Project Manager - Consultant (Onsite)

Project Manager - Consultant (Onsite)

Location: Columbia, SC

Duration: 12+ Months

This position is for an experienced project schedule manager with experience in schedule development and management practices, project management methodologies, and software development methodologies. Knowledge and experience in the MS Project Professional/Project Sever/Project Web App (PWA), Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft Office products is required to help manage and maintain the project schedule and other PMO artifacts. A significant portion of this position’s responsibility will be oversight of the planning and execution of work being performed by a vendor that is under contract to develop and implement the system.

The successful candidate will demonstrate a proven ability to collaborate and coordinate activities with diverse groups, including stakeholders, team leads, vendors, other project managers, and technical staff.

As the schedule manager and member of the PMO, this individual will:

• Assist the Project Management Office (PMO) managing all aspects of the project, with focus on creating and maintaining the Project Schedule and Client tasks
• Assist in the collection of Project Schedule updates and the application of the updates to the project schedule
• Create and maintain the Work Breakdown Structure and its linkage to the Project Schedule
• Manage all aspects of schedule development and maintenance for internal projects
• Ensuring the vendor has documented best practices for schedule management
• Oversee the vendor project schedule activities ensuring that the approved processes are followed
• Produce weekly schedule metrics involving schedule variance and earned value
• Assist PMO in the day-to-day analysis and management of project critical path and defined “tasks to watch”
• Help PMO in creation, maintenance and analysis of project metrics and reports
• Prepare, organize, run, and properly document the project schedule meetings
• Provide clear and accurate weekly and monthly project reporting and resource forecasting
• Assist project team leads in schedule decomposition, estimating, and resourcing
• Review the schedule and assist team members in understanding their activities
• Manage the creation, maintenance and analysis of project risks, issues, and action items
• Manage the creation, maintenance and analysis of project metrics and reports.

Required Education/Certifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical or business field; or an Associate’s degree with 10+ years project management experience.

Required Skills (rank in order of importance):

• 3-5 years of experience in general PMO responsibilities including: creating project governance plans and processes; managing all aspects of project execution including creating and tracking schedule and scope baselines; managing project change and configuration; managing issues and risks
• 2-3 years of planning, scheduling and reporting, project metrics and resource management experience
• 2-3 years of Software Development Lifecycle planning experience
• 2-3 years proficient/experience working with Microsoft Office suite include SharePoint, Excel, Word, Visio and PowerPoint

Preferred Skills (rank in order of importance):

• 3-5 years’ experience with Microsoft Project Server/ Project Web App (PWA)
• 3-5 years’ experience with Agile Software Development Methodology

Preferred Education/Certifications:

• Professional Project Management Certification
• Very good English communication skills, written and oral

Additional Skills/Duties:

• Leadership and organizational skills.