Associate Project Manager - Fun 101

Target • Minneapolis, MN

21h • Hybrid

About The Position

The Product Operations team within Owned Brands is comprised of project managers, operations managers, and innovation strategists. An Associate Project Manager is an entry level position on the Project Management Team. Responsible for partnering with Sr./Project Mangers & a cross-functional team to drive all phases of Owned Brand product creation - from project kick off through results analysis. You will also be responsible for understanding the overall business objectives, for their respective categories, and establishing the optimal product & packaging approach to deliver on the business and guest needs. This role requires ability to be local to Minneapolis or willingness to relocate. The team works in office 3 days/week An Associate Project Manager will support both Sr./Project Managers that have total ownership of departments or product categories.

Requirements

• 1-2 years of Project Management experience or experience running structured well-coordinated approaches to projects.
• Written and verbal communication skills & comfortable communicating with all levels, including Sr. level leaders.
• Strong organizational skills & excellent attention to detail.
• High sense of urgency, initiative, & proactive planning.
• Ability to work in collaborative team environment and manage relationships with team and key business partners.
• Interpersonal skills.
• Ability to think critically and solve problems.

Nice To Haves

• Understanding of product development.
• Ability to confidently facilitate conversations with multiple partners & drive solutions.
• Understanding of change management best practices.
• Knowledge of Project Management systems & tools – Smartsheet preferred.

Responsibilities

• Support Project Plan, Milestone & End to End Timing & Action management to bring integrated project & packaging creation process to life.
• Partner with Sr./Project Manager when establishing the optimal approach for the project, product category, and business partners to ensure efficiencies are in place and guest needs are met - including research & development and out of cycle activities for all Owned Brand categories
• Partner with Sr./Project Manager, cross-functional team & stakeholders to define project requirements, constraints, and assumptions in order to establish deliverables, resources & skills needed, and timelines.
• Outline project requirements and seek necessary input from all functional areas.
• Ensure project aligns with primary project calendar and delivers on business objectives, strategy, and project goals.
• Coordinate all tasks outlined in the project plan (from Kick-off through Results Analysis).
• Identify opportunities for efficiencies and in future projects by leveraging analytics, reporting, & hind-sighting to drive future project plan improvements.
• Partner with Sr./Project Manager when establishing a single source of truth (timing & action (T&A)) that clearly outlines owners, actions, and timing from project activation through results analysis evaluation.
• Partner with Sr./Project Manager to track T&A activities, document change to drive accountability & to apply learnings to future projects
• Project resource management activities & process
• Partner with key stake holders to align resources to project plans to achieve desired outcomes.
• Track resource changes, risks & apply learnings to future projects.
• Drive Owned Brand Business Results by facilitating the cross-functional Owned Brand Product creation process.
• Unbiased, thought partner that partners with Sr./Project Manager & leads CFT members through Owned Brand product & packaging creation.
• Build relationships with all AOE’s required to participate in the project.
• Partner with Sr./Project Manager to assist them as the facilitator of cross-functional team meetings, and milestone meetings.
• Monitor compliance of activities from Project Kick-off through Results Analysis.
• Partner with Sr. /Project Manager to identify, track, & facilitate risk mitigation plans by anticipating potential roadblocks & risk before they occur.
• Understand implications of risk and escalate conclusions to the appropriate levels.
• Use problem solving & critical thinking skills to facilitate effective decision making within the cross-functional team.
• Create project plan visibility through the use of dashboards & communication.
• Establish a centralized location for project teams and leaders to access information regarding the health & progress of each development cycle.
• In partnership with the Sr./Project Manager, execute a post-launch project evaluation for every project and use lessons learned to identify opportunities to enhance future cycle development.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health benefits and programs, which may include medical, vision, dental, life insurance and more
• 401(k)
• employee discount
• short term disability
• long term disability
• paid sick leave
• paid national holidays
• paid vacation

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees