Director, Project Management

Oversees project management team members within the platform onboarding & implementation competency, creating and evolving agency-wide delivery processes specific to onboarding clients onto Ansira products, and ensuring profitable delivery of client projects and programs. This position is responsible for steering the Project Management practice to ensure client satisfaction and project profitability by aiding the PMO in establishing and maintaining a set of standardized project management methods, tools, processes, and project execution best practices. The Project Director will have a proven history of building profitable relationships with clients through exceptional delivery. This role is a combination of team leader and individual contributor, and the ideal candidate has extensive previous experience as a project or implementation manager, preferably in an agency setting, and has grown into a leadership role. This role will report into the VP, PMO or Sr. Project Director.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities

• Oversee a project management team, who is responsible for managing execution of client engagements with a focus on quality, budget and schedule in order to both set (i.e. plan and scope) and meet (i.e. manage) upon contracted requirements
• Monitor all assigned project processes and operations for time and resource efficiencies, cost management, and process improvement opportunities
• Identify best practices and optimize templates, processes, and tools for complex integrated client projects and programs, specifically platform implementations; responsible for all new client onboardings and implementation for a specific Ansira product(s)
• Recruit, hire and train project management staff specific to the platform onboarding & implementation competency and specialty areas
• Manage and mentor project management staff by identifying training needs and providing leadership and direction by supporting resolution of issues and escalations to current projects and propose optimization suggestions, where necessary
• Identify opportunities to improve client and team dynamics, interactions and overall collaborative spirit within the delivery organization
• Monitor financial, scope, schedule and quality “health” of all assigned projects and direct report’s assigned project and recommend course corrections to mitigate issues; Provide client engagement & PMO leadership team regular updates on project health (schedule, scope, quality, budget, and risks). This may include executive level reporting and/or client status reporting.
• Responsible for leading post sale discovery efforts and completing spec docs and base platform configurations depending on solution
• Work with Client Partnership and Business Development to respond to RFPs and organic growth opportunities; generating proposals and SOWs, estimating work efforts and costs, and scoping project approaches that best meet client needs and constraints
• Occasionally participate in new business pitches specific to present on the PMO function & platform onboarding process
• Develop and manage project budgets; assist client partnership in accurate revenue forecasting; be accountable for project profitability (mitigating margin erosion); contribute other financial reporting as required by client engagement leadership
• Maintain optimal utilization of internal project team members and accurately identify when contract or fulltime staff augmentation is necessary
• Participate in and/or facilitate retrospectives both at the project and program level as requested; aiding in monthly reporting at the solution level

Qualifications, Skills, and Abilities

• 10+ years of client and project management experience, preferably in an agency setting
• Bachelor’s Degree or Advanced Degree preferred
• Broad delivery expertise (management of schedule, scope, quality, budget, and risks)
• Experience nurturing & mentoring a team of project managers
• Experience working with product management teams and engineering & QA resources with a thorough understanding of related deliverables and processes
• Ability to multitask and prioritize under ever-changing needs and schedules, handling multiple projects at once while meeting tight deadlines and adhering to budgets
• Adaptability; able to refocus team priorities and tasks, delegating effectively
• Proven project management skills with an understanding of processes (timeline development, trafficking, risk management, etc.) and quality assurance/control (QA/QC) and project acceptance protocols
• Experience with financial processes for projects - includes forecasting, scoping/estimating, and burn rates
• Team leader with strong interpersonal skills, including problem solving and conflict resolution, and the ability to articulate ideas clearly in both oral and written communication
• Coaches with candor striving for excellence; Leads by example
• Excellent analytical skills, strategic thinking, and solution oriented
• Self-motivated with effective decision-making skills
• Demonstrated strong planning and organizational skills; highly detail-oriented
• Solid computer skills, including proficiency in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and MS Project
• Experience with Jira, BigPicture, Teams, and/or SharePoint a major plus
• Strong working knowledge of all current and relevant project management methodologies (i.e. Agile, Waterfall, Kanban, etc.)