SOFTWAY - Project Manager II (Experienced)
Department: Project Management
Overall Purpose of the Position:
As a Project Manager II in the Project Management Department, you will play a key role in overseeing large, complex projects with broad scopes. You will focus on day-to-day task management, ensuring project milestones are met, and coordinating with cross-functional teams to deliver successful outcomes.
Key Responsibilities and Duties:
- Project Oversight: Manages multiple simultaneous, larger, and/or more complex projects with broader scopes. Takes on a strategic position, overseeing multiple aspects of project planning and execution. Ensures the timely execution of project tasks and milestones.
- Entrepreneurial mindset: Takes ownership of projects and treats them as if they were the business owner. Makes decisions with a balance of project success, profitability, and future business opportunities in mind.
- Project Planning and Execution: Understands, updates, and utilizes project plans. Weekly oversight of the planning, execution, and delivery of client projects, ensuring alignment with client objectives and timelines. Collaborates with project teams, Program Managers, and the Director of Project Management as needed to address challenges and optimize project workflows.
- Decision-Making Authority: Makes decisions within the defined scope of the project. Responsible for strategic decisions and may have autonomy in project-related choices.
- Sales Support: Collaborates with Sales teams to develop project plans as part of the sales project. Works with the Deal Owner to drive pursuit plans, develop realistic project timelines, start dates, and contingency periods. Takes on the Deal Owner role for certain projects. Actively seeks opportunities to provide more value to clients through change requests, upselling, and cross-selling.
- Financial Acumen: Understands and articulates project finances at an advanced level. Includes all business finance components and variables of their projects.
- Team Culture: Fosters a productive work environment by embodying expected behaviors (below) and adhering to the company belief in “Honesty Over Harmony.” Effectively manages conflicts using negotiation, mediation, and other conflict resolution techniques to address issues constructively and promote positive outcomes.
- Proactively seeks to contribute to the project management community including assisting and mentoring other project managers.
- International Team Coordination: Coordinates and collaborates with the project teams in the US and in India to ensure project alignment with global project standards. Foster effective communication and collaboration across international teams.
- Experience and Expertise: Possesses extensive experience in project management. Demonstrates a deeper understanding of industry-specific complexities and strategic planning. Stays up to date on emerging technologies and tools relevant to project management. Leverages technology solutions to enhance collaboration, communication, and productivity within project teams and with external stakeholders.
- Stakeholder and Client Relationship Management: Interacts with stakeholders and clients primarily at the project level. Focuses on meeting client expectations within the project scope while demonstrating the confidence and courage to hold the Client accountable to their part of the contract. Acts as the main point of contact, trusted advisor, and strategic partner for clients, addressing their concerns, ensuring satisfaction with project deliverables, anticipating and addressing client needs proactively, and identifying opportunities for value-added services and business growth.
- Project Requirements: Embodies the voice of the customer by clearly articulating the client’s business model, how the project helps the client’s company meet its goals, and the project requirements over the duration of the project. Is an advocate for both client and project teams to reach realistic and quality goals/timelines.
- Quality Assurance: Holds delivery team members to quality deliverables that meet the project requirements. Conduct regular reviews of project deliverables to ensure adherence to quality standards.
- Risk Management: Identifies and mitigates risks associated with project execution. Implements contingency plans to address unforeseen challenges and ensure project success, including sending regular progress reports to clients and project leads for each project.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborates with other departments, including sales, marketing, and client services, to ensure a coordinated approach to project delivery, ensure the availability of resources as needed, and to align project management activities with overall organizational objectives.
- Growth Mindset: Embraces and fosters growth mindsets within the team. Encourages unlearning old ways and re-learning new approaches to culture and change management work. Challenges and dismantles belief systems that impede embracing new ways of working or delivering work.
Behavioral Expectations Based on the Pillars of Love:
- Inclusion: Fosters an inclusive environment, especially across diverse geographic locations.
- Empathy: Shows understanding and consideration for the challenges faced by teams and clients in different regions.
- Forgiveness: Cultivates a forgiving and learning-focused attitude, particularly in cross-cultural and change management contexts.
- Trust: Builds trust through transparent and consistent actions, and reliable leadership in the position.
- Empowerment: Empowers team members and clients by providing resources, support, and autonomy for decision-making and problem-solving.
- Vulnerability: Exhibits vulnerability by sharing challenges and learning experiences, encouraging open dialogue and mutual learning.
Embrace and live out Softway’s operating principles:
- Prioritize relationships: We forge unbroken trust, achieve customer intimacy, and practice forgiveness
- Embrace discomfort: We value feedback as a gift, embrace vulnerability and transparency
- Wield your influence: We lead with our influence, embody reliable leadership, and extend our influence beyond titles
- Practice empathetic curiosity: We challenge our beliefs and assumptions
- Focus on outcomes: We deliver with purpose, value impact over effort, and engage
- in strategic problem-solving
- Take ownership: We embrace mutual accountability, empower and unblock, and
- learn from our mistakes openly
- Experiment: We champion curiosity and courage, advocate for incremental progress,
- and redefine perfection through iteration.
- Be Effective: We align for impact, are interwoven in collaboration, and strategize for
- success.
Skills and Qualifications:
- Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, for effective stakeholder engagement and executive level presentation.
- Demonstrate executive presence including confidence, professionalism, and credibility when interacting with senior management and key stakeholders.
- Proven leadership skills with the ability to motivate and mentor teams.
- Strategic Thinking abilities to align project objectives with broader internal or client organizational goals and drive business value.
- In-depth knowledge of project management methodologies and tools.
- Experience in collaborating with or managing international project teams.
- Strong financial acumen with the ability to manage project budgets effectively.
- Flexibility/Adaptability to changing project requirements, timelines, and priorities in a
- fast-paced environment. Understanding that business needs are ever changing,
- being comfortable with ambiguity.
- Problem-Solving skills to address challenges encountered during project execution.
- Strong time management skills to prioritize tasks, meet deadlines, and manage
- multiple projects simultaneously.
In Person Meetings & Travel Expectations:
- In-Person Team Meetings: Regular attendance for in-person team meetings is required.
- Company Meetings / Retreats: Attendance for all Company-wide Meetings and/or Retreats is mandatory.
- Client Visits: Occasional travel for client visits may be necessary, including Sales Pursuits, Project Kickoffs, Project Closures, or other client related meetings as determined reasonably required by management. Travel frequency will depend on client requirements.
- International Collaboration (India & US): Willingness to travel to India and/or US as requested to collaborate with cross-functional teams is required.
Professional Development:
Project Managers are expected to participate in annual professional development commensurate with their level of expertise. Examples include but are not limited to the following: Project Management Training Programs and Certifications, Mentorship Programs, Networking Events and Conferences, Online Learning Platforms, Critical Skills Development, Cross-Functional Training, etc.
Evaluation Metrics:
Evaluation metrics will evolve over time to meet the business needs. Performance will be evaluated based on consistent and reliable demonstration of the following:
- Proficiency in the Key Responsibilities for the position,
- Successful project delivery,
- Exhibiting behaviors of the Six Pillars of Love,
- Observance of the company Operating Principles,
- Stakeholder and Client Satisfaction,
- Budget Adherence and Project Profitability,
- Engagement in Professional Development,
- And overall impact on the success in meeting the goals and metrics for the Project Management Department.
Reporting Structure:
Project Manager II reports directly to the Director of Project Management or a Program Manager.