Project Manager

Project Manager

Location: Lansing, MI (Hybrid Locals Only)

Duration: 12 Months

Job Type: C2C, W2

Job Description: Project Manager – PMO Supporting the Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS)

This position is for a Senior Project Manager to assist the State of Michigan Project Management Office supporting DIFS with a multi-year high priority legacy modernization project. This role, as part of the DTMB Enterprise Portfolio Management Office (EPMO), works closely with DTMB Agency Services technical teams as well as with agency executives/stakeholders. The candidate must be comfortable working in a fast paced, multi-vendor deployment 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. This position requires the PM to be working in person for 2-3 days a week. The remainder can be worked from home.

Basic Duties:

• Utilize the State of Michigan's Project Portfolio Management Tool (Clarity) to prepare project schedules, assign resources and manages 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 the project sponsors, project team members, program managers, and DTMB management, on the status of the project, using appropriate communication methods.
• Responsible for providing leadership and fostering collaborative participation between the technical and business teams by obtaining consensus and gaining commitment.
• Responsible for working with the project team members to develop and maintain the following key SUITE Project Management Methodology (PMM) deliverables throughout the project lifecycle: Project Charter - Project Schedule – Project Budget - Communication Plan - Project Status Report - Risk and Issue Management Plans - Change Requests - Project Closedown Summary.
• Responsible for managing interfaces related communication with other agencies.
• Responsible for ensuring the project adheres to the SUITE PMM and System Engineering Methodology (SEM), including appropriate and timely transitions through the stages and phases of the project lifecycle.
• Responsible for facilitating and enforcing the Change Management process as agreed upon with the agency (Change Requests) when the project deviates from the approved scope, schedule, or budget. This includes ensuring all Change Requests have appropriate approval before action is taken or information is updated.
• Responsible for creating project Corrective Action Plans (CAP) when necessary for projects in yellow or red status.
• Responsible for understanding the project benefits and the impact of change requests to the benefits business cases. Responsible for ensuring related project artifacts are updated accordingly.
• Responsible for reviewing and understanding vendor contracts to actively manage the vendor deliverables and adherence to the vendor deliverable approval procedure.
• Facilitates the interactions among stakeholders by clarifying the expectations of all participants and ensuring all deliverables are assigned, reviewed, and completed.

Qualifications Required/Desired Experience:

• In-depth knowledge of and experience in IT project management, including industry standard and best practices. Required: 7 Years
• Proven record for delivering projects on time and on budget in a formal project manager role. Required: 7 Years
• Experience establishing and maintaining project budgets, schedules, change requests, risk and issue logs. Required: 7 Years
• Experience developing and delivering project status. Required: 7 Years
• Experience using a project portfolio management systems and tools (e.g.) Clarity. Required: 5 Years
• Advanced working knowledge of MS Project. Required: 5 Years
• Experience handling variety of stakeholders and system owners from other departments. Required: 5 Years
• Experience managing multi-vendor environment in a government environment. Highly Desired: 5 Years
• Possession of a Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification. Highly Desired: 3 Years

Prescreening Questions:

1. Explain a time when you had to execute proper leadership and communication skills to complete a task/project and what the outcome was. Please be as specific as possible.
2. Can you describe a presentation to leadership that you led that went well?
3. Can you describe the largest project you have ever led? How much money, how long, & how many people managed?
4. Please describe your experience performing project management duties on a vendor-led project.

S = Situation: Describe a situation where you exhibited quality leadership.

T = Task: Identify the tasks you completed that show your leadership skills.

A = Action: Outline the specific actions you took to achieve the goals you set.

R = Result: List your achievements by comparing them with previous performance. For example, you can say, I improved conversion rates from 2% to 7% in six months.

All information provided should be directly from the candidate. Please do NOT use AI/ChatGPT, etc. when submitting your answers.