What are the responsibilities and job description for the Project Manager position at tCognition?
Position: Project Manager
Client: State of Michigan
Duration: 12 months
Location: Lansing, MI
Interview: Virtual Interview
Job Description: Project Manager – PMO Supporting the Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS)
Position Overview:
This position is for a Senior Project Manager to assist the State of Michigan Project Management Office supporting the Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS) with a multi-year high-priority legacy modernization project. As part of the DTMB Enterprise Portfolio Management Office (EPMO), the Project Manager will work closely with DTMB Agency Services technical teams and agency executives/stakeholders.
The candidate must be comfortable working in a fast-paced, multi-vendor deployment environment supporting a hybrid workforce (combination of on-site and remote work) at all levels of the organization. Applicants should possess exceptional communication and follow-up skills along with significant experience in formal IT project management. The position requires the Project Manager to work in person for 2-3 days a week, with the remainder worked from home.
Basic Duties:
- Utilize the State of Michigan’s Project Portfolio Management Tool (Clarity) to prepare project schedules, assign resources, and manage budgets.
- Prepare information for presentations geared to various audiences ranging from executives, managers, and project team members.
- Accountable for monitoring, controlling, and communicating project progress by actively managing the cost, schedule, scope, resources, quality, and risks.
- Accountable and responsible for clear, timely, and accurate communications with stakeholders, particularly project sponsors, project team members, program managers, and DTMB management, using appropriate communication methods.
- Provide leadership and foster collaborative participation between the technical and business teams by obtaining consensus and gaining commitment.
- Develop and maintain key SUITE Project Management Methodology (PMM) deliverables throughout the project lifecycle, including:
- Project Charter
- Project Schedule
- Project Budget
- Communication Plan
- Project Status Report
- Risk and Issue Management Plans
- Change Requests
- Project Closedown Summary
- Manage interfaces and related communication with other agencies.
- Ensure adherence to SUITE PMM and System Engineering Methodology (SEM), including appropriate and timely transitions through the stages and phases of the project lifecycle.
- Facilitate and enforce the Change Management process, ensuring all Change Requests have appropriate approval before action is taken or updates are made.
- Create project Corrective Action Plans (CAP) for projects in yellow or red status.
- Understand the project benefits and the impact of change requests on the benefits business cases, ensuring related project artifacts are updated accordingly.
- Review and understand vendor contracts to actively manage vendor deliverables and adherence to the vendor deliverable approval procedure.
- Facilitate stakeholder interactions by clarifying expectations and ensuring all deliverables are assigned, reviewed, and completed.
Required Skills and Experience:
- In-depth knowledge of and experience in IT project management, including industry standards and best practices.
- Proven record of delivering projects on time and on budget in a formal project manager role.
- Experience establishing and maintaining project budgets, schedules, change requests, and risk and issue logs.
- Experience developing and delivering project status updates.
- Experience using project portfolio management systems and tools (e.g., Clarity).
- Advanced working knowledge of MS Project.
- Experience handling a variety of stakeholders and system owners from other departments.
- Experience managing a multi-vendor environment in a government setting.
- Possession of a Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification.
