Project Manager

Project ManagerManages projects, develops and directs technical project teams through all phases and activities of the project life-cycle process associated with major information technology systems projects that are essential to departmental missions and affect CareFirst operations on a long-term and continuing basis.Determines project goals and priorities with management, program manager and/or project sponsors.Supports requirements of the enterprise program manager to provide necessary information and support for successful program delivery.Creates all project planning documentation and follows all CareFirst Defined processes.Manages and communicates a clear vision of the projects objectives, and motivate the cross functional project team to achieve them; create a project environment that enables peak performance by the entire team.Establish and publish clear priorities among project activities. Coordinates team activities to meet project milestones.Directs/leads project teams comprised of subject matter experts, technical specialists, and support staff to produce a business plan in accordance with the strategic plan, operating budget, capital planning procedures and agency guidance.Prepares, implements, monitors, and updates the project plan. Coordinates with the business owner and upper level management to ensure the actions are consistent with the approved plan.Identifies standards or requirements for change management. Participates in change control (for example, reviewing configuration change requests).Develops or implements information systems security and entitlement requirements and plans; and ensures appropriate product-related training and documentation are developed and made available to customers.Manages resource assignment and tracking to the project plan and project schedule in coordination with the line of business resource managers.Negotiate the performance of activities with team members and their managers in a matrix environment.Coach to clarify assignments and deliverables; mentor others in project management practices; review quality of work and manage the integration of team members work.Manages the project budget with overall budget accountability for up to $4 million per year:Collaborates with the finance department and various functional managers to ensure project budgets are properly estimated and controlled; provides overall financial recommendations, and develop controls and measurements to monitor progress.Provides Finance with monthly accruals and forecasts by the due date established by Finance using the tools developed by Finance.Maintains current statements of work for all contractors; track and approve contractor invoices in a timely manner.Provides regular updates to project sponsor and stakeholders on the status of the budget.Documents reasons for budget excess or shortfall.Manages project budgets for both expense and capital against the original project budget.Creates Executive Summaries for all contractor resources required to complete a project.Prefers Medicaid and/or Medicare experience.Prefers experience with acquisitions.Requirements:This position requires a four-year degree in CIS/MIS or equivalent experience of 3 - 5 years of related IT project management experience in a large scale, cross functional, multi-system environment.Out of the 3 - 5 years required, at least 2 years in a combination of the following:Progressive broad-based information systems Project Management experience (which could include consulting) with state-of-the-art hardware and software systems is desirable; knowledge and implementation experience in new computing architectures and networked computing structures.Experience in execution of multiple related development projects simultaneously, particularly as Project Manager on systems development, with working knowledge of Systems development lifecycle and the Project Management Lifecycle.Additional Skills:Experience with effectively manage multiple projects through the entire project life cycle using a mix of agile and waterfall methodologiesCommunication is essential, this includes the ability to communicate with IT, business and leadershipMedicaid experience is preferred or experience with outside regulatory bodiesIt is important for this project manager to understand the constraints, demands and agility required when implementing a project that has federal or state oversight and regulation involved