The IT Project Manager is responsible for managing the planning and implementation of IT and organization-wide projects, leading improvements and change across business processes, applications, and staff teams. Projects vary in scale, ranging from application selection to complex, large scale, operational changes involving multiple, interconnected applications and processes and several departments. This position contributes to the organizational strategy of strengthening organizational culture by investing in people and systems, improving the employee experience, and developing a culture of trust and accountability.

Under minimal supervision, the IT Project Manager uses good judgment, skills and experience to direct projects and ensures they are delivered within scope, budget, and in a timely manner. The Project Manager learns and understands the internal business and applies knowledge of the global business and technology environments to yield the most successful possible outcome for the organization’s project portfolio. This position has the capacity to impact our racial equity work both indirectly through providing tools that lead to better community outcomes and directly through daily interactions with staff, where approaching the work with an eye toward equity leads to better internal outcomes.

The IT Project Manager works with the IT Director and Associate Director to partner across departments, negotiate and agree upon the organization’s annual IT project commitments. The IT Project Manager manages the United Way IT Project Portfolio such that it is right sized according to the available resources and shifting priorities of the organization.

Essential Duties:

• Manages the United Way IT Project Portfolio by building relationships with internal business leaders and evaluating project resource capacity combined with an understanding of the organization’s strategic direction and business objectives
• Contributes to annual planning, especially as it relates to setting the IT project commitments for the coming year
• Manages the IT project request process including a clear, well-communicated path for staff to request projects and stay informed of their status
• Applies current project management industry best practices in support of quality, consistency, and effectiveness (e.g., PMI, Agile, Waterfall)
• Provides tactical and team leadership throughout project lifecycle
• Strategizes and executes change management
• Analyzes the people, process, and technology aspects of the business; provides option analysis and decision-making frameworks to determine project direction and risk management
• Understands and stays informed of current and future business technologies; does cost/benefit analysis and evaluates solutions for software selection
• Acquires goods (software) and services (vendor) through a fair and thorough bidding process, including racial equity survey and possible RFP; negotiates contracts to United Way’s advantage; onboards and strategically manages vendor to optimize outcome for United Way, focusing on cost, schedule, and project deliverables
• Plans projects, developing all guiding artifacts such as project charter, business requirements, detailed project plan, risk/issues log, and scope of work
• Manages and controls projects by monitoring, tracking progress, and guiding the project through to completion; identifies and captures project specific risks and issues; minimizes impact on project delivery
• Successfully establishes and maintains relationships with project team members, product owner, project sponsor, and all stakeholders, including third parties/vendors, establishing effective communication, including status reporting, risk and issue management, consensus building, and holding individuals accountable
• Creates user acceptance testing plans and manages testing process during project execution, ensuring that all participants’ time is well-used in support of desired results
• With support of the IT Team, facilitates any necessary training curriculum design resulting from application implementation and business process change
• Evaluates and measures project performance in support of United Way’s culture of learning and improvement.; executes project closure, transitioning project to regular business operations
• Performs other duties as assigned