SR IT PROJECT MANAGER

$135,000 - $160,000/Yr

Cedent Consulting - Palo Alto, CA

Full-time - Mid Level

Palo Alto, CA

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

About the position

The Sr IT Project Manager position at our Palo Alto, CA location is a full-time role focused on managing global IT projects from initiation to delivery. The successful candidate will be responsible for overseeing a diverse set of IT projects, including IT General and Administrative (G&A), Research and Development (R&D), Commercial applications, infrastructure, and cybersecurity. This role requires a proactive approach to managing project objectives, scope, time, quality, resources, costs, risks, and change management. The candidate will also assist in developing best practices for project management and the systems development life cycle (SDLC). In this role, the Sr IT Project Manager will develop project charters, comprehensive plans, budgets, success criteria, metrics, status reporting, communications, and other deliverables to ensure successful project delivery. The candidate will need to anticipate critical activities and risks, identify issues, and demonstrate initiative to escalate and resolve them appropriately. Effective communication with stakeholders regarding project progress, status, dependencies, and risks is essential to ensure necessary corrective actions are taken to keep projects on track. The position also involves establishing effective governance structures, creating project task plans, monitoring team member tasks, and ensuring timely completion of deliverables. The Sr IT Project Manager will partner with others to implement best practices for project management and maintain templates, guidelines, and process documentation. Coaching and mentoring team members on project management best practices is also a key responsibility. The candidate will manage multiple global projects involving internal stakeholders and external partners, ensuring compliance with departmental SDLC and PM methodologies while conducting lessons learned for projects to apply learnings proactively.

Responsibilities

• Proactively manage projects towards achievement of business objectives while adhering to agreed scope, time, quality, and budget.
• Develop project charters, comprehensive plans, budgets, success criteria, metrics, status reporting, communications, and other deliverables to ensure successful delivery of projects.
• Anticipate critical activities and risks, identify issues, and demonstrate initiative to appropriately escalate and resolve.
• Plan mitigations for risks with significant impact.
• Effectively communicate progress, status, dependencies, and risk to stakeholders so that necessary corrective actions can be taken to keep the project on track.
• Demonstrate leadership, build partnerships, and communicate in a way that is motivating, optimistic, and pragmatic; foster effective team interaction, collaboration, and accountability.
• Clearly communicate project roles and responsibilities to team members.
• Establish effective, yet nimble, governance, steering committees, and RACI for deliverables and decisions.
• Create project task plans; monitor and update team member tasks and deliverables to ensure appropriate quality and timely completion.
• Partner with others to develop and implement best practices for project management, solution evaluation, and the system development life cycle; maintain templates, guidelines, and process documentation.
• Coach and mentor others on project management best practices.
• Provide input on and drive the necessary steps (e.g., investment business case, project management, change management, post-project evaluation) to go from inception to realization of business benefits.
• Manage multiple global projects that comprise internal stakeholders and external partners.
• Manage vendors conducting work on assigned projects, ensuring their deliverables are provided in a timely and quality manner.
• Ensure compliance with departmental SDLC and PM methodologies; conduct lessons learned for projects and proactively apply learnings.

Requirements

• Proven experience with 6 plus years managing a diversity of IT projects (including evaluation of solutions, requests for proposals, application implementations, reporting/analytics, infrastructure, and information security).
• Strong working knowledge of IT applications, infrastructure, and information security projects.
• PMP certification or equivalent is desired.
• Able to develop detailed IT project plans in a variety of technology areas with little assistance or input.
• Strong working knowledge of formal project management, SDLC, and agile methodologies, PM tools, and techniques.
• Proven experience with a variety of techniques for requirements elicitation, analysis, and definition (e.g., functional specifications, business process engineering, data flow diagrams, use case analysis).
• Proven experience developing robust plans for managing quality, testing, and move to production.
• Demonstrated proficiency in project management software, including MS Project and Smartsheet.
• Good business acumen to understand the value of business capabilities enabled by IT.
• Sufficient working knowledge of finance fundamentals to plan, forecast, and monitor costs.
• Sufficient technology acumen to understand interdependencies and major risks.
• Experience successfully completing projects using global virtual teams of internal and external resources; proven experience effectively managing vendors.
• Experience in an environment where various risk frameworks (e.g., Information Security, Privacy, CSV-21 CFR Part 11) are in scope and risks are appropriately mitigated.
• Ability to manage multiple programs or projects without direct authority in a consultative, collaborative, and team-oriented style.
• Good presentation, communication, facilitation, and influence skills; understanding of organizational change management concepts.
• Ability to develop strong and collaborative relationships with people at all levels within different functions.
• Highly aware of how their actions impact others, drive to self-develop and strong desire to excel.
• Bachelor's degree in business, computer science, or related degree; MBA is a plus.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in a pharmaceutical or healthcare environment.
• Familiarity with regulatory requirements in the pharmaceutical industry.

Benefits

• Competitive salary range of $135,000-$160,000 per year.
• Comprehensive health insurance coverage.
• 401k retirement savings plan with company matching contributions.
• Paid time off and holidays.
• Opportunities for professional development and training.