Digital Initiatives Project Manager

Job Title: Digital Initiatives Project Manager

FLSA Status: Exempt

Department: Project Management

Reports to: Director, Project Management

GENERAL DESCRIPTION / PURPOSE:

Senior level P.M. accountable to Plan, direct, and coordinate all assigned Projects, including customer-facing projects, IT projects, enterprise business projects, and strategic initiatives. Project Manager is accountable for the management of all activities to ensure projects are delivered on-time, on-budget, scope management, meet quality expectations, and ensures the project team is following procedures and policies; along with meeting or exceeding customer requirements and expectations. Owns project strategy and execution from customer tender or initiative intake through acceptance, implementation, and benefit realization, including stakeholder alignment, escalation management, and financial outcomes. Provides concise executive-ready communication of status, risks, trade-offs, and decision requests.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

Functional and Technical Skills

• Responsible for all aspects of the entire project life cycle (initiate, plan, execute, control, close) for multiple complex projects and sophisticated project schedules from customer tender through delivery and customer acceptance.
• Lead IT projects and strategic initiatives through defined intake, prioritization, planning, execution, change management, implementation, and post-launch stabilization.
• Ensure projects meet all requirements. (Technical, procedures/policy, scope, budget, and schedule)
• Communicate all variance in the project (budget, scope, schedule, and out of process/policy.
• Support and plan for machine testing, training, commissioning, and customer acceptance. Assist Engineering, Marketing, Production, and Strategic Sourcing on project cost estimates (budgetary and full project quotes) for Contract submission.
• Maintain and manage project action logs.
• Develop and maintain integrated project plans for technology deployments, system enhancements, process improvements, and strategic business initiatives.
• Works with cross functional project teams to identify risks up front and develop plans to reduce or eliminate their impact.
• Manage and communicate project cost, P&L management, and project change orders.
• Validate ERP-derived project cost estimates and exemplifies solid ERP skills to drive action.
• Develop project forecasts and communicate any variances to budget
• Participate in the development of project schedules, and leads the team to deliver projects on-time.
• Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain integrated project baselines (scope/schedule/cost), including formal change control, impact analysis, and approvals.
• Proven experience leading multiple concurrent complex projects, balancing resource constraints, and driving prioritization decisions with leadership and customers.

Operational Excellence

• Confers with project staff to outline work plans and to assign duties, responsibilities, the scope of authority, and execution.
• Takes ownership of project performance.
• Assist Engineering, Marketing, Production, and Strategic Sourcing on project cost estimates (budgetary and full project quotes) for Contract submission
• Review status reports prepared by project personnel and modify schedule or plan as required. Prepare project reports for management, client, or others.
• Customer interface to ensure project scope compliance, yet managing project scope creep
• Achieve project Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for all assigned projects
• Stage-gate process champion with strict adherence to process documentation completion
• Accept special assignments as needed
• Leads governance forums (e.g., stage-gate readiness reviews), drives cross-functional decisions, and owns corrective actions when KPI performance is at risk.
• Partner with IT, business leaders, and cross-functional stakeholders to translate strategic priorities into executable project roadmaps with clear milestones, owners, benefits, and decision points.

Leadership and Talent Development

• Ensure that all team members understand all aspects of the project requirements and how their role fits into the successful execution of the project.
• Lead , and train Project Managers, I, II and III on Project Management best practices.
• Challenges teams to meet stretch targets
• Steps in and helps project team when needed.
• Participate in the continuous improvement of the Project Management Office (PMO)
• Direct and coordinate activities of project personnel to ensure projects progress on schedule and within prescribed budgets while following our process and policies.
• Effectively lead cross-functional teams and coordination of team activities, ensuring appropriate and timely issue escalation and member accountability
• Demonstrated experience coaching and developing other PMs and leading PMO standard work / templates / KPI reporting improvements.

BEHAVIORAL COMPETENCIES:

• Adaptability
• Communication
• Customer Focus
• Decision Making
• Planning and Organizing
• Values-Based Leadership