STRATEGIC PROJECT MANAGER (MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY PR

At McMaster University, our people are our most valuable asset. We strive to attract, develop, and retain talented faculty and staff, and to foster inclusive excellence which values the strengths, perspectives, and contributions of each individual. McMaster’s profile and stature has evolved to one of the Top 70 Universities in the World and we are recognized as Canada’s Most Research Intensive University. McMaster is also recognized as one of the top employers in the Hamilton/Niagara region and has been recognized as one of Canada’s Top Diversity employers for the past 6 years. 

Our University Technology Services team mission is to provide exceptional customer service and a high level of support to the McMaster community. Critical to the success of this role we stand by and value integrity, mutual respect, collaboration and cooperation in support of the University’s IT Strategic Vision of a connected One IT community.   

About the Position 

The University Technology Services department is seeking a highly skilled and experienced Senior Project Manager to join our dynamic team. As a Senior Project Manager, you will play a pivotal role in planning and executing multiple concurrent projects to support the implementation of Microsoft-related technology projects. This is an excellent opportunity for an individual with strong technical and leadership competencies to make a significant impact in a prestigious academic institution. 

The Project Manager is a member of the IT Strategic Implementation Team within the office of the Associate Vice President and Chief Technology Officer and reports to the Senior Manager, IT Strategic Portfolio Management working closely with the Associate Director.  The Project Manager is responsible for leading and managing multiple concurrent IT Strategy Implementation projects to meet quality, budget, scope and time objectives. 

For more information about UTS, please visit our website https://uts.mcmaster.ca/. 

Are you the right candidate? 

The successful individual will ensure a full and robust approach to project management processes including strong planning, communication and organizing capabilities to create a cohesive and well-defined understanding of the full scope, cost and timelines necessary to successfully deliver prioritized projects. You will work closely with the Project Sponsor, a Project Steering Committee, Project Team and campus wide stakeholder groups, and external partners. 

This role requires a professional with a demonstrated record of managing and successfully delivering complex enterprise-wide interdependent technology projects, managing diverse teams (internal and external), and managing vendor relationships. Experience with implementing projects within the Microsoft 365 Ecosystem. Experience implementing projects within a Higher Education environment is also an asset.  

Key Responsibilities: 

Project and Program Management 

• Develop and manage all aspects of interdepent projects from planning, resourcing, executing project tasks to managing external vendor relationships, communications, budget, risks and issues. 

• Lead walkthroughs and reviews of project plans, stakeholder communication, documented success criteria and risk mitigation strategies. Organize and conduct start-up sessions to communicate requirements and project plans, and to initiate team building. 

• Develop executive level communication regarding all aspects of the project. Develop and maintain project plans, prepare project status reports and keep management, clients and other project stakeholders informed of the status. 

• Develop and manage project budget, time lines and milestones for presentation to senior management. 

• Evaluate work product to ensure adherence to established functional and operational specifications. 

• Conduct in-depth client interviews to determine scope, priority and constraints of business needs. 

• Lead the development of project charters, business case documents and cost justifications. 

• Conduct daily stand-ups and scrum meetings to ensure that the project team can track progress, identify and resolve blockers. 

• Ensure project deliverables and other collaterals are documented and uploaded to project repositories 

• Ensure proper setting of priorities, problem resolution and incorporation of changing events and conditions into the project from business, technical and political perspectives. 

• Partner with the Technical Team to maintain the information technology issues database, create new issues and tracking the status of open issues. 

• Responsible for leading change management as it relates to changes in business or systems processes including ensuring that change process aligns with best practicies, managing and guiding the transition processs and facilitating the adoption of changes within the organization. 

Manage Client and Vendor Relationships 

• Manage work assignments of internal staff and schedule and monitor adherence to procedures, protocols, and standards. 

• Plan, coordinate, and schedule meetings for effective user groups, leadership team, and advisory boards. 

• Investigate, evaluate, and recommend improvements that may be required to business practices, their systems, and supporting computing technology. 

• Develpoment and management of communications plan both internally within the project team and more broadly with the appropriate Institutional constinuants. 

Organizational Responsibilities 

• Coach and mentor project team staff in order to ensure a highly motivated and technically competent team. 

• Act as a senior lead responsible for planning, coordinating, and scheduling work assignments to project team members to ensure the completion of assigned projects. 

• Remain current with security policies and procedures  

• Promote the use of the Project Management framework, identifying enhancements and process improvements based on lessons learned.  

• Work collaboratively across all techncial teams required to provide support to a projects success.  

• Work with technical team managers to secure resources and align on resource availabilities and align within project plan. 

Technical Recommendations, Training and Systems Testing  

• Manage the development of prototypes of interfaces and attributes based on user requirements (as required). 

• Manage development and peer reviews of business requirements to ensure that the requirement specifications are correctly interpreted. 

• Gather and compile information on hardware and software products that meet predetermined specifications. Analyze and verify requirements for completeness, consistency, comprehensibility, feasibility, and conformity to standards. 

• Take ownership of all issues management both functional and technical by leading investigations to identify underlying problems, analyzing potential solutions and implementing system resolutions, including workarounds. 

• Remain current with the different levels of testing and support the development testing strategies, testing plans and testing scripts. 

• Manage all phases of testing including, but not limited to, system, integration, acceptance, regression, and performance. 

• Review test cases created by the testing team members to ensure that the test cases adequately define the business processes. 

• Resolve problems in the test, production implementation, and post-implementation phases in coordination with other technical and business groups. 

• Review systems, processes, and information and provide recommendations to others. 

• Prepare and review a variety of project documentation, training materials and related documents.  

Qualifications 

• Preferred: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Sciences, Business or a related field of study 

• Preferred: Certifications – PMP and ITIL 

• 10 years of relevant technical Project Management experience 

• In depth use of project management framework (agile preferred), including scope management, project planning, communication management, risk/issue management and cost management  

• Experience leading complex projects in a hybrid work environment is required 

• Comfortable leading multiple concurrent projects  

• Experience with vendor management 

• Knowledge of IT program management best practices 

• Demonstrated ability to successfully lead a diverse team on strategic projects 

• Experience with Microsoft 365 Ecosystem project implementations 

• Experience leading and implementing best practices in change management is an asset 

• Experience in policy creation and policy documentation 

Qualified candidates are encouraged to apply online on the McMaster website. We thank you for your interest; only candidates moving to the interview stage will be contacted.