Senior IT Project Manager

The Senior Project Manager (PM) is responsible for leading and overseeing projects for various business units. The Senior PM is a key liaison between business stakeholders, IT teams, and various third-party vendors. This position creates comprehensive project plans, and manages cross-functional resources, scope, interdependencies, timelines, and budgets for projects. The Senior PM will manage issues, risks, and Change Requests (CR) to ensure successful, on-budget, and timely project delivery, facilitating smooth transitions to Application Support and our Helpdesk. Additionally, the role will contribute to process improvement and automation initiatives aimed at enhancing project delivery efficiency.

Responsibilities:

• Lead end-to-end project management activities, overseeing the full project lifecycle from initiation to closure, ensuring strict adherence to budgets, timelines, and key milestones.
• Develop and implement comprehensive project plans, including scope definition, work breakdown structures, resource allocation, and risk management strategies using project management tools.
• Monitor and track project expenses, ensuring alignment with approved budgets, and communicate any critical path impacts to stakeholders.
• Assess, communicate, and mitigate risks, implementing contingency plans to address potential issues and ensure timely delivery.
• Oversee the implementation of new solutions, feature enhancements, bug fixes, and operational reporting, coordinating backlog items and ensuring timely delivery.
• Report on project progress to stakeholders and executives, providing both detailed and high-level summaries, and managing project success criteria and metrics.
• Lead regular meetings with cross-functional teams to facilitate decision-making, gather feedback, and optimize project solutions.
• Manage vendor relationships, including request for proposal (RFP) processes, scope reviews, cost-benefit analyses, and legal compliance assessments.
• Coordinate and manage change orders and ensure alignment with company standards.
• Develop and execute change management documentation and communication plans for end-users, ensuring a smooth transition during project Go-Live and handoff to the support team.
• Secure acceptance and approval of deliverables from the project sponsor and stakeholders, ensuring project objectives and performance standards are met.
• Conduct post-project reviews and document lessons learned, storing and maintaining all project artifacts and deliverables.
• Drive long-term efficiencies through strategic planning, process improvements, and the application of practical process improvement tools and techniques throughout all project phases.
• Resolve escalated project issues and risks, coordinating with sponsors to assess impact and propose mitigation strategies.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Business (e.g., Marketing, Product Management) 
• Minimum 7 years of progressive experience working on software development projects
• At least 5 years of experience in project/program management roles, preferably within consulting, media, or entertainment firms.
• Proven ability to lead projects using both Agile and Waterfall methodologies.
• Extensive experience in creating and managing project budgets, including monthly forecasts, weekly expenditure tracking, and comparing forecasts with actual spend to mitigate cost overrun risks.
• Proficiency in other project management tools like Jira (or similar) for backlog grooming, managing user stories, tracking bugs, implementing fixes, and documenting test results.
• Demonstrated proficiency in using Smartsheet to create and manage project plans, including advanced formula usage, custom fields and data validation, conditional formatting, automation workflows, reporting and dashboards.
• Advanced skills in MS Excel/Google Sheets, including writing complex formulas, and creating 3D charts.
• Proven track record of developing executive-level reports and presentations using PowerPoint/Google Slides.
• Ability to create logical data models and process flows/maps using tools like DrawIO, Microsoft Visio, or other design software.
• Demonstrated ability to perform fit-gap analysis by comparing business requirements with system capabilities.
• Strong leadership skills, with the ability to motivate and inspire teams to achieve high performance
• Experience working with business stakeholders at all management levels to gather, document, and translate functional and technical requirements into Project Charters, Business Requirements Documents (BRD), Functional Requirement Specifications (FRS), and user stories.
• Strong background in organizing User Acceptance Testing (UAT), developing test plan templates, and coordinating issue resolution during manual and/or automated testing processes.
• Experience managing offshore/nearshore resources, ensuring alignment with project goals and timelines.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) and Project Management Professional (PMP) certifications.
• Experience with HRIS systems like Dayforce.
• Knowledge of CRM systems such as Zoho and marketing applications like Sailthru.
• Experience with ERP systems, particularly Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations.