Find the perfect Project Managers in Essen in minutes from over 15,000 CVs with the power of AI.
Need support for steering scope, timelines and stakeholders? Bring in a freelance Project Manager for rollouts, process changes, IT delivery or cross-functional work. Get fast, precise matching with vetted, available freelancers.
About the role
Delivery focus
A freelance Project Manager keeps work moving, decisions clear and risks visible. They set the plan, align teams and make sure deliverables land on time and in the right order. Typical work includes:
- project scope, milestones and dependencies
- status tracking, reporting and escalation
- stakeholder coordination and meeting cadence
- risk, change and issue management
- handover into operations or the next workstream
Skills that matter
Strong Project Managers combine structure with calm communication. They can work with business teams, IT, operations and external vendors without losing control of the plan. Look for clear writing, firm prioritisation, strong facilitation and the ability to turn vague goals into a practical delivery plan.
Tools and methods
The right freelancer should be fluent in the tools and methods your team already uses. That often means Jira, Confluence, MS Project, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and shared planning boards. Depending on the setup, they may also work in Agile, Scrum, Kanban, classic waterfall or a hybrid delivery model.
- steering committees and workshop formats
- RAID logs, project plans and decision logs
- sprint coordination or stage-gate control
- vendor and dependency management
When companies bring one in
Companies usually hire a freelance Project Manager when a project has a clear start and end, but internal capacity is thin. They are a strong fit for system rollouts, restructurings, product launches, office moves, process redesign and recovery situations where the plan needs discipline fast. In Essen, this is especially useful for industrial, logistics and service companies that run complex cross-team work.
What good looks like
A strong Project Manager does not just track tasks. They spot delays early, ask the right questions and keep people aligned when priorities conflict. They protect scope, but they also know when to adapt. For German-speaking teams, they should be able to work confidently in English and, where needed, in German with local stakeholders.
Local hiring fit
For projects in Essen, on-site presence can help when the work depends on workshops, leadership alignment or factory and operations interfaces. Remote coordination works well for reporting, planning and vendor follow-up. Many companies look for a project manager, project lead or delivery manager for the same kind of assignment, but the best choice is the person who can own delivery end to end.
Meet FRATCH Project Managers
Arndt Maas
Project Manager for ServiceNow Vulnerability Response
Last position:
Project Manager for ServiceNow Vulnerability Response at Union Investment Services & IT GmbH
- Led the subproject for implementing Vulnerability Response as part of DORA
- Documented the current processes in compliance, risk & security
- Created the functional design for introducing application, infrastructure, and cloud vulnerabilities
- Agile management of the integration service provider, the technical department, and the company's cross-functional teams
- Integrated the V scanners Tenable, Qualys and Defender, as well as NVD and CISA/KEV
- Integrated GitLab Ultimate for importing and processing SBOMs
- Developed automation rules to match scan results with CIs in the CMDB, assign vulnerabilities and remediation tasks, handle approvals (false positives, exceptions) and closures
- Calculated multiple risk scores and priorities
- Defined dashboards and reports (Workspaces, Performance Analytics)
- Aligned the new processes, especially to improve the CMDB data quality (according to CSDM)
Frank Dostert
Project Manager
Last position:
Project Manager at TEAG Thüringer Energie AG
- Transition of Microsoft Azure operations to BTC AG
- Responsibility: budget of €60k
- Staff: leadership of 5 people
- Tools: Office 365, JIRA, Confluence
Cristian Lascu
Overall Project Leadership · Business Transformation, M365 & AI
Last position:
Founder & Principal Consultant at Kairox Consulting
Interim · Transformation & Project Leadership*
Overall project leadership for transformation and AI initiatives: project setup, management of internal subprojects and external work packages, governance, and handover into regular operations.
Hands-on with Microsoft 365, Copilot, and agentic AI; productive use of M365 for AI, automation, and digital processes.
Thomas Von Prondzinski
Interim Manager and Sparring Partner
Last position:
Project Lead in Invoice Audit at tvp-interim
- Project lead for invoice auditing, responsible for managing and coordinating project tasks
- Advising on optimizing existing processes and structures within the invoice audit department with a focus on efficiency, transparency and digitization
- Consulting on the ERP system change from SAP to Oracle, especially regarding the integration of invoice auditing requirements
- Conducting structured and goal-oriented project management
Nazrin Alili
Junior Marketing Project Manager
Last position:
Junior Marketing Project Manager at Eingenetzt Marketing Agentur
- Planning and executing integrated 360° marketing campaigns for mid-sized B2B clients
- Stakeholder management with internal teams, industry partners, and external agencies
- KPI-based performance reporting and deriving optimization measures
- Managing SEA budgets; keyword research and competitor analysis (ahrefs, Google Search Console)
- Scheduling and deadline management across multiple parallel client projects
- Tools: Google Ads, Google Search Console, ahrefs, WordPress, Trello, Canva, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
Alexander Königschulte
Subproject Manager IT Migration (Carve-out)
Last position:
Subproject Manager IT Migration (Carve-out) at EWE / WCG
- Carve-out of Wärme+ customers from EWE to the new company WCG with around 24,000 metering points.
- Development of a migration approach, data migration, process redesign and migration.
- Management of service providers, reporting to the steering committee and executive management.
- Tools: Jira, SharePoint, Draw.io, SAP S/4, SAP PM, WILKEN (ENER:GY, P5), carve-out.
Ralf Wüstermann
Finance and Controlling Manager
Last position:
Finance and Controlling Manager at Vanderlande Industries do Brasil Ltda
- International reporting in English
- Budget preparation
- Production controlling
- Process optimizations
Gilbert Huwar
Senior agile Project Manager, agile Processes
Last position:
Process Design: Solution Development and Release Management at E.ON Digital Services
- Led workstream for analysis and optimisation of the solution development and release process within the newly established organizational structure
- Analyzed and adopted existing processes after transition of technical responsibility to E.ON Digital Services
- Supported the agile development approach within engineering teams
- Established a unified workflow for business requirements and clear communication interfaces, documented using Atlassian Jira on both the business and engineering sides
- Created dashboards with Rich Filters for Jira Dashboards to provide an overview of feature releases and their connection to technical releases
- Designed new burnup charts and statistics per release to improve transparency of overall technical progress at the product level
Nermin Kasumovic
Service Manager, Change Manager, Project Manager
Last position:
Service Manager, Change Manager, Project Manager at ITZ-Bund
- Responsible for service management and change management within the ITZ-Bund network.
- Creating, tracking, and modifying change requests for applications and infrastructure at ITZ-Bund.
- Adapting and extending change management processes.
- Ensuring required technical functionality of specific applications (beBPo Web, Governikus Multi Messenger GMM).
- Project management activities for individual projects within the ITZ-Bund network.
- Managing and ensuring availability of external service providers (Governikus, Materna).
- Participation in an FMS audit (documentation description, processes, quality) for individual agencies of ITZ-Bund.
- Monitoring deadlines and milestones, reporting project progress to various stakeholders.
- Single point of contact (SPOC) for various departments, weekly fixed meetings with clients and status meetings.
- Creating and planning infrastructure G2X maps, monitoring, and status reporting to clients and external service providers.
- Participation in certificate requests and certificate exchange for customer-specific infrastructure and applications.
- Planning, coordinating, and executing communication for announcing, carrying out, and following up on planned activities.
- Monitoring effort and developing improvement suggestions.
- Skills/Tools: ITIL, Prince 2, Windows 10, Microsoft Office, Governikus products, Materna products, Confluence, Jira, BMC Remedy, Smart IT
Daniel T Hoffmann
Senior Project Manager, CDO, Executive Manager
Last position:
Founder and Chief Technical Officer at Ella Media AG
- Founded and built a generative artificial intelligence startup with 80 employees and 5 shareholders
- From 2018, built the AI team and development organization as Chief Technical Officer
- In 2020, converted into a public limited company, raised capital and appointed an operational board
- Since 2020, advising the supervisory board on AI strategy, AI governance and AI products
Benjamin Wennmacher
SAP Basis & Cloud Transformation Consultant
Last position:
SAP Basis at IT Baden-Württemberg (BITBW)
- SAP Basis operations for complex SAP system landscapes (ABAP and Java stacks)
- Administration, monitoring, and optimization of SAP systems with regard to availability, performance, and stability
- Planning and execution of data center moves as well as migrations of SAP systems and databases
- Handling of incidents, changes, and problems according to ITIL processes, including root cause analyses
- Creation of technical concepts, operations documentation, and implementation plans
Technologies: SAP NetWeaver, ITIL processes, technical migrations
Gundolf Schneider
Project Manager
Last position:
Project Manager at Self-employed – Freelancer
- Project Manager steel works crane and material handling at ArcelorMittal in Eisenhüttenstadt for their decarburization project, December 2024 to March 2025
- Project Manager Cranes and Logistics for the new converter at Aurubis Hamburg via Hays AG, May to October 2024
- Specification for placing the orders and coordination of interfaces
- Erection of a powder production plant for an Indian customer in Bengaluru, 2024
- Leading the erection and assembly team of the customer Indo MIM
- Responsible for Health, Safety and Environment
- Technical and commercial project management at Belimed Life Science AG in Sulgen, Switzerland, with SAP, 2022
- Revamp of a slab rolling mill for copper for Siam Poongsan including engineering, construction and site and quality management, own order directly from the end customer, 2021 to 2023
- Site and quality management for a powder production plant (gas atomization system) in Penang, Malaysia, Oryx Advanced Materials, 2022
- Interim Head of Services at ALD Vacuum Technologies, Hanau/Bangkok, installation, service and construction management, 2019 to 2024
- Interim Head of Service Cold Rolling Mills and continuous casting at Danieli Thailand/Vietnam, 2016 to 2018
- Interim Manager Quality Assurance at SMS Concast for four months in 2018
Michael Lang
Project Manager (Interim)
Last position:
Project Manager (Interim) at medi GmbH
- Contract negotiations with Infor
- Implementation of Infor LN Cloud "Finance" in 10 countries in Europe within 6 months
- Implementation (ongoing) of materials management, purchasing and sales in 16 countries worldwide
Hakan Er
Coach Lecturer / Digitalization
Last position:
Coach Lecturer / Digitalization at Siemens SPE
- Training first-year trainees on digitalization topics
Miguel Angel Jimenez Rodriguez
Agile Sub Project Manager
Last position:
Agile Sub Project Manager at Cognizant Mobility
- Contact person for the client for all matters related to delivery of services from the subproject
- Responsible for delivering the subproject and coordinating the deliverables to be achieved (project planning)
- Validating sprint planning of the teams against the project plan
- First escalation point if estimates cannot be agreed
- Resource management for 17 project staff
- Continuous process improvement
- Risk management of any kind that can threaten delivery
- Reporting results internally and to the client, e.g. project execution and milestone achievement
- Responsible for the budget in his subproject (revenue, profit)
- Identifying and implementing financial optimization needs
- Ensuring that Jira items are maintained according to financial and agile guidelines in his subproject
- Building an Informatica core team
- Project management for various migration projects
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Project Managers statistics
Aggregated from the professional profiles of matched freelancers.
Experience
24 years
Position duration
2.6 years
Positions per freelancer
17
Top business areas
Project Management, Information Technology, Operations
Top industries
Information Technology, Manufacturing, Professional Services
Certification focus areas
Project Management, Information Technology, Product Development
Bachelor's degree or higher
57%
Master's degree or higher
50%
Doctorate
7%
Certifications per freelancer
3
Most common languages
German, English, Spanish
Speak two or more languages
89%
Daily Rate Distribution
The chart shows how the daily rates of freelancers in this role are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows how many freelancers charge within that range. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Average rates for Project Managers & Seniority distribution
Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.
The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.
The median daily rate is the middle value of all daily rates — half of comparable freelancers charge less, half charge more. Unlike the average, it is barely affected by outliers.
Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.
Frequently Asked Questions
Got questions? Learn key details about FRATCH right now
A Project Manager takes ownership of planning, coordination and delivery. They keep scope, timing, dependencies and stakeholders under control so the team can focus on execution. In many projects they also prepare reporting, manage risks and drive decisions when issues block progress.
A freelance Project Manager makes sense when the work is temporary, urgent or tied to a specific change. That is common for rollouts, recovery projects, reorganisations and cross-functional initiatives. If you need delivery leadership now, a freelancer can start without a long hiring cycle.
A strong project lead needs structure, clear communication and the confidence to push for decisions. They should be able to run meetings, write concise status updates and handle conflict without creating noise. Experience with your delivery style, whether Agile, classic or hybrid, matters just as much as tool knowledge.
A Project Manager usually owns one defined initiative or a tight set of workstreams. A programme manager handles a larger group of related projects, while a delivery manager often focuses more on execution flow across teams. In practice, titles overlap, so scope and accountability should be checked first.
Yes, much of the coordination can be handled remotely. Planning, reporting and stakeholder follow-up work well online, while workshops, steering meetings or shop-floor topics may benefit from being on-site in Essen. The right setup depends on how much the project touches local teams, operations or leadership.
This role fits projects with clear milestones, many stakeholders and real dependency risk. Typical examples are IT implementations, process changes, office moves, product launches and vendor-led transformations. If the work needs coordination more than deep technical design, a Project Manager is often the right choice.
Ask for examples of similar projects, the problems they faced and how they kept delivery on track. Good candidates can explain their planning approach, how they manage risks and how they deal with changing priorities. A solid PM gives concrete answers, not vague claims.
Freelancers can expect close contact with business teams, operations and sometimes plant or logistics interfaces. English is often enough for international settings, but German helps when the project involves local stakeholders. Clear scope, decision paths and access to the right people are key for success.
The average hourly rate for Project Managers in Essen is 112 €, which corresponds to a daily rate of about 900 € based on an 8-hour working day.
Of the freelancers working as Project Managers in Essen, 57% hold at least a Bachelor's degree, 50% hold at least a Master's degree, and 7% hold a doctorate.
On average, freelancers working as Project Managers in Essen have 24 years of professional experience, with a single engagement typically lasting around 2.6 years.
The most common languages among freelancers working as Project Managers in Essen are German (100%), English (84%), and Spanish (16%).
The most common industries among freelancers working as Project Managers in Essen are Information Technology (74%), Manufacturing (68%), and Professional Services (63%).
The most common business areas among freelancers working as Project Managers in Essen are Project Management (100%), Information Technology (79%), and Operations (79%).
FRATCH Project Managers main locations
Our freelancers and interim experts are at home across the DACH region — available on-site in the major business hubs or fully remote. Choose a location to discover matched specialists, local market insights and up-to-date availability.
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Philipp Thomaschewski
FRATCH CEO
