Senior IT Project Manager/Scrum Master

Centrally manages and coordinates multiple work efforts with a focus to achieve and deliver strategic objectives, outcomes, and benefits. Develops, defines, and executes plans of record, including schedules, budgets, resources, deliverables, and risks. Monitors and drives a collection of IT projects and features for the HR & Payroll areas from initiation through delivery, interfacing with stakeholders across functions as needed. Monitors budget/spending, on-time delivery, and achievement of milestones.  Represents the program/release train and drives alignment across stakeholders.  Additionally, as a Scrum Master, the individual facilitates agile ceremonies including sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives. They ensure the team adheres to agile principles, removes impediments to the team's progress, and fosters a culture of continuous improvement. The Scrum Master also shields the team from external interruptions and provides coaching on agile best practices to enhance team productivity and collaboration.

**Position requires to be in San Diego full time

The responsibilities of this role include:

• Working under some supervision.
• Making decisions that are moderate in impact; errors may have relatively minor financial impact or effect on projects, operations, or customer relationships; errors may require involvement beyond immediate work group to correct. 
• Requires verbal and written communication skills to convey information that may be somewhat complex to others who may have limited knowledge of the subject in question.
• Most tasks require multiple steps that can be performed in various orders; some planning and prioritization must occur to complete the tasks effectively; mistakes may result in some rework.
• Deductive and inductive problem solving is required; multiple approaches may be taken/necessary to solve the problem; often information is missing or incomplete; intermediate data analysis/interpretation skills may be required.
• Exercising creativity to draft original documents, imagery, or work products within established guidelines.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Develops and executes project/program plans for medium- to large-sized projects/programs within a specific domain which include schedule and resource forecasting, stakeholder identification, method and frequency of communication, scope, and prioritization.
• Creates and promotes project vision and objectives within project team, ensures project/program objectives are met, presents project vision to management, and gains buy-in from stakeholders.
• Identifies resources to ensure the alignment of team member skills and strengths with project demands, creates project teams, secures resources, schedules task assignments for medium- to large-sized projects/programs by following project management best practices, and recommends process improvements.
• Communicates directly with stakeholders to establish needs and goals, and executes communication/change management plan for project team, stakeholders, management, and executives.
• Manages project performance (e.g., on time, on budget, within scope, and with quality) for projects/programs of medium to large size or complexity.
• Supports the compliance of project plans by following best practices and procedures.
• Collaborates with key stakeholders and project sponsors to develop project goals, set the prioritization of deliverables, discuss involvement of business processes (e.g., project change management, communication) and facilitate decisions necessary for project delivery.
• Ensures and facilitates collaboration with diverse project stakeholders throughout the project by using appropriate tools.
• Supports the compliance of project plans by following best practices and procedures.
• Facilitating Scrum events such as Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective.
• Coaching the Development Team in self-organization and cross-functionality.
• Helping the Development Team to create high-value products.
• Removing impediments to the Development Team’s progress.
• Coaching the Product Owner in effective Product Backlog management.
• Ensuring that all Scrum events take place and are positive, productive, and kept within the time-box.
• Facilitating effective communication and collaboration between the Development Team, Product Owner, and other stakeholders

IT CORE COMPETENCIES:

• Accountability - Hold one’s self and others accountable for measurable quality, timely and cost-effective results, and accepts responsibility for impacts to the business and changes to business processes.
• Adaptability - Adjusting own behaviors to work efficiently and effectively in light of new information, changing situations and/or different environments.
• Collaboration - Fosters working together by establishing, communicating, and reinforcing shared values, norms, and objectives.
• Communication - The ability to effectively exchange information with stakeholders in addition to the ability to accurately hear and understand the partially expressed thoughts, feelings, and concerns of others.
• Financial Acumen - Ability to understand in-depth financial information that can be used to make meaningful insights to drive business growth in a safe and transparent environment.
• Influence - The ability to accomplish goals through others.
• People Development - Models and creates an environment that promotes career development.
• Strategic Focus - Applies a comprehensive approach using business acumen and industry research to solve systematic complexities that promote growth.

ADDITIONAL COMPETENCIES:

(All competencies below are required upon entry)

• Analytical Skills - The ability to collect information and identify fundamental patterns/trends in data. This includes the ability to gather, integrate, and interpret information from several sources.
• Dealing with Conflict - The ability to quickly and directly address problems, find common ground, and persevere on tough assignments. This includes having the willingness to be centrally involved in debates and facilitating conflict discussion and resolution.
• Decision Making - The ability to make quick, accurate decisions. This includes the ability to weigh alternatives and take into account the impact of the decisions on people, equipment, or other resources.
• Escalation Management - Knowledge of the procedures for incident escalation. This includes understanding when to escalate as required in a timely manner.
• Focusing on the Customer - The ability to effectively identify and address key customer needs. This includes leading others to maintain focus on customers and seeking information to uncover a true client need.
• Getting Organized - The ability to be organized, resourceful, and planful. This includes the ability to leverage multiple resources to get things done and lay out tasks in sufficient detail. This also includes the ability to get things done with fewer resources and in less time, work on multiple tasks at once without losing track, and foresee and plan around obstacles.
• Inspiring Others- The ability to motivate teams or functional groups to perform at their best and accept change. This includes the ability to identify and promote a unifying vision with associated goals, create a climate in which people want to contribute, and understand what motivates different people. This also includes sustaining performance during times of change, identifying individuals who are resistant to change, and developing tailored solutions to increase engagement.
• Managing Diverse Relationships- The ability to manage a variety of relationships from both inside and outside the organization. This includes building and nurturing a diverse network, finding a balance between meeting one's own interest and the interest of other groups, and having a good understanding of group dynamics. This also includes embracing diversity in terms of backgrounds and opinions and creating an environment of trust and respect for differences
• Managing Resources - The ability to spend his/her time and the time of others on the most mission-critical work activities. This includes communicating priorities to others, removing roadblocks that threaten to derail progress, and making timely and difficult decisions about serious tradeoffs with incomplete information.
• Project Management - Knowledge of project lifecycles. This includes an understanding of methodology attributes such as entrance and exit criteria for assigned project stages, team roles and responsibilities, and tools and techniques. This also includes the ability to plan activities within a project stage and report on progress.
• Providing Feedback- The ability to regularly provide feedback to others in a timely manner. This includes identifying opportunities to provide feedback, providing feedback for improvement in a tactful and impactful way, and providing positive feedback in order to empower and motivate employees to maximize performance.
• Taking Initiative - The ability to attack work activities with drive and energy, understand the impact of work on key metrics, and make decisions that are in the company's best interest. This includes not being afraid to initiate action before all the facts are known, and driving value-added work tasks to completion
• Time Management - The ability to quickly prioritize mission-critical from less important or trivial work activities. This includes sensing what the next most useful thing is to work on, and focusing on the critical few tasks that add value while putting aside or delaying the rest.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in the areas of IT, Information Systems, Engineering, Computer Science, or related field.
• 7+ years Project Management-relevant work experience in IT.
• SAFe certified
• PMO, PMP, or Six Sigma Project Management Certification.
• 3+ years of work experience in a role requiring interaction with senior leadership (e.g., Director level and above).
• 3+ years managing operating budgets and/or project financials.
• Experience working as a Scrum Master in an Agile environment, facilitating Scrum events, and coaching teams in Agile principles and practices.
• Knowledge of Agile frameworks and methodologies, such as Scrum, Kanban, and Lean.
• Experience with Agile tools, such as Jira, Trello, or similar.
• Experience with HR, Payroll or ERP domains and systems