Sr. IT Project Manager

Dairy Farmers of America•Kansas City, KS

About The Position

Manage all aspects of project delivery for large and/or complex projects as assigned by the IT PMO. This includes working with business and IT stakeholders to define detailed requirements, resource planning, usability design, sprint planning, risk management, change management, training, and service introduction. Resource planning may involve identifying necessary skillsets and recruiting external resources. A critical component of this role is communicating with project stakeholders, informing them, and escalating issues as needed. Guide the efforts of project team members, including internal resources and third-party contractors, to deliver projects according to plan. Projects may require the acquisition or selection of new resources and technologies, and can encompass all IT disciplines such as infrastructure, applications, reporting, and end-user technologies. Projects will be managed using the DFA IT project implementation methodology, which supports waterfall, agile, and hybrid processes. This role will champion DFA IT governance processes and coach others to support ongoing expansion. Success is measured by the ability to plan, execute, and deliver projects that meet stakeholder expectations on time and within budget.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, or business administration
8+ years project management experience, preferably in a manufacturing or fluid milk marketing environment, coupled with strong leadership skills and experience implementing large/complex projects
Knowledge of Agile and Waterfall methodologies
General understanding of IT technical infrastructure including basic networking, phone systems, servers, database, cloud, and disaster recovery
Able to facilitate work sessions for business process re-engineering and optimization
Able to drive IT and business process standardization and best practices
Able to demonstrate solid business judgment and decision-making skills; able to make well-informed and reasoned decisions in a short period of time
Able to elicit cooperation from a wide variety of sources, including upper management, clients, and other departments
Able to work independently and in a team-oriented, collaborative environment
Able to conform to shifting priorities, demands, and timelines through analytical and problem-solving capabilities
Able to communicate clearly and effectively, both verbally and in writing, for a diverse range of internal and external audiences; able to communicate technical information to non-technical individuals
Able to bring project to successful completion through political sensitivity
Able to build a collaborative working environment
Able to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment
Able to learn, understand, and apply new technologies
Skill in conducting research into project-related issues and products
Working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite, specifically Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Teams, and Share Point
Must be able to read, write and speak English

Nice To Haves

Experience with one or more of the following is preferred: SAP, JDE, Salesforce, Networking, Infrastructure
Project Management Institute PMP certification preferred; SAP certifications, Six Sigma Black Belt, or other similar certifications preferred

Responsibilities

Direct and manage project delivery from beginning to end, ensuring all critical project milestones are met.
Collaborate with business stakeholders to fully understand the business case, value realization plan, and post go live success criteria and metrics.
Define project scope, goals, and deliverables; work with IT and business leadership to ensure the project goals support the business goals.
Define the implementation approach and utilize the DFA IT project implementation methodology.
Develop and/or oversee development of all project artifacts including detailed project plans, status updates and communications, presentations, requirements documentation, architecture diagrams, training bundles, etc. as required by the DFA IT project implementation methodology.
Develop project staffing plan and work with business and IT stakeholders to recruit/assign resources; where required, lead the selection and contracting of external resources, technology, and service providers.
Develop project budget, when required, and work with IT and business stakeholders to successfully deliver the project within budget.
Liaise with project stakeholders on an ongoing basis, across multiple locations and leadership levels.
Work with business stakeholders to define the project stakeholder management, change management, and project communications approach. At times, creating and executing a comprehensive change and communications plan might require collaboration with the HR and the Communications organizations.
Set and continually manage and communicate project expectations to team members and other stakeholders.
Ensure solution is fully tested with documented test results utilizing test plans, scenarios and test scripts.
Proactively manage, communicate, and mitigate project issues and risks.
Proactively manage changes in project scope and assumptions.
Identify and manage project dependencies and critical path.
Manage the delivery of work across multiple IT organizations, as needed.
Coach, mentor, motivate, and supervise project team members and contractors and influence them to take positive action and accountability for their assigned work.
Cultivate business relationships vital to the success of the project.
Facilitate escalation, as needed.
Develop and execute change management plans to ensure the organization is ready to adopt new systems and processes.
Plan and execute service introduction steps to ensure successful support of the new systems and processes.
Ensure steady state support goals are achieved as per the agreed schedule prior to the completion of the hyper-care phase.
Complete project close and sunset review with project stakeholders.