PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGER
Req #: | 180666 |
Department: | UW FINANCE |
Job Location: | Seattle Campus |
Posting Date: | 07/10/2020 |
Closing Info: | Open Until Filled |
Salary: | Salary and benefits are competitive. Salary is commensurate with qualifications and experience. |
Shift: | First Shift |
UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty. All of which has allowed the UW to be nationally recognized as a “Great College to Work For” for six consecutive years.
The UW Finance Transformation Program (UWFT) is a $200M initiative to replace the University’s financial systems with an integrated system to manage the full suite of financial transactions and reporting needs in the UW system – to include academic, administrative, and healthcare. UWFT will fundamentally change the processes and tools that the University employs to track, spend, collect, manage, and report University finances in excess of $7B in annual revenues, resulting in more timely and actionable information for leadership. Among the UW’s highest administrative priorities, this multi-year initiative is one of the largest finance system projects in Washington State and the outcome of the program will be highly visible at all levels of the University and the state.
The UW Finance Readiness Program is one of several collaborative partner programs focused on ensuring operational readiness of the UW’s central finance division when the UW goes live with the new integrated financial system. The UW Finance Readiness Program has an excellent opportunity for a Project Portfolio Manager. Reporting to the Finance Readiness Program Director, the UWFT Project Portfolio Manager will coordinate with program leadership to build, maintain and report on the status of the finance project portfolio and support project team communications and collaboration. Additionally, the role will require strong analytical acumen, broad awareness of key organizational objectives and an ability to prioritize multiple projects and competing goals. Competitive candidates will have excellent project, program and portfolio management skills, written and oral communication skills and can work with minimal supervision, either independently or in a collaborative team environment.
Duties & Responsibilities:
Project Portfolio Management
• Develop and manage the portfolio of projects and programs for cross-functional end-to-end process work streams in support of finance organization commitments to UWFT.
• Proactively identify potential risks, dependencies, and obstacles that may hinder successful completion of projects and achievement of organizational goals.
• Monitor and evaluate the project portfolio, keeping stakeholders informed of schedule updates, risks and issues.
• Develop and publish regular project portfolio status reports.
• Manage program and portfolio level scope and change requests.
• Actively work to ensure quick closure of portfolio risks and issues
• Manage portfolio RAID log, ensuring accurate statuses, owners, assignees, and priorities.
• Coordinate with project and program leads to ensure priorities are aligned with portfolio goals.
• Organize and facilitate project portfolio planning, project and portfolio reviews, and coordination across project and programs.
Project/Program Leadership
• Define and manage project portfolio scope, schedule and resourcing, generate project portfolio status reports and communications.
• Understand project. Program and portfolio governance structure and effectively facilitate the resolution of issues within that structure
• Lead, organize and influence positively and effectively
• Maneuver through unstructured problems and create the necessary structure to drive for results.
• Create and implement project portfolio structure, communication plan, risk mitigation plan and other materials to support project and program execution and control activities
• Define, track and monitor the project portfolio scope, schedule and status. Identify and implement non-technical process improvements as well as technical solutions to optimize portfolio performance
• Support project and program management team development of project milestones, work breakdown structures, document handoffs and dependencies, critical paths, project statuses, project risks, and contingency plans.
• Collaborate with other team resources to align plans across finance and UWFT
Analysis
• Collaborate with functional managers, leads, directors on program and portfolio needs associated with the implementation of ERP and information system solutions.
• Facilitate collection of work estimates as input into conducting capacity planning across contributed and vendor resources, and raising issues when boundaries are exceeded.
• Assist in driving a shared understanding of the UW Academy and UW Medicine Central/Unit future state Finance Business Processes.
• Other duties as required.
Requirements include:
• Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, Information Science, or related areas and five years’ experience as a project or program manager of complex technical projects including demonstrated ability to create, implement, and manage large programs within a team environment.
• Ability to utilize disciplined project management methodologies and tools, such as project management systems, issue tracking, risk management, and requirements management systems; ability to develop efficient project procedures and quality control methods
• Demonstrable ability to manage project portfolios and 5 years’ experience managing large technical project portfolios
• Demonstrable leadership experience, including direction of diverse resources in a deadline-driven environment and cultivation of trust, strong collaboration and professional development on a high-performing team
• Experience communicating effectively with diverse stakeholders, including customers and key process stakeholders
• Proven use and understanding of PMI practices and familiarity with ITIL Service Management process.
• Ability to manage a diverse range of activities in a very visible and high pressure environment, exercising independent judgment in resolving problems.
• Ability to speak and write about technical issues for both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Understanding of contemporary computing, networking and security technologies, and distributed systems architecture.
• Experience communicating with executive management during project portfolio development, priority setting, status and budget reporting at the Director, VP, and Executive level.
• Demonstrated excellent written/oral communication skills, technical documentation skills, user liaison skills, and personal interaction abilities.
Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license/certification/registration.
Desired:
• PMI Certification
• Experience utilizing SharePoint, JIRA and agile work processes.
• Experience in a large university, medical center or other large enterprise.
• Experience participating in the implementation of a large enterprise resource planning (ERP) or similar software.
As a UW employee, you will enjoy generous benefits and work/life programs. For a complete description of our benefits for this position, please visit our website, click here.
Application Process:
The application process for UW positions may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process. These may include Work Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others. Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select “Apply to this position”. Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment, you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your “My Jobs” page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.
Committed to attracting and retaining a diverse staff, the University of Washington will honor your experiences, perspectives and unique identity. Together, our community strives to create and maintain working and learning environments that are inclusive, equitable and welcoming.
The University of Washington is a leader in environmental stewardship & sustainability, and committed to becoming climate neutral.
The University of Washington is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. To request disability accommodation in the application process, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 / 206-543-6452 (tty) or dso@uw.edu.