Senior IT Project Manager

Position Title: Senior IT Project Manager

Duration: Contract

Location: Crewe, Cheshire

Main Goals and Objectives:

The role is responsible for leading and managing significant/multiple IT Projects and Programmes.
They have responsibility for creating and maintaining good customer relationships with the project teams and sponsors and to make sure that the needs of the business operations are in place for the launch of the projects.
The job holder manages, plans, coordinates, controls and steers the overall Programme and associated project portfolio according to the process requirements.

Main Responsibilities:

Project Planning and Setup:

Prepare and present resource estimates and all other related investment requirements (including for year 1 operations) for large scale IT projects and programmes.
Create related budget spend forecasts.
Ensure the business case is valid and approved before project commencement.
Raise any required budget release requests and support investment planning and management as required (e.g. planning round for investment).
Identify internal and external project dependencies and prepare inclusive work breakdown structure (WBS).
Turn the WBS into a schedule with the critical path identified.
Trigger procurement process and onboard project team members as appropriate, coordinate with the relevant teams to ensure the necessary resources to deliver the assigned projects are committed.
Determine the methodology to apply in accordance with the established Client project management framework.

Project Execution (Monitoring and Controlling):

(Planning and coordination of all technical requirements and any associated conflicts)
Lead active risk and issues management, ensuring that risks and issues are owned, actioned and escalated as required.
Manage any change that materially alters the project scope or plan and ensure suitable decision forums are used to agree these.
Monitor and track project expenditure.
Maintain a watch on project benefits realisation and check that the business case remains valid though the project phases.
Lead preparation and delivery of project gateways.
Validate technical solution designs to ensure they will meet business need.

Project Communication:

Build relationship with stakeholders and project team members.
Prepare and share regular project status updates and reports.
Setup and run required project steering committees.
Setup and run required project team meetings / forums.

Project Closure:

Ensure that projects are suitably closed down once the change is implemented.
Undertake lessons learnt review.
Prepare benefits / outcome delivery review
Ensure project artefacts are filed as appropriate and that configuration items that exist beyond the project are in the correct location

Develop Knowledge & Capability:

Builds knowledge of project management frameworks, methods and techniques and contributes to the Clients' Project Management practice led initiatives.
Supports Team Lead in providing mentoring and knowledge transfer to less experienced Project Managers.
Proactively contributes to supporting & developing other Project Managers (inside and outside of project assignments).
Provides constructive feedback to other Project Managers.
Provides other Project Managers with advice on best practice analysis approaches & techniques (in alignment with Client standards), coaches and mentors less experienced Project Managers.
Shares knowledge with peers where appropriate
Demonstrates understanding of the Clients' corporate strategy.
Proactively builds knowledge of the Clients' business domains.
Proactively build knowledge of automotive industry.
Demonstrates full understanding of established the Clients' IT frameworks pertaining to role.

Skills & Experience:

Demonstrable experience in an IT related application or technical area with supervisory or management control over projects and resources.
Programme Management experience
Mentoring others
Must be able to organise and manage workload to reflect company priorities.
Evidence of successful delivery of strategic projects with targets.
Evidence of interpersonal skills appropriate to the role, good communication and influencing skills.
Analytical and decision making skills.
Wide-ranging business process knowledge or the ability to gain the required knowledge quickly.
Experience of complete project life cycles from project initiation to implementation.
ITIL awareness (IT Infrastructure Library: a set of comprehensive and inter-related codes of practice, useful to achieving the efficient support and delivery of high quality, cost effective IT services.)
Knowledge of the VW Group IT processes (e.g. IT PEP-IT Systems Engineering Process.)
Knowledge of VW Group systems is preferred but not essential.

Practical & Technical Knowledge:

Project Management (inc. PRINCE2)
SCRUM & Agile methodologies
Project Management Software
Programme Management Qualifications

Qualifications:

Degree (or Diploma) Computing/Business Administration related subject or equivalent.
Advanced Project Management (e.g. Prince2 higher).
Agile/SAFe accreditation