Senior Project Manager

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana•Baton Rouge, LA

About The Position

We take great strides to ensure our employees have the resources to live well, be healthy, continue learning, develop skills, grow professionally and serve our local communities. We invite you to apply for a career with Blue Cross. Residency in or relocation to Louisiana is preferred for all positions. POSITION PURPOSE This individual contributor position facilitates the coordination of personnel and other resources (e.g. contractors, vendor partners) required to successfully complete a series of individual, complex and highly visible projects, ensuring the delivery of quality business outcomes including project deliverables, new and improved processes, and services. The Senior Project Manager manages projects of high complexity and high visibility, and operates in a tightly regulated industry environment. The Senior Project Manager is directly responsible for ensuring the execution of all key steps in project delivery: business, technical and functional requirements elicitation, dependency mapping, milestone projections, task-level program steps, identification and regular publishing of metrics which define project success. The position must regularly monitor work to ensure that projects remain in line with projected costs and timelines. This is accomplished by ensuring the adoption of well-established, industry best practice frameworks and methodologies. The Senior Project Manager is accountable for complying with all laws and regulations associated with duties and responsibilities. NATURE AND SCOPE This role does not manage people This role reports to this job: DIRECTOR, PROJECT EXECUTION Necessary Contacts: INSIDE RELATIONSHIPS: Interfaces directly with client management (senior management, business owners and project team members) in negotiation and definition of requirements. Negotiates, defines, interprets plan/policy requirements and presents options and processing capabilities to upper level management. Provides guidance and direction to all areas placing requirements on the system. Has management responsibility for highly complex cross-divisional projects with cross-department and cross-organization impacts. Interfaces frequently with IT, PMO and business leaders. Exercises diplomacy and tact in discussions with client management on controversial subjects. OUTSIDE RELATIONSHIPS: Frequent contact with client management to exchange information and/or make presentations on information systems concepts. Reviews and maintains contact with selected user groups with similar problems and user organizations. Attends outside technical meetings as directed, making presentations when necessary.

Requirements

Bachelor's Project Management, Computer Science, or related field required
Completion of an approved educational program or four years of related experience may be accepted in lieu of degree.
4 years of experience in planning and implementing projects including developing scope, goals, work plans, timelines, implementation strategies and measurement processes for assessing progress toward goals and project outcomes.
The 4 years must include a minimum of three years of experience in senior-level planning and implementing projects including developing scope, goals, work plans, timelines, implementation strategies and measurement processes for assessing progress toward goals and project outcomes.
High degree of competency with PMBOK methodologies and frameworks such as project management, software development life cycle and ITIL.
Requires advanced knowledge and experience in the field of computer science, including hardware and software products, computer systems, systems analysis, programming, development/maintenance process, and data management for large complex systems.
Strong oral and written communication skills with the ability to create and deliver presentations to organization management including Senior Management are required.
Must have demonstrated ability to effectively manage project teams independently with minimal oversight from management.
Ability to demonstrate presentation and facilitation skills working with key stakeholders and management including executive management required.
Experience in interpreting and explaining specialized or complex material into information consumable by the public required.
Must have demonstrated ability to critically analyze business information and process flows, gather relevant requirements and generate business, functional and technical specifications needed for successful delivery.
Must have experience identifying, defining, quantifying and solving complex or highly technical project-related issues on a regular basis.
Must have experience using creativity/innovative approaches to resolve issues despite minimum lead times and with minimum requirement definition for changes or projects of major proportions.
Must have experience correlating requirements and information from multiple sources, anticipating both current and future processing and management information needs, analyzing their potential impacts, and creating new technical solutions for these needs.

Nice To Haves

Six Sigma and Organizational development best practices a plus.
PMI certification preferred

Responsibilities

Continuously adheres to project management standards, processes, and procedures to ensure that products and services meet the client requirements in a cost-efficient manner.
Mentors junior-level project managers in areas of professional development and skills enhancement.
Actively pursues personal skills and leadership development opportunities to ensure growth and the ability to demonstrate a high level of quality and productivity.
Actively participates in the aligning of work and work habits with the organization’s strategic and complementary tactical plans. The strategy and tactics are to be responsive to and properly aligned with the organization’s mission, goals, and objectives.
Adheres to project and quality related processes in collaboration with fellow project managers and department management.
Demonstrates leadership in evaluating current processes, recommending improvement opportunities, and evangelizing new processes with project management staff.
Develops, manages, and builds strong relationships / partnerships with clients, vendors, peers/other teams, and staff to ensure a high level of personal and team understanding of the client’s business operations, IT support needs, and IT service expectations.
Effectively manage all areas of projects including initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closing of projects.
Effectively manage multiple large to extra-large initiatives, the majority of which are complex and cross-functional in nature.
Manage initiatives that are high strategic and operational priorities with high visibility at the senior management level. These projects may range in duration from six months to three years or more, and may involve a budget of $1,000,000 or more.
Coordinate management of larger, more complex, cross-functional projects with support from junior project management staff.
Provide regular reporting and visibility on project statuses.
Define and oversee the business and financial results expected from a project; develop implementation plans, conduct risk assessments and develop and implement strategy; must ensure that project will effectively integrate with existing competing project and strategies to both short and long term business goals.
Identify and assemble project teams, identify in advance necessary resources and assign tasks and timeframes to facilitate successful completion of identified projects.
Manage technical challenges of applications and new product development; identify, communicate and manage all levels of risk to project business owners and senior management.
Successfully identify and communicate risk, scope creep and create actionable risk mitigation plans.
Understands Departmental Goals and Objectives and delivers work products to contribute to those goals.
Perform other job-related duties as assigned, within your scope of responsibilities.