Senior Project Manager - 4214 in London

The Senior Project Manager ensures that the projects within their remit deliver the agreed business benefits on time, to budget, to the required quality standard, all within the CLS Project Governance framework.

They will be:

• Responsible for the delivery of the Kyndryl / IBM Infrastructure Change portfolio of projects as assigned by the Head of Technology Change & Transformation.
• Responsible for defining and delivering Kyndryl / IBM Infrastructure roadmap in partnership with the Head of Infrastructure.
• Responsible for developing, in conjunction with the Project Sponsor, a definition of the project(s) and ensures the project is effectively resourced and manages the relationships with a wide range of groups (including all project contributors).
• Responsible for managing the work of consultants, securing and utilising internal resources in an efficient manner and maintaining a co-operative, motivated and successful team.
• Responsible for detailed project/program reporting.

Essential Functions

Major duties and responsibilities of the job:

• Strategic

• Defines plans through a rigorous and highly interactive process of defining business requirements, project specifications, managing resources and environments.
• Agrees and formalizes plans, conducts or co-ordinates required business analysis where necessary. Presents plans and business cases and gains their sign off from sponsors and other stakeholders.
• Relationship/Vendor management; develop and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders, both internal and external.
• Create project business case for all projects and ensure the benefits are measurable and agreed by all stakeholders. Responsible for demonstrating that stated benefits have been realised once the project has been delivered.

• Manage day-to-day operational aspects of a portfolio of projects, scope and budget.
• Manage and maintain interlock of projects with other project managers.
• Effectively apply, support and champion the CLS Governance methodology and enforce project standards.
• Review deliverables prepared by the project teams before company-wide review.
• Identify and lead the virtual project team.
• Where required, recruiting project staff and consultants.
• Managing co-ordination of the partners and working groups engaged in project work.
• Ensure project documents are complete, current, and stored appropriately.
• Detailed portfolio planning and control including:

• Developing and maintaining a detailed project roadmap.
• Managing project deliverables in line with the project roadmap.
• Act as an escalation point for project risk and issues.
• Resolving cross-functional issues at project level where necessary.
• Strong oversight of project scope and change control.
• Monitoring project progress and performance from a benefit realisation, time, cost and quality perspective.
• Providing status reports in line with CLS’ internal standards and regulatory requirements.
• Financial management across the portfolio of projects. Partnering with the finance department and ePMO.
• Liaison with, and updates progress to, project steering board/senior management.
• From time to time, provide cover for peers and assist in the creation and issuance of departmental reports.
• Understand basic revenue models, P/L, and cost-to-completion projections, apply analysis to this data to make project decisions and provide reporting of this data (Earned Value Reporting).

• Coach and mentor junior members of staff.
• Display complete ownership for projects leading by example.
• Capable of managing a project team effectively through matrix management. Need to be able to get the best out of a team of people who may not be direct reports.
• Experienced at managing stakeholders ensuring strong communication and governance is in place.
• Influence and manage the project managers and project teams (internal and external) to deliver to the required constraints of time, budget and quality.
• A “self starter” who does not wait to be asked, prepared and thorough in all aspects of the role.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

Competencies required for successful job performance:

• Significant practical experience of leading and managing Infrastructure change programs across an end-to-end project lifecycle.
• Strong history of managing third party service providers to deliver a range of change activities.
• Extensive hands-on experience of delivering complex IT change projects in a high performance organisation.
• Have had responsibility of delivering book of work with budget in excess of £5m.
• Extensive knowledge of delivering with vendor organisations and suppliers.
• Excellent communication skills with practical experience of supporting technical teams to formulate and articulate business benefits through the construction of business cases.
• Demonstrable experience of quantifying the effort required to deliver a solution whilst articulating any implications of any proposed solution on the wider business and existing systems.
• Experience delivering a wide range of Infrastructure projects – Networks, Storage, AIX, Microsoft.
• Proficient in creating well-structured and good quality project documentation with excellent skills in the use of the MS Office suite of tools and MS Project.
• Experience of using Microsoft Project to produce and maintain high quality project plans.
• Strong personal work ethic with a “can-do” attitude.
• Motivated delivery focused individual.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Proven ability managing projects in a complex & demanding environment.

Desired Qualifications

Experience, education and any certifications as necessary for successful job performance:

• Professional PM accreditation (Prince 2, PMI, APM etc…)
• 10+ years of project management experience.
• 5+ year of program/portfolio management experience.
• Significant vendor management / lead contractor project delivery experience.

Success Factors

Personal characteristics contributing to an individual's ability to excel in the position:

• Proactive Leader – Strong management skills which make you effective at leading a project team, negotiating with Senior Managers, stakeholders and external suppliers and contractors. You should be able to positively influence all stakeholders to ensure a cost effective quality deliverable whilst ensuring effective time management to get the job done.
• Strong communicator – Be able to demonstrate a number of years of experience of communicating clearly at all levels within a business and with senior sponsors and internal and external stakeholders. Be well experienced in both the “Art” as well as the “Science” of project management to ensure that CLS obtains the maximum value for its investment.
• Delivery of Business Benefits – A comprehensive understanding and demonstrable experience in ensuring that all projects deliver quantified business benefits.
• Excellent Problem solving skills – Demonstrable competencies in solving problems. Always challenging ‘facts’ in order to find the best plan to deliver the project. Where and when necessary, escalate early and appropriately to management prior to avoid issues and deviations to plan.
• Consultative relationship management – Gets to the heart of the issues with a presence and gravitas and clarity of presentation across all forms of communication.
• Strong People Management Skills – Able to bring the best out of people and a team through leading by example and by coaching and mentoring staff members and developing personalised self-development plans.
• Delivery focused – Understands that delivery is the overarching principle for the role of a portfolio manager and maintains focus on delivery across the wider reaching portfolio.