Project Manager

Project Manager

Chicago, IL (Remote until fall)

6+ month contract

Contact Mary at mnugent@forbestc.com

Required Skills:

• Bachelor's degree

• PMI PMP certification preferred Experience:

• 7+ years of professional, project management and client relationship management

• Solid track record of successfully developing multi-faceted projects from start to completion, on time and within budget

• Must be a detail-oriented self-starter, with strong planning and organizational skills

• Professional presentation, training and client-facing skills

• Excellent communication skills

• Effective negotiation and conflict management/risk mitigation skills

• Experience in proposal creation, planning & estimation, and execution of projects

• Ability to work well under pressure Unit

Preferred Skills:

• Demonstrated ability to create business case, scope documentation, work breakdown structures, project schedules, budget and resource estimates, risk and issue management plans, change management plans, and status reports throughout the entire project

• Ability to read business requirements or deliverables for completeness and accuracy

• Knowledge of the software development life cycle

• Ability to understand and apply concepts such as resource utilization, work effort, percent to complete and project health.

• Ability to identify and resolve problems in timely manner

• Ability to work independently and in team settings

• Ability to be flexible and adaptable to changing environments and business situations

• Ability to maintain confidentiality and follow IT and other university policies regarding data security and protection

• Ability to communicate technical ideas and concepts to non-technical audiences

• Excellent client facing skills including exceptional oral and written communication skills, specifically with executive project sponsors

• Knowledge of PMI’s Project Management Body of Knowledge processes and standards

• Detail oriented, results focused, possess effective written and verbal communication skills, and be able to support change management initiatives

Responsibilities:
? Estimate Projects: Comfortable working with business resources, IT professionals, third party professionals, and other resources to create a time and financial estimate. Capable of leading an initial Discovery project phase in order to drive answers to the questions required to create an estimate.

? Plan Projects: Securing resources and integrating them into detailed project schedule reflecting tasks and estimates is a fundamental responsibility of the project manager. The project manager will be capable of leveraging the estimates with the skills required on a project to generate a detailed work plan encompassing all phases and resources needed to deliver a project across the organization. The project manager is expected to adhere to an appropriate SDLC (e.g. – waterfall, agile, hybrid)– and layout the phases and resources to deliver the expected benefits

? Monitor and Communicate Progress: Follow ITS PMO processes and methodologies to keep the projects on task and ensure the project is progressing as planned. Status reported and communicated at the appropriate level of detail to the team, IT management and business stakeholders. The project manager will be experienced in monitoring a project vs the plan, identifying course corrections that may be required and keeping project management deliverables (e.g. – workplans, estimates) up to date as these changes occur.

? Track and Manage the Budget: Overall responsibility for ensuring that project objectives are met within budget. Track actuals and forecasted expenditures.

? Execution: Execute project work plans and revise as appropriate to meet changing needs and requirements. Manage and motivate cross functional and vendor teams to deliver project within defined scope, scheduled timeline, and approved budget.

? Documentation: Manages all project documentation according to standards. Produce project lifecycle documentation, including project schedules, status reports and all other documentation defining project requirements.

? Quality: Monitor the quality of all aspects of the project: scope, risk, schedule, budget, delivery and all associated communication.

? Issue/Risk Management: Uses project experience, technical knowledge and team collaboration to identify, assess, and mitigate project issues and risks. Adjusts resources and plans accordingly to meet project objectives. Lead process of issue identification and resolution. Manage risk tracking process

? Relationships: Collaborate with business partners, technology staff and vendors to define scope, desired results and deliverables.

? Quality Management: Ensures quality control of the project methodology and contributes to the further enhancement and application of the methodology.

Contact:

Mary Nugent

Senior Recruiting Consultant

Forbes Technical Consulting

Mnugent@forbestc.com