functional owner and internal escalation point for property-management and related business applications.
• Oversee configuration, role-based access, workflows, testing, releases, production changes, and application support in partnership with IT, security, vendors, and business owners.
• Maintain documentation of configuration decisions, workflows, permissions, integrations, business rules, ownership, and critical dependencies.
• Coordinate vendor releases through impact assessment, testing, communication, training readiness, deployment, and post-release validation.
• Monitor application health, utilization, recurring issues, and vendor roadmaps; recommend practical improvements to the Vice President of Technology.
• Maintain an accurate inventory of supported applications, vendors, contacts, integrations, contract timing, support paths, and business owners.

Implementation & Project Leadership

• Lead internal execution of major software implementations, conversions, and portfolio-wide rollouts from planning through stabilization.
• Build and maintain integrated project plans covering scope, workstreams, owners, dependencies, milestones, resources, decisions, risks, issues, budget considerations, and readiness criteria.
• Coordinate requirements, workflows, configuration, data conversion, integrations, security, reporting, testing, training, communications, cutover, hypercare, and operational handoff.
• Lead cross-functional project meetings, maintain RAID and decision logs, escalate barriers early, and provide clear status reporting.
• Coordinate pilots and phased deployment waves while accounting for business cycles, property activity, client commitments, capacity, and operational continuity.
• Ensure implementation deliverables, configuration records, test results, training materials, support procedures, and ownership are complete before closeout.

Property Transitions

• Lead Technology execution for acquisitions, dispositions, new third-party clients, management transitions, lease-ups, refinances, and other portfolio changes.
• Develop repeatable onboarding and offboarding standards by asset type, including software selection, setup, data and document requirements, access, integrations, testing, cutover, validation, and stabilization.
• Coordinate transition timelines and dependencies with Operations, Accounting, Affordable Housing, Marketing, Transactions, Data/BI, IT, Talent Development, clients, and vendors.
• Partner with Data/BI and Accounting on source requirements, mapping, cleanup, reconciliation, validation checkpoints, historical-data decisions, and reporting readiness.
• Monitor readiness through established checkpoints and ensure issues are resolved or explicitly accepted before go-live.
• Complete application decommissioning, access removal, data retention, integration shutdown, and vendor offboarding for dispositions and retired systems.

Support & Continuous Improvement

• Own the software support operating model, including intake, prioritization, triage, assignment, service expectations, escalation, vendor coordination, problem management, and closure standards.
• Ensure requests contain sufficient business context and are routed to the appropriate Software, IT, Data/BI, vendor, or business owner.
• Use ticket trends and user feedback to identify root causes, recurring defects, training gaps, configuration problems, process breakdowns, and automation opportunities.
• Lead resolution of high-impact or recurring issues and communicate business impact, status, workarounds, and corrective action.
• Maintain support documentation, troubleshooting guides, escalation procedures, known-error records, and user-facing knowledge content.
• Partner with business leaders to simplify workflows, reduce duplicate entry and manual effort, improve utilization, and standardize repeatable practices.

Training, Adoption & Change Enablement

• Partner with Talent Development, business subject-matter experts, and vendors to create role-based learning plans, job aids, SOPs, communications, and reinforcement activities.
• Coordinate change champions, super users, office hours, train-the-trainer activities, and go-live support across a geographically distributed workforce.
• Ensure implementations and major releases include readiness criteria, user testing, training completion, communications, support coverage, and adoption measures.
• Track adoption, common user errors, support demand, and workflow completion after launch; coordinate targeted reinforcement or process correction.
• Facilitate working sessions that translate requirements into documented workflows, configuration decisions, test scenarios, and user guidance.
• Promote standard workflows while accommodating necessary differences for affordable housing, third-party clients, ownership structures, and regulations.

Team & Vendor Management

• Lead, coach, and develop the Software & Implementation team; establish clear ownership, priorities, service expectations, development plans, and performance measures.
• Balance implementation work, property transitions, enhancements, support demand, and team capacity; surface resource conflicts and delivery risks early.
• Manage software vendors, implementation partners, and consultants against contracted scope, deliverables, timelines, service levels, budgets, and expected outcomes.
• Lead vendor escalations and hold partners accountable for issue resolution, documentation, knowledge transfer, and sustainable handoff.
• Build trusted relationships with property and corporate teams through responsive support, clear communication, dependable execution, and visibility into priorities.
• Serve as a senior subject-matter leader on multifamily applications, implementation practices, and operational system capabilities.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

• Major implementations meet approved scope, readiness, budget, timeline, and adoption standards without avoidable disruption to property or accounting operations.
• Property onboarding and offboarding become repeatable, measurable processes with clearer ownership, cleaner data, faster setup, and fewer post-transition defects.
• Employees complete critical workflows with fewer workarounds, duplicate systems, manual reconciliations, and support escalations.
• Application releases and production changes are tested, communicated, documented, and supported consistently.
• The Software & Implementation team evolves from reactive ticket execution into a scalable application-operations and implementation function.
• Leadership has reliable visibility into implementation progress, support demand, platform health, adoption, risk, vendor performance, and team capacity.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

Required Experience

• 7+ years of progressively responsible experience in multifamily, property management, real estate technology, enterprise applications, or software implementation; 3+ years leading people, programs, or major cross-functional initiatives.
• 5+ years of multifamily property-management software experience, with demonstrated expertise in at least one major PMS and meaningful experience across multiple property-management technology platforms. Experience with Yardi, Entrata, and/or RealPage strongly preferred.
• Strong project or program management experience leading complex implementations, conversions, or portfolio-wide rollouts involving multiple departments, properties, vendors, integrations, and data sources.
• Working knowledge of lead-to-lease, renewals, resident accounting, payments, screening, maintenance, procurement, reporting, and month-end processes.
• Experience with acquisitions, dispositions, property onboarding, data migration, configuration, access/security, integrations, testing, training, cutover, and post-go-live stabilization.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Information Systems, Real Estate, Technology, Project Management, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.

Preferred Experience

• PMP, PgMP, Prosci, Agile, or comparable project, program, or change-management training or certification.
• Experience supporting both conventional and affordable multifamily portfolios, including LIHTC or other compliance-driven requirements.
• Experience with Microsoft 365, Azure/Entra ID, SharePoint, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, API/integration concepts, identity provisioning, and data governance.
• Experience with software procurement, commercial negotiations, statements of work, service levels, consulting scopes, and total-cost modeling.
• Experience with learning-management systems, process mapping, UAT design, role-based training, and adoption measurement.
• Exposure to construction or investment-management technology, such as Procore, Yardi Investment Management, or comparable real-estate platforms.

SKILLS & LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES

• Clear executive and stakeholder communication
• Cross-functional project and program leadership
• Systems thinking and operational judgment
• Structured problem solving and root-cause analysis
• Change leadership and user-adoption focus
• People leadership and resource prioritization
• Vendor management and commercial discipline
• Strong documentation, organization, and follow-through

ADDITIONAL EXPECTATIONS

• Ability to travel periodically to properties, vendor offices, training sessions, or implementation events.
• Ability to support time-sensitive cutovers, acquisitions, month-end events, or production issues outside normal business hours when necessary.
• Commitment to confidentiality, fair housing, data protection, and applicable company policies and regulatory requirements.

WHAT WE OFFER

• Maintain work-life balance with a flexible hybrid schedule and a generous paid time-off policy, including up to 20 days of PTO per year. In addition to traditional PTO, you’ll receive 14 holidays including a floating holiday and your birthday. Separately, if you’ve served in the military, you’ll receive Veterans Day as a paid day off.
• Make a difference in your community with 8 hours of Volunteer Paid Time Off (PTO) each year, giving you the ability to support a cause or organization of your choice.
• Take advantage of supportive leave benefits, including up to 3 weeks of paid parental leave and 6 weeks of paid childbirth leave.
• Boost your earnings with a performance-based bonus determined by your role and achievement in individual, departmental, and company-wide Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
• Save on living expenses with exclusive employee discounts at Birge & Held properties.
• Prioritize your well-being with a robust wellness program that supports your physical, mental, and emotional health. Enjoy up to $25 in monthly gym membership reimbursements and gain access to certified health coaches dedicated to helping you achieve your personal wellness goals when enrolled in the Wellness Health Plan.
• Access competitive dental, vision, and comprehensive medical plans to ensure you and your family receive the care you need, along with convenient online tools to help you manage your healthcare benefits with ease.
• Enjoy peace of mind today and tomorrow with a 401(k) plan that includes a competitive employer match.
• Receive automatic enrollment in the company paid basic life insurance policy with the opportunity to elect supplemental life insurance. With employment at Birge & Held you have the ability to elect additional ancillary benefit options including but not limited to, Long-Term Disability (LTD), Short-Term Disability (STD) and Critical Illness Insurance that provides extra protection against unexpected health challenges.
• Stay connected and equipped for success with a monthly phone stipend of up to $50 to help cover your mobile service costs.
• Grow your career through the support of a dedicated Talent Development team and a tuition reimbursement program. Whether you're building new skills, exploring new roles, or pursuing a degree, you'll have the resources and guidance to reach your full potential.
• Be part of an organization consistently recognized as one of the Top Workplaces in the USA, where your contributions are valued and celebrated.

Birge & Held is an Equal Opportunity Employer and we are committed to hiring a diverse and talented workforce.