Firm Operations Project Manager

Cooley LLP•Washington, DC

About The Position

Cooley LLP is seeking a Project Manager to join the Firm Operations team. The Firm Operations Project Manager will proactively manage multiple related critical projects to achieve a specific organizational goal(s), ensuring that all requisite projects are being actively driven and seamlessly coordinated with the firm’s evolving platform/data and digital workplace strategies. The Firm Operations Project Manager should, at a moment’s notice, be able to report accurately and cohesively regarding the status of a given project and should feel comfortable managing up to five high-profile initiatives simultaneously. As a team member within central firm operations, the Firm Operations Project Manager is expected to understand the full intake/demand cycle, inclusive of budgeting and procurement so that they may guide their program stakeholders through an end-to-end experience with all operational aspects of program-related business.

Requirements

After orientation at Cooley LLP, exhibit proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite, iManage and other firm applications
Ability to work extended and/or weekend hours, as required
Ability to travel, as required
3+ years project management and planning experience implementing projects
Senior candidates must have 5+ years applicable experience in the field.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree
Certified Project Manager (from accredited program) and/or PMP credential
Experience with a suite of projects/programs inclusive of process reengineering and improvement, software and vendor evaluation and selection (RFPs) and implementation, and agile custom software development
Experience working in the legal and/or operations industry

Responsibilities

Establish rapid familiarity with various project lifecycles including but not limited to agile custom software development, software and vendor selection (RFI/RFP), process reengineering initiatives; extensively research project frameworks where required to quickly self-start and deliver various types of projects successfully
Critically analyze work on receipt and on an ongoing basis, ensuring the most efficient and cost-effective options are employed, factoring in detailed assessments of in-house assets and proposing business process changes where appropriate
Ensure that business needs and desired project outcomes are documented and measured (during and post-implementation) at a detailed and comprehensive level, continually leading to better decisions and investments
Extensively research and understand market relevance (and alternatives) and monitor for changing conditions that may impact the scope or body of work
Proactively build and maintain delivery and test plans that are built to surface issues, risks and dependencies as early as possible; ensure that project/task dates, assignments and regular updates are made consistently in the project management platform (project plans in the firm’s PPM platform should serve as one-stop shop for what’s happening on a given project at any point in time)
Ensure stakeholder and firm operational readiness for delivery of work, build and deliver change management and communication plans accordingly
Ensure that all key project artifacts are delivered – roles and responsibilities, scope statement/charter, business requirements, test plan, release plan, change management and communication plan, etc
Proactively and transparently communicate bodies of work, progress/stoppages, potential risks and issues to team leadership on a proactive and ongoing basis; when in doubt, escalate
Work intra and inter team to understand, evaluate and action enterprise resource constraints, work/delivery overlap, and areas where outcomes and business benefits are not adequately well-defined to warrant firm investment
Adhere to consistently evolving and improving delivery standards established by team/department leadership
Establish and maintain program-level KPIs and reports
All other duties as required