IT Portfolio/Program Manager
Location: Chicago, Quincy, or Salisbury
Duration:6 Months, Contract to Hire
Pay: $85-90/hour W2 

JOB DESCRIPTION  
Pushing the bounds of the retail world, this company is highly successful and accumulates over fifty billion dollars in annual revenue. Diversity of thought, community, and even location is paramount to this company, which is why this company has expanded their communal reach to over two thousand different storefronts. With a mind for diversity, this company understands the worth of their employees and they strive to create a practical work life balance for their employees. This practical and diverse mentality is extended to the ample opportunities that they offer to their employees, including overtime for contractors, as well as other monetary and title-based incentives. Longevity of employment is pivotal to this company, and they actively search and create long term employment options even for contractors. Between the diversity that this company offers and the job security that this company offers, even to contactors, this company proves that it has an unequivocal entrepreneurial spirit and is insurmountably invested in their employees.

This role is responsible for managing and delivering the annual investment portfolio for IT. They will also be responsible for delivering a portfolio of projects and programs working with the solution delivery/engineering teams. They lead a team of internal and external Project/Program managers and scrum masters to provide project delivery and execution by leveraging the processes, technology, tooling, and governance needed to achieve quality deliveries and attain business value.
RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Effectively plan, organize, and direct the completion of large, complex portfolio of projects while managing risks and issues to minimize scope, budget, and schedule impacts.
• Act as single point of contact for managing a portfolio of projects working with the solution delivery Vice Presidents: building synergies between unrelated/related projects or programs, aligning strategic business objectives, increasing business value through people management, change control, risk management, and resource management.
• Anticipate and aggressively remove obstacles that slow down progress, escalate and mitigate risks/issues to multiple levels of management, including executive leadership teams across the organization.
• Partner with solution delivery/engineering teams to drive program planning and delivery for both waterfall and Agile projects.
• Ensure compliance with project delivery methods, tools, framework, and IT controls.
• Partner with the IT Budget Management team to actively manage and deliver the financial commitments for an investment portfolio of $40-$60M.
• Partner with finance, project teams, and value stream owners to ensure all financial cadences (e.g., quarterly budgeting cycles, month-end closings, etc...) are supported by and aligned to portfolio financials.
• Partner with the IT Release Management function to identify interdependencies and risks across the IT project portfolio.
• Create and maintain portfolio resource plans (in coordination with resource managers) that account for all resource capacity and utilization across the IT function while informing internal capitalization projections.
• Manage supplier performance to ensure that contractual agreements are met.
• Key partner for change management to support building an organizational readiness and change management plans to successfully execute new initiatives.
• Monitor portfolio health through OKRs and portfolio metrics and financial status against relevant constraints, including strategic investment guidance, portfolio budgets vendor contracts, and operating budgets.
• Apply concepts of Lean Portfolio Management, driving a focus on driving the delivery of value to customers through the creation of products and solutions
• PMO Maturity, Process & Tools:
  • Execute upon and contribute to process improvements and best practices across PMO to support delivery excellence.
  • Actively drive the transformation of waterfall projects to Agile
  • Support the Agile/Scrum teams to effectively follow Agile methodology.
  • Lead and inspire IT teams in project & program management to develop and establish a high performing, service driven culture committed to failing fast, leaning out waste, and delivering business value.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field
• 10+ years practical experience at varying levels of project/program management
• Project management certification a plus, but not required. Emphasis is on the demonstrated use of PMP, Scrum, Agile, etc.
• Working knowledge of agile methodology and Agile tools (Jira)
• Thorough understanding of enterprise software development lifecycle; ability to adjust and apply this knowledge in a dynamic environment using Agile methodologies.
• Bring a data-driven approach to decision making, both in day-to-day activities and when helping others make strategic trade-offs.
• Self-starter with the ability to lead teams through ambiguity to solve problems and drive results.
• Strong organizational, communication, interpersonal, relationship-building skills conducive to collaboration; able to work well in a cross-functional environment.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with a history of hands-on, detail orientated.
• Ability to establish credibility and rapport with senior executives and technical and non-technical team members alike.
• Financial Acumen
• Interpreting and applying understanding of key financial indicators to make better business decisions.
• Understands the meaning and implications of key financial indicators.
• Uses financial analysis to generate, evaluate, and act on strategic options and opportunities.
• Communicates Effectively - Developing and delivering multi-mode communications (verbal and written) that convey a clear understanding of the unique needs of different audiences.
• Collaborates - Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives.
• Must be able to manage a $20 – 40m portfolio.
• Retail environment preferred, not required.
• Will manage 4 FTEs, 25 Scrum Masters
• Will act as “Chief of Staff” to 2 VPs
• Must be very professional and have great communication skills.
• They will need to know the ins and outs of the VPs service lines that they will support.
• Must be able to mentor and coach team members.
• Must have experience setting-up a PMO.
• Able to facilitate risk issues, provide solution recommendations.

NICE TO HAVE 

• 3+ years as a Scrum Master
• Experience with lean portfolio management
• Experience with transforming from waterfall to SAFe.
• SAFe certification
• Proficiency working in and managing Agile, SAFe, scrum teams (scrum of scrums), lean teams.
• Experience delivering projects in retail industry.

Category Code: JN008
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