Senior IT Project ManagerThe Los Angeles Times, 2300 E. Imperial Hwy, El Segundo, California, United States of America Req #59 Friday, October 11, 2024The Senior Project Manager (PM) is responsible for leading and overseeing projects for various business units. The Senior PM is a key liaison between business stakeholders, IT teams, and various third-party vendors. This position creates comprehensive project plans, and manages cross-functional resources, scope, interdependencies, timelines, and budgets for projects. The Senior PM will manage issues, risks, and Change Requests (CR) to ensure successful, on-budget, and timely project delivery, facilitating smooth transitions to Application Support and our Helpdesk. Additionally, the role will contribute to process improvement and automation initiatives aimed at enhancing project delivery efficiency.Responsibilities:
- Lead end-to-end project management activities, overseeing the full project lifecycle from initiation to closure, ensuring strict adherence to budgets, timelines, and key milestones.
- Develop and implement comprehensive project plans, including scope definition, work breakdown structures, resource allocation, and risk management strategies using project management tools.
- Monitor and track project expenses, ensuring alignment with approved budgets, and communicate any critical path impacts to stakeholders.
- Assess, communicate, and mitigate risks, implementing contingency plans to address potential issues and ensure timely delivery.
- Oversee the implementation of new solutions, feature enhancements, bug fixes, and operational reporting, coordinating backlog items and ensuring timely delivery.
- Report on project progress to stakeholders and executives, providing both detailed and high-level summaries, and managing project success criteria and metrics.
- Lead regular meetings with cross-functional teams to facilitate decision-making, gather feedback, and optimize project solutions.
- Manage vendor relationships, including request for proposal (RFP) processes, scope reviews, cost-benefit analyses, and legal compliance assessments.
- Coordinate and manage change orders and ensure alignment with company standards.
- Develop and execute change management documentation and communication plans for end-users, ensuring a smooth transition during project Go-Live and handoff to the support team.
- Secure acceptance and approval of deliverables from the project sponsor and stakeholders, ensuring project objectives and performance standards are met.
- Conduct post-project reviews and document lessons learned, storing and maintaining all project artifacts and deliverables.
- Drive long-term efficiencies through strategic planning, process improvements, and the application of practical process improvement tools and techniques throughout all project phases.
- Resolve escalated project issues and risks, coordinating with sponsors to assess impact and propose mitigation strategies.
Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Business (e.g., Marketing, Product Management)
- Minimum 7 years of progressive experience working on software development projects
- At least 5 years of experience in project/program management roles, preferably within consulting, media, or entertainment firms.
- Proven ability to lead projects using both Agile and Waterfall methodologies.
- Extensive experience in creating and managing project budgets, including monthly forecasts, weekly expenditure tracking, and comparing forecasts with actual spend to mitigate cost overrun risks.
- Proficiency in other project management tools like Jira (or similar) for backlog grooming, managing user stories, tracking bugs, implementing fixes, and documenting test results.
- Demonstrated proficiency in using Smartsheet to create and manage project plans, including advanced formula usage, custom fields and data validation, conditional formatting, automation workflows, reporting and dashboards.
- Advanced skills in MS Excel/Google Sheets, including writing complex formulas, and creating 3D charts.
- Proven track record of developing executive-level reports and presentations using PowerPoint/Google Slides.
- Ability to create logical data models and process flows/maps using tools like DrawIO, Microsoft Visio, or other design software.
- Demonstrated ability to perform fit-gap analysis by comparing business requirements with system capabilities.
- Strong leadership skills, with the ability to motivate and inspire teams to achieve high performance
- Experience working with business stakeholders at all management levels to gather, document, and translate functional and technical requirements into Project Charters, Business Requirements Documents (BRD), Functional Requirement Specifications (FRS), and user stories.
- Strong background in organizing User Acceptance Testing (UAT), developing test plan templates, and coordinating issue resolution during manual and/or automated testing processes.
- Experience managing offshore/nearshore resources, ensuring alignment with project goals and timelines.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) and Project Management Professional (PMP) certifications.
- Experience with HRIS systems like Dayforce.
- Knowledge of CRM systems such as Zoho and marketing applications like Sailthru.
- Experience with ERP systems, particularly Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations.
The L.A. Times is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes all qualified applicants regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We actively work to create an inclusive environment where all of our employees can thrive. This Privacy Notice for Los Angeles Times sets forth how we will use the information we obtain when you apply for a position through this career site. Explore our company history, achievement, values, mission and more on our career site. The pay scale the Company reasonably expects to pay for this position at the time of the posting is $130,000 to $152,500 and takes into account a wide range of factors including but not limited to skill set, experience, training, licenses, certifications, and other business or organizational needs. Compensation will be determined based on the above factors along with the requirements of the position. At the L.A. Times, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for the role. Please visit our career site to view the benefits available to our employees. We recommend adding our applicant tracking system domain (@dayforce.com) as a safe sender or contact, sometimes these emails get filtered to candidates' spam folders. The Company is a mandatory vaccination employer for COVID-19 and its variants. The Company requires that its employees be fully vaccinated as of their start date. If you require a medical or religious accommodation, we will engage in the interactive process with you. Proof of vaccination will be required prior to start. If we make you an offer and you are not yet vaccinated, we will accommodate a delay in start date.
Other details- Job Family Los Angeles Times Super Co.
- Job Function Individual Contributor
- Pay Type Salary
- Min Hiring Rate $130,000.00
- Max Hiring Rate $152,500.00