Senior Project Manager

The Senior Project Manager’s prime responsibility is to deliver large, complex projects that produce the required products, to the required standard of quality within the specified constraints of time and cost. There is a high degree of risk and complexity with likely varying scope change. Project objectives address complex business opportunities. The role holder will manage a team of resources (8+ people) and they are also responsible for the project producing a result which is capable of achieving the benefits defined in the Business Case. Often they will be reporting to a Programme Manager or Senior Programme Manager.

Key Responsibilities

• Defines project scope, goals and deliverables in accordance with Statement of Work and in collaboration with senior Project member and stakeholders.
• Manages and leads key resources in the delivery of project in partnership with the customer to ensure acceptance, closedown and handover to service. Defines the project requirements and manages the agreement process with the appointed project authority. Define the project from a business need, and creates and tracks the schedule until project acceptance. Updates the project schedule and communicates changes in baseline to required parties using appropriate tools and templates. Ensures no scope creep without appropriate change control. Advanced knowledge of project planning and support tools. Successfully plots and manages critical path. Creates detailed test and communications plans.
• Creates simple requirements documentation under supervision of senior Project member. Work with technical resources on Rackspace and customer side to gain clear requirements. Maintains Requirements documentation in the project Configuration database. Writes basic Project Initiation Document.
• Produces and coordinates materials and baselines during all phases of the work package or project stage by careful planning and produces key documentation. Reports to the project authority, project manager and PMO manager through Highlight Reports and stage assessments. Works with Project Coordinator to ensure project assets are maintained appropriately.
• Adhere to the Change Control (CC) and Configuration Management process for the deliverables of their project against agreed plans. Assess and manage project variances (e.g. schedule variance); evaluate impacts to overall project commitment.
• Manages work package or project stage risks and produces an effective plan and risk assessment so that timescales and costs are understood and underwritten by all by the parties. Ensures that formal review procedures are used. Manages the risks associated with the deliverables, evaluate and present options, and implement approved changes.
• Builds and manages the relationship with key stakeholders (customer, subcontractors and Rackspace). Manage internal and customer stakeholder expectations.
• Create project budget and gain approval. Track the project costs and support team in meeting payment milestones.
• Accurately plans and updates resource utilization for projects. Escalates any conflicting resource requirements that may affect the delivery outcome. Requests additional resources when required in a timely manner.
• Utilizes Rackspace recommended vendors and partners where appropriate for the project. Basic understanding of the contract terms of vendor relationships.
• Adheres to project governance structure. Accurately produces project highlight reports.
• Use contract to extract key project deliverables. Understand key clauses in the contract that will determine the direction and approach of the project. Understand the key risks involved with the project becoming legally compromised. Identify opportunities for follow on projects and relay to senior management.
• Agrees the technical and quality strategy with appropriate stakeholders and ensures that regular quality reviews are established.
• Leads a team of resources assigned to a work package or project stage in conjunction with managing the relationship with the customer, subcontractors and Rackspace. Provide ongoing direction to project resources and delegate appropriately. Provide tactical leadership regarding project priorities, timeline, resources, and issues. Provide performance feedback for team members as appropriate.
• Manages the handover to Business as Usual appropriately and smoothly. Brings a project to close with appropriate documentation in place. Tracks acceptance criteria has been completed and signed off by the customer. Chair lessons learned meeting
• Ensures documentation and deliverables are in line with Rackspace guidelines.
• Works effectively in a matrix management structure.
• Follows defined processes in project tracking.
• Follows processes and defined guidelines in maintaining project documentation. Understands security standards as applied to document type and applies accordingly.
• Adheres to project governance structure.
• Accurately produces project highlight reports.
• Basic understanding of the contract terms of vendor relationships.
• Provides clear instructions to subject matter experts to complete deliverables
• Communicate risks and issues to the customer where appropriate
• Escalates issues to management where appropriate.
• Executes on RACI model.
• Effectively computes customer requirements and relays to project team.
• Identifies customer conflict and escalates to Project Manager, Senior Project Manager or Programme Manager as appropriate.
• Builds relationships with new and existing staff members to ensure a smooth workflow and project completion.
• Builds trusting professional relationship with colleagues.
• Focuses on customer wants and needs pertaining to the project
• Demonstrates clear understanding of customer requirements and willingness to fill in knowledge gaps.
• Prioritizes outcomes for the customer based on their requirements.
• Ability to draw on project resources to complete deliverables within a matrix organization.
• Makes tactical decisions for the project in line with the overall business strategy. Exercises decision making authority (within job remit) to enable the timely completion of the project within budget and to the appropriate quality level
• Understands commercial language in Statements of Work (SoW).
• Understands Rackspace obligations in Master Agreements.
• Extracts key deliverables and clauses from contracts in relation to a specific project and communicates objectives to relevant parties.
• Exhibits clear understanding on the problem the project is attempting to solve and the associated benefits.
• Uses a systematic approach to solving project related problems, and includes necessary resources to solve the key problem.