Technology Project Manager (Temporary)

University of Washington • Seattle, WA

4d

About The Position

The University of Washington’s Office of Research is hiring a Sr. Technology Project Manager for a one-year temporary term appointment, with an opportunity to renew. Reporting to the Agile PMO Manager, this role develops, directs, manages, and coordinates software integration and development projects for researcher-specific projects. The manager facilitates consensus among business owners and stakeholders and develops and implements project management approaches aligned with agreed business goals. The position requires independent judgment in prioritizing information and discretion and diplomacy within the University’s administrative environment.

The role provides project leadership across software development teams, including serving as a Scrum Master, planning and coordinating project work, managing scope, schedules, budgets, resources, risks, and communications, and supporting delivery and release activities. It also analyzes stakeholder needs and requirements, develops project and business analysis artifacts, leads workgroups, recommends solutions, and facilitates agreement on priorities and requirements. The position promotes agile practices and ongoing process improvement with University partners.

The position works collaboratively in a shared-space team environment with software developers, website team members, business analysts, project managers, editors, quality assurance, support staff, and others. It is primarily expected to follow standard working hours aligned with the Pacific Time zone, but off-hours work may be required for go-lives, incidents, and deployments. Inflexible deadlines are common, and non-standard hours may be necessary.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Computer Science, Information Science, or a related field.
• Four to five years of experience in project management/business analysis, or in a role involving progressively more complex and responsible project leadership and analysis tasks.
• Experience managing, leading, and participating in progressively more complex projects or product development.
• Demonstrated experience with project management methodologies and best practices, including project planning, resource management, consensus building, and process improvement.
• Demonstrated project management experience with vendor product technical implementations, including supporting RFI/RFP vendor selection and procurement, partnering with vendor resources, building consensus, and preparing development team plans for technical solutions not supported by the vendor product.
• Experience leading Agile software development teams.
• Excellent verbal, written, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Experience managing organizational change in coordination with technical improvements.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, work with, and support cross-functional project teams.
• Strong customer focus and relationship management skills with key partners.
• Strong diagnostic and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to excel and adapt in a demanding, constantly changing environment.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and cooperatively as part of a team.
• Strong knowledge and experience with Microsoft Word, Excel, Visio, and PowerPoint.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in higher education, especially at a large, complex research university.
• Certified Scrum Master (CSM) certification.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.
• Business Analysis Certification Program (BACP) certification.
• Program management experience.

Responsibilities

• Define scope, risks, and objectives for releases, projects, and project phases; develop schedules and budgets; and monitor progress and risk across multiple work streams.
• Ensure project teams have adequate resources, skills, and support to deliver prioritized work.
• Serve software development teams as Scrum Master by facilitating Scrum ceremonies, removing impediments, and coordinating feature development, testing, releases, and communications across product teams.
• Promote agile project management and software development best practices.
• Meet with internal and external stakeholders to schedule projects and features based on managers’ prioritization.
• Lead teams effectively through unstructured problems and create the structure needed to achieve results.
• Facilitate resolution of project issues, determining appropriate escalation and resolution paths.
• Manage project scope, schedules, budgets, status reporting, plans, risk mitigation, and project execution and control activities.
• Provide direct and indirect oversight for assigned projects; evaluate needed resources and make recommendations or requests.
• Work with management to evaluate and communicate business issues and risks to campus clients and team members.
• Implement processes and policies for collecting and reporting project performance metrics.
• Initiate proposals when products need upgrading or replacement, or when products must be built or acquired to fill gaps.
• Advise on the impact of novel, developing, and mature IT solutions as they relate to UW research.
• Review stakeholder and user interview requirements to ensure proposed approaches and solutions meet objectives and future needs, and identify gaps.
• Analyze problems and risks, draw conclusions, make recommendations, and define and report project impact metrics.
• Lead workgroups to define business needs and potential solutions.
• Use agile methodologies to break complex feature requirements into manageable, user-value-delivering work.
• Create artifacts such as business process diagrams, use cases, scenarios, tasks, and workflow analyses to clarify business needs.
• Facilitate discussions with stakeholders and subject matter experts to build shared understanding and consensus on needs, priorities, requirements, and inclusive solutions.
• Document functional and user interaction requirements, non-functional requirements, specifications, and acceptance criteria for development, quality assurance, support, and learning materials.
• Facilitate process improvement with UW IT, OSP, GCA, EH&S, and other partners to improve software development, delivery, and end-user support.
• Stay informed about and recommend process or system changes to meet changing ORIS needs.
• Identify processes and technical solutions that streamline business processes, improve efficiency, and simplify administrative processes for faculty and staff.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• The posting links to information about benefits for temporary, per-diem, and less-than-half-time positions; specific benefits are not listed.
• The University describes opportunities for professional growth and an environment noted for its diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits, and natural beauty.

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Senior