Position: Project Manager
Location: Boston, MA 02114
Duration: End of Jun 2023 (extendable to FY24)

Background

The client seeks to protect, preserve, and enhance the Commonwealth's environmental resources while ensuring and promoting a clean energy future for the state's residents. Through the stewardship of open space, protection of environmental resources, and enhancement of clean energy, the client works tirelessly to make Massachusetts a wonderful place to live, work, and raise a family.

Massachusetts was the first state in the nation to combine energy and environmental agencies under one Cabinet secretary. The client serves Commonwealth residents interested in outdoor recreational activities, clean energy solutions and those who work with animals and livestock. Equally, the client works with energy consumers, power companies, clean energy providers and farmers to delicately balance the interaction with environmental protection laws and regulations while being a cornerstone for our economic prosperity.

Job Description

• In this role, The Project Manager will manage the processes, standards, and technologies the client PMO uses to maintain the IT project portfolio, schedules, and backlog.
• This role will lead the evolution of a highly-visible, complex and critical program and associated IT projects from scoping through development, delivery, and operational activities.
• This role will be responsible for the management of the complete software development life cycle and post-release operational maintenance for the assigned programs.
• This selected candidate will work closely with leads, as well as IT managers, application development, infrastructure, and telecom/network teams, to drive program planning and execution of complex enterprise software development projects and post-release operational activities throughout the software life cycle.
• Responsible for management of technical projects in whole or in part for the client IT.
• Can direct technical staff and manage the activities of all aspects of the project life cycle. Understands complex technical scenarios and requirements and can ferret out obstacles to progress and suggest alternative strategies and directions.
• This role will report to the Director, Project Management Office

Responsibilities:

• The Project Manager is responsible for ensuring designated program(s) and projects are well-planned, executed efficiently, and delivered with high quality.
• The program manager will work across multiple projects and facilitate activities of cross-functional teams to ensure that pre-determined specifications, timelines, and objectives are met.
• This role will work closely with the technical team(s) to plan out a program roadmap, to plan and accomplish time-bound milestones, and to ensure the operational readiness and viability of release products.
• The program manager is responsible for reporting Project status to the Director - PMO, and Director of Application Development, project leads, senior IT, and leads, including the articulation of impediments, risk analysis, risk mitigations, timeline and budget impacts.
• This role will collaborate in the application and continuous improvement of project management for all projects, and will employ appropriate and consistent project management processes, methods, and tools according to the project's requirements.
• This includes maturing the program's vendor management strategy and facilitating teamwork within development teams.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Coordinating and supporting the efforts of the resources required to successfully implement project goals and objectives within the prescribed timeframe and budget, escalating when timeline and/or budget deviations are identified.
• Working with the program team to develop the detailed project workplan, including review of current process improvement opportunities, work breakdown structure, weekly development schedule, and key metrics and deliverables.
• Proactively resolving routine and moderate scope issues, exercising judgement within defined procedures and practices to determine appropriate action, and collaborating with the project team and other departments to resolve issues which affect the project execution.
• Facilitating regular project reviews (including scrum sessions); participating in individual scrum planning meetings as needed.
• Leading regular/weekly meetings with the project team, as necessary, including development sprints.
• Managing cross-team dependencies, coordinating cross-team initiatives and identify blocking issues.
• Managing release planning and scheduling.
• Managing and developing the project tracking and the development workflow, including management of backlog/pending tickets, and delivery of regular status reports and metrics.
• Driving information capturing and sharing and disseminating best practices across IT; providing clear project communication to stakeholders across all levels, departments, and skillsets.
• Developing, managing, and maintaining accurate and thorough project documentation and reports. This includes, but is not limited to, feature definition and scope, an executable communication plan throughout the product life cycle, as well as the project plan, risk register, and high-level executive summaries.
• Facilitating participation from the program team, developers, and other project reviewers as required during the engagement, and facilitating scheduling.
• Coordinating review of the Deliverables and sign off of an acceptance form to signify acceptance for each Deliverable.
• Supporting and contributing to the development of the IT PMO, including providing input and feedback related to IT staffing, allocation, and tracking, and leveraging previous experience to understand the current environment and to challenge/expose areas of opportunity.
• Assist in any necessary transition of project management duties.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of relevant hands-on experience in IT Project Management
• Experience managing software design and development in a test-driven environment
• Experience program or project managing IT vendors as well as internal IT teams.
• Strong working knowledge of software development, Agile (Scrum, Kanban)/ hybrid-agile and Waterfall methodologies
• Experience working on multiple projects with time sensitive deadlines
• Must be able to communicate with non-technical (business) and technical (development team) audiences
• Certified Scrum Master is preferred
• Experience with Jira is preferred.
• Experience with Smartsheet and/or Power BI is a plus.
• Government experience is preferred but not required

Required Skills:

• Must have exceptional verbal and written communication skills and be an effective communicator.
• Must be highly organized
• Must be able to work independently, and direct technical staff with a collaborative, hands-on approach
• Understands technical scenarios and requirements
• Ability to manage all aspects of the project life cycle and to manage strategically through obstacles
• Ability to understand and compare tracking data/ ability to complete or learn to complete quantitative analysis
• Comfort working in a fluid environment where visions and requirements may change
• Ability to learn new tools/technology and work within multiple tracking formats
• Excellent customer service skills