What is a Project Manager at Hertz?

As a Project Manager at Hertz, you are the operational engine driving critical initiatives across digital platforms, fleet logistics, and customer experience. Hertz is undergoing significant transformation, modernizing its booking systems, optimizing internal data pipelines, and enhancing the overall rental journey. In this role, you sit at the intersection of strategy and execution, ensuring that complex, multi-disciplinary projects cross the finish line.

Your impact extends directly to both internal teams and global customers. You will collaborate heavily with cross-functional partners—particularly in Design, Data, and Product—to align technical deliverables with business goals. Whether you are rolling out a new feature on the mobile app or optimizing a backend data process for vehicle tracking, your ability to orchestrate moving parts is essential to the company's success.

Expect a dynamic environment where adaptability is just as important as structured planning. At Hertz, the scale is massive, and the problem spaces are highly matrixed. You will be challenged to bring clarity to ambiguous requirements, bridge communication gaps between diverse teams, and maintain momentum even when organizational priorities shift.

Common Interview Questions

Because the Hertz interview process is highly conversational and heavily based on your past experiences, you should expect questions that prompt you to tell detailed stories. The questions below represent the patterns you will face.

Resume & Experience Questions

These questions test the depth of your experience and your ability to articulate your career narrative clearly.

• Walk me through your resume and highlight your most significant project management role.
• Tell me about a project that you are particularly proud of. What was your specific contribution?
• Describe a time when a project you managed failed. What went wrong, and what did you learn?
• How do you transition onto a new team and get up to speed on their ongoing projects?

Cross-Functional Collaboration

These questions evaluate your ability to work smoothly alongside Design, Data, and Product peers.

• Tell me about a time you had to align stakeholders who had completely opposite goals.
• How do you manage a project when you have to rely on a team (like Data or Design) that you do not directly manage?
• Give an example of how you communicated a complex technical issue to a non-technical stakeholder.
• Describe a situation where you had to push back on a senior Product leader. How did you handle it?

Execution & Risk Management

These questions dig into your tactical skills and how you handle adversity during the delivery phase.

• How do you identify and mitigate risks at the beginning of a project?
• Tell me about a time you experienced significant scope creep. How did you manage the timeline?
• Walk me through how you run a typical sprint planning or kickoff meeting.
• What metrics or KPIs do you use to determine if a project is healthy and on track?

Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Thorough preparation requires understanding not just project management frameworks, but how those frameworks apply within a legacy enterprise undergoing digital modernization.

Focus your preparation on these key evaluation criteria:

• Cross-Functional Collaboration – Hertz relies heavily on matrixed teams. Interviewers will evaluate your ability to partner seamlessly with Design, Data, and Product leaders, ensuring you can speak their language and align their distinct priorities.
• Experience and Execution – You will be assessed deeply on your past projects. Interviewers want to see a clear track record of taking initiatives from scoping through to successful delivery, particularly how you handle roadblocks and shifting timelines.
• Communication and Stakeholder Management – Clear, proactive communication is vital. You must demonstrate how you keep stakeholders informed, manage expectations during delayed timelines, and run efficient, productive meetings.
• Adaptability and Resilience – The operational reality at Hertz can sometimes involve fluid schedules and changing requirements. Showing that you can maintain composure and drive results amidst ambiguity is a strong differentiator.

Interview Process Overview

The interview process for a Project Manager at Hertz is generally straightforward in structure but can be highly variable in its timeline. You will typically begin with an initial recruiter screen. Following this, if selected to move forward, you will enter a series of one-on-one interviews. Rather than a single massive panel, Hertz often schedules up to five individual follow-up sessions with different cross-functional stakeholders.

During these rounds, you will speak with senior members from the Product, Design, and Data teams. These conversations lean heavily behavioral. Each interviewer will typically ask you for a short run-through of your resume, followed by a deep dive into your past experiences, and then provide background on their specific team's day-to-day work. The atmosphere is generally described as polite, respectful, and conversational.

Be prepared for the pacing of the process to fluctuate. Candidates frequently experience extended timelines, including unscheduled recruiter outreach or periods of radio silence while internal feedback is consolidated. Patience, flexibility, and proactive follow-up are essential traits to demonstrate throughout your candidacy.

This visual timeline outlines the typical progression from the initial recruiter screen through your cross-functional team interviews. Use this to anticipate the types of stakeholders you will meet and to prepare tailored examples for Design, Data, and Product perspectives. Keep in mind that scheduling between these stages may stretch over several weeks, so manage your energy and follow-ups accordingly.

Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

To succeed in your interviews, you need to understand exactly what your interviewers are looking for in each specific domain.

Resume and Experience Walkthrough

Because Hertz interviewers heavily index on your past work, your ability to concisely and compellingly walk through your resume is critical. Interviewers are looking for a clear narrative of your career progression, the scale of projects you have managed, and your specific, individual contributions to those projects. Strong candidates do not just list their duties; they highlight measurable business outcomes.

Be ready to discuss:

• End-to-end project lifecycles – How you initiate, plan, execute, and close projects.
• Scale and complexity – Budget sizes, team sizes, and the technical depth of your past work.
• Lessons learned – Specific instances where projects failed or underperformed, and how you adapted.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Walk me through your resume, highlighting the projects most relevant to our digital transformation."
• "Tell me about a time a project you managed did not go as planned. What was the outcome?"
• "Describe the most complex initiative you have delivered to date."

Cross-Functional Leadership and Alignment

A Project Manager at Hertz does not work in a silo. Your interview loop will specifically include representatives from Data, Design, and Product. They are evaluating whether you can synthesize user experience goals (Design), technical metrics (Data), and business strategy (Product) into a cohesive project plan. Strong performance here means showing empathy for each discipline's unique challenges.

Be ready to discuss:

• Stakeholder negotiation – Balancing competing priorities between technical and non-technical teams.
• Resource allocation – Managing bandwidth when shared teams (like Data or Design) are overbooked.
• Translating requirements – How you convert business needs into actionable tasks for specialized teams.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "How do you handle a situation where the Design team's vision conflicts with the Product team's timeline?"
• "Tell me about a time you had to rely on a Data or Analytics team to unblock your project."
• "How do you ensure all cross-functional stakeholders remain aligned during a long-term engagement?"

Delivery Methodologies and Risk Management

Execution is the core of the role. Interviewers want to know how you keep the trains running on time. You will be evaluated on your practical application of Agile, Scrum, or Waterfall methodologies, and more importantly, your proactive approach to identifying and mitigating risks before they derail a launch.

Be ready to discuss:

• Agile ceremonies and artifacts – Running stand-ups, sprint planning, and retrospectives.
• Risk mitigation strategies – How you foresee bottlenecks and create contingency plans.
• Status reporting – How you communicate project health to senior leadership.
• Advanced concepts – Managing hybrid delivery models (e.g., Agile software development paired with Waterfall hardware/fleet rollouts).

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Walk me through your process for identifying project risks early in the lifecycle."
• "How do you handle scope creep when a stakeholder requests a major change mid-sprint?"
• "Describe your approach to keeping executive leadership informed without overwhelming them with details."

Key Responsibilities

As a Project Manager, your day-to-day work revolves around creating structure out of ambiguity. You will be responsible for defining project scopes, establishing timelines, and holding cross-functional teams accountable for their deliverables. This involves facilitating daily stand-ups, leading sprint planning sessions, and maintaining a rigorous cadence of status reporting for leadership.

You will act as the primary bridge between the Product, Design, and Data teams. For example, if Hertz is launching a new dynamic pricing model on its app, you will ensure the Data team delivers the pricing algorithms on time, the Design team finalizes the UI, and the Product team signs off on the user journey. You will track all dependencies, manage risks, and clear roadblocks that threaten the launch date.

Beyond execution, you will also focus on process improvement. Hertz values Project Managers who can identify inefficiencies in how teams collaborate and implement new tools or workflows to streamline communication. Your role is not just to manage the current project, but to elevate the overall delivery maturity of the organization.

Role Requirements & Qualifications

To be a highly competitive candidate for this role at Hertz, you must demonstrate a blend of operational rigor and high emotional intelligence.

• Must-have skills – Proven experience managing end-to-end project lifecycles. Deep familiarity with Agile/Scrum methodologies and project management tools (e.g., Jira, Confluence, Asana). Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional meetings.
• Experience level – Typically requires 3 to 5+ years of dedicated project management experience, ideally within enterprise environments, digital product teams, or operational logistics.
• Soft skills – High tolerance for ambiguity, extreme patience, and strong stakeholder management capabilities. You must be comfortable influencing peers without having direct authority over them.
• Nice-to-have skills – Previous experience in the travel, mobility, or automotive industries. Familiarity with data analytics workflows and UX/UI design lifecycles. Certifications such as PMP, CSM, or PMI-ACP are highly regarded but rarely strict dealbreakers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How long does the interview process typically take? The timeline at Hertz can be highly variable. Candidates have reported processes taking anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months, sometimes with extended periods of silence while internal feedback is gathered. Patience and proactive follow-ups are key.

Q: Who will I be interviewing with? After the initial recruiter screen, you will typically have individual interviews with senior members of the teams you will support. This almost always includes representatives from Product, Design, and Data.

Q: How technical are the interviews for this role? The interviews are not highly technical in a coding sense, but you must possess a strong conceptual understanding of how technical products are built. You need to hold your own in conversations with Data and Engineering teams to effectively manage their timelines.

Q: Do I need to prepare a presentation or case study? Generally, no. The process relies heavily on deep-dive conversations into your resume and past experiences rather than take-home assignments or formal presentations.

Q: What is the culture like during the interviews? Candidates consistently report that the interviewers are polite, respectful, and eager to share details about their day-to-day work and the company culture. The conversations are designed to feel collaborative rather than interrogative.

Other General Tips

• Master Your Resume Narrative: Because every interviewer will ask you to walk through your background, ensure your elevator pitch is tight, engaging, and directly highlights your experience with cross-functional teams.
• Prepare Specific Examples for Specific Teams: Since you will meet with Design, Data, and Product, have at least one strong STAR-method story ready that highlights your successful collaboration with each of those specific disciplines.
• Be Proactive with Scheduling: Given that recruiter communication can sometimes be sporadic or unscheduled, keep a close eye on your inbox and be as flexible as possible if a recruiter reaches out for a quick sync.

• Embrace the Ambiguity: If an interviewer asks an open-ended or vague question, use it as an opportunity to demonstrate your project management skills. Ask clarifying questions to narrow the scope before you provide your answer.
• Highlight Your Adaptability: Hertz is navigating complex industry shifts. Emphasize your ability to stay calm under pressure, pivot when priorities change, and keep your team motivated during long-haul projects.

Summary & Next Steps

Securing a Project Manager role at Hertz is an opportunity to drive highly visible, impactful initiatives at a massive global scale. By stepping into this position, you become the vital link that connects Product, Design, and Data, turning ambitious business strategies into operational realities.

Your preparation should focus heavily on mastering your own professional narrative. Be ready to articulate exactly how you manage risks, align difficult stakeholders, and push projects across the finish line. Remember that the interview process may test your patience with variable timelines, but approaching each conversation with enthusiasm, flexibility, and a collaborative mindset will set you apart from the competition.

This compensation data provides a baseline for what you can expect in a Project Manager role, though actual offers will vary based on your location, specific experience level, and the complexity of the portfolio you will manage. Use this information to anchor your salary expectations and negotiate confidently when the time comes.

You have the organizational skills and the leadership capabilities to excel in this process. Take the time to refine your behavioral stories, practice your delivery, and leverage the additional resources and insights available on Dataford to polish your strategy. Approach your interviews with confidence—you are ready to make a significant impact at Hertz.