Acuity Inc. (NYSE: AYI) is a market-leading industrial technology company. We use technology to solve problems in spaces, light and more things to come. Through our two business segments, Acuity Brands Lighting (ABL) and Acuity Intelligent Spaces (AIS), we design, manufacture, and bring to market products and services that make a valuable difference in people’s lives.
We achieve growth through the development of innovative new products and services, including lighting, lighting controls, building management solutions, and an audio, video and control platform. We focus on customer outcomes and drive growth and productivity to increase market share and deliver superior returns. We look to aggressively deploy capital to grow the business and to enter attractive new verticals.
Acuity Inc. is based in Atlanta, Georgia, with operations across North America, Europe and Asia. The Company is powered by approximately 13,000 dedicated and talented associates. Visit us at www.acuityinc.com.
Job Summary
The Software Project Manager will be responsible for managing software workstreams that support New Product Introduction projects, as well as independently managing pure software releases from initiation through launch. From a project management POV, this role will act as the single point of contact for NPI software deliverables and integration checkpoints, dependencies, estimates, status, risks, and execution plans for software only releases working with the Senior RTE for the Software.
The Software Project Manager will work closely with technical teams to develop software estimates, identify dependencies, align deliverables to NPI milestones, and provide inputs to NPI Project Managers for the creation and maintenance of integrated end-to-end project timelines. In addition, this role will lead standalone software projects and releases end to end, ensuring scope, schedule, quality, risks, and cross-functional communication are effectively managed.
Key Tasks & Responsibilities (Essential Functions)
NPI Software Workstream Management
- Serve as the Software Project Manager and SPOC for software deliverables supporting NPI programs.
- Partner with NPI Project Managers to align software scope, estimates, milestones, dependencies, and delivery plans into the overall end-to-end NPI timeline.
- Work with software, firmware, systems, architecture, validation, cybersecurity, product, and other technical teams to define and track software deliverables.
- Identify software dependencies across NPIs, common platforms, shared components, firmware, hardware, test environments, validation, and release readiness activities.
- Ensure software workstream milestones are clearly integrated with NPI phases such as Define, Design & Develop, Validate, and Launch.
- Provide software status, risks, blockers, mitigation plans, and delivery confidence to NPI Project Managers and leadership forums.
- Drive visibility into cross-team dependencies and ensure timely escalation when decisions, resources, or technical inputs are needed.
Software Estimation and Timeline Planning
- Facilitate estimation discussions with technical teams to support early project planning and end-to-end timeline development.
- Translate technical team inputs into project-level estimates, assumptions, constraints, and confidence levels.
- Partner with NPI Project Managers to align software estimates with hardware, firmware, validation, cybersecurity, manufacturing, and launch milestones.
- Maintain clarity around estimate maturity, including high-level estimates during early planning and refined estimates as scope and technical details evolve.
- Ensure assumptions, risks, and dependencies associated with software estimates are documented and communicated.
Pure Software Project Management
- Independently manage pure software projects and releases from initiation through delivery and launch.
- Own project planning, scope alignment, schedule management, dependency tracking, risk management, stakeholder communication, and release readiness for software-only initiatives.
- Coordinate with product managers, engineering leads, architects, QA, cybersecurity, DevOps, support, documentation, and release management teams.
- Drive execution through agile delivery cycles, ensuring alignment between epics, features, user stories, acceptance criteria, verification criteria, and release goals.
- Track progress against committed scope and timeline, manage changes, and communicate impacts to stakeholders.
- Ensure software releases meet defined readiness criteria, quality expectations, and business objectives.
Dependency, Risk, and Communication Management
- Establish and maintain dependency tracking across software teams, NPI teams, platform teams, validation teams, and external stakeholders.
- Lead regular software project reviews, dependency reviews, and status checkpoints.
- Provide clear, concise, and actionable project status updates to technical teams, NPI Project Managers, product leadership, and cross-functional stakeholders.
- Proactively identify risks related to scope, schedule, resources, technical complexity, integration, validation, cybersecurity, and release readiness.
- Drive mitigation planning and escalate issues when decisions or trade-offs are required.
- Ensure software deliverables, ownership, due dates, risks, and decisions are transparent and well-documented.
Skills and Minimum Experience Required
- Minimum 6+ year’s Experience managing software projects, software releases, or software workstreams within larger cross-functional programs.
- Strong understanding of software development lifecycles, agile delivery practices, release planning, and dependency management.
- Experience working with technical teams to gather estimates, understand delivery risks, and translate technical inputs into project plans.
- Ability to manage cross-functional dependencies across software, firmware, hardware, validation, cybersecurity, product, and project management teams.
- Bilingual: French and English (Must)
- Strong communication skills with the ability to present clear status, risks, decisions, and trade-offs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Experience managing project schedules, milestones, risks, action items, scope changes, and stakeholder expectations.
- Ability to operate as a single point of contact for complex software deliverables across multiple projects or releases.
- Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
Preferred Skills and Experience
- Experience supporting New Product Introduction programs involving software, firmware, hardware, or embedded systems.
- Experience managing both NPI-related software workstreams and standalone software releases.
- Familiarity with Agile, SAFe, Scrum, Kanban, or hybrid delivery models. Project Management certifications / SAFe/Agile preferred.
- Experience using tools such as Azure DevOps, Jira, Confluence, Monday.com, MS Project, Smartsheet, or similar planning and collaboration tools.
- Experience with integrated project timelines, release readiness, dependency registers, risk logs, and cross-functional governance forums.
- Understanding of epics, features, user stories, acceptance criteria, verification criteria, definition of ready, and definition of done.
- Experience working in environments with shared platforms, common components, multiple product lines, or overlapping release trains.
- Educational background in Computer Science preferred.
- Technical background in software (app/cloud) preferred
Other
Success Measures
- Software deliverables are clearly planned, estimated, tracked, and integrated into NPI timelines.
- Dependencies between software, NPI programs, platforms, validation, cybersecurity, and release teams are visible and actively managed.
- NPI Project Managers receive timely and reliable software inputs for end-to-end timeline planning and status reporting.
- Pure software projects are delivered with clear scope, timeline, ownership, risk management, and release readiness.
- Stakeholders have consistent visibility into software progress, risks, blockers, and decisions.
- Software teams experience improved alignment, fewer surprises, and clearer expectations across NPI and software release execution.
We value diversity and are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regards to race, color, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, ethnicity or national origin, disability, pregnancy, religion, covered veteran status, protected genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.
Accommodation for Applicants with Disabilities: As an equal opportunity employer, Acuity Brands is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in its application process for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans. If you have difficulty using our online system due to a disability and need an accommodation, you may contact us at (770) 922-9000, select option 4. Please clearly indicate what type of accommodation you are requesting and for what requisition.
Any unsolicited resumes sent to Acuity Inc. from a third party, such as an Agency recruiter, including unsolicited resumes sent to an Acuity Inc. mailing address, fax machine or email address, directly to Acuity Inc. employees, or to Acuity Inc. resume database will be considered Acuity Inc. property. Acuity Inc. will NOT pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume.
Knowledge of French is required for positions permanently located in Quebec so incumbents can communicate with their colleagues and suppliers in Quebec as necessary. French-language training is offered to all incumbents in permanent positions in Quebec who do not have a good knowledge of French.
Acuity Inc. will consider any candidate for whom an Agency has submitted an unsolicited resume to have been referred by the Agency free of any charges or fees. This includes any Agency that is an approved/engaged vendor but does not have the appropriate approvals to be engaged on a search.
