Fried Frank is currently recruiting for the role of Project Manager to effectively deliver complex projects on time, within scope, and within the allocated budget. This role will report directly to the Head of the Project Management Office and also work closely with key project stakeholders within the firm. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of success, possess excellent interpersonal skills, lead cross-functional teams, solve complex problems and effectively communicate with key business leaders, technical staff, subject matter experts, and stakeholders across the organization. The Project Manager will be expected to work independently and be able to exercise strong judgement to move projects forward and proactively escalate issues and risks. This is an exciting opportunity for someone who wants to branch out into different areas of project management to further enhance their skill set and broaden their experience. Duties & Responsibilities:
- Manage multiple projects simultaneously that are heavily technical and/or involve implementing new technologies at the firm with high visibility to the front and back offices.
- Develop flexible/agile project plans that consider scope, objectives, technical feasibility, risks, resource availability, performance, and business risk.
- Coordinate, prioritize, and monitor key project tasks, necessary decisions and supporting information to ensure alignment of business objectives.
- Drive project execution while making trade-off recommendations, understand the technical challenges, enable solutions, and report status.
- Solicit input from internal and external sources, investigate and incorporate best practices based on experience, expert opinions, and sound judgment.
- Establish regular communications with key business partners, subject matter experts, and team members to manage project scope, schedule, and costs.
- Engage and collaborate with key stakeholders to understand their requirements, expectations, and priorities, and act as their trusted advisor on successfully moving projects forward.
- Lead and champion change as part of each project throughout the organization by defining and executing change management and communications plans, and proactively confirm stakeholder buy-in.
- Solicit input from internal and external sources, investigate and incorporate best practices based on experience, expert opinions, and sound judgment.
- Manage escalations and unblock constraints and dependencies.
- Oversee third-party vendor work delivery and budget reporting.
- Manage and mitigate project risks with thorough risk assessments, and devise comprehensive risk mitigation and contingency plans.
- Create and maintain project documentation including but not limited to project plans, risk & issue management, status reporting, communication plans, stakeholder engagement plans, project budgets, requirements documentation, test strategies and plans, benefits realization, training plans, deployment plans, resource management plans, and process documentation.
- Build out testing strategies and plans, and manage issue resolution for projects.
- Track, analyze, and skillfully employ supporting data in project meetings and communications
- Articulate key concepts for technical and non-technical audiences at multiple seniority levels across the organization with minimal oversight.
- Present and provide presentation materials for leadership/management regularly.
- Create roadmaps and visualize multi-phased projects or Firm strategies.
- Contribute to internal PMO growth initiatives, including mentorship, strategy, and methodology enhancement.
- Champion the usage of project management tools, methodologies, and project management software on behalf of the PMO.
- Mentor junior employees and others across the organization looking to broaden their project management toolkit.
Qualifications:
- 8+ years of project and program management experience, preferably in the legal industry
- Knowledge of PM methodologies to effectively communicate concepts and implement multi-disciplinary approaches where appropriate
- Demonstrated experience managing a sizeable portfolio of projects is required. This experience would manage large-scale multi-disciplinary projects, IT portfolio of projects, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) projects, and projects or programs over two years in duration.
- Experience managing the following projects is strongly preferred - Information Governance projects, Enterprise Resource Planning projects, software rollout to wide audiences across the firm (inclusive of communications and change management planning), operational projects including office moves and Requests for Proposals (RFPs), and changes to existing firm policies
- Experience managing and delivering end to end stage gate reviews
- Strong facilitation skills to lead complicated discussions with participants from various stakeholder groups.
- Critical thinker who can anticipate problems and risks using experience, logical reasoning, and data and process analysis
- Demonstrated competency in a variety of project management tools to build roadmaps and plans: Asana, MS Project, Playbook
- Strong interest in learning about the different functional areas at the firm and how the PMO can help them succeed with their projects
Education / Experience:
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience
- PMP or equivalent project management certification preferred
- Experience with Lean or Six Sigma methodologies strongly preferred
- Change Management certification is a plus
The actual salary offered will be based on a number of factors including but not limited to the qualifications of the applicant, years of relevant experience, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, and if applicable, the location in which the applicant lives and/or from which they will be performing the job. New York Salary Range $150,000-$195,000 USD