Program Manager(Candidate Must reside in Texas)

Job Title: Program Manager

Location: Austin, TX(Remote but must reside in Texas)

Duration: 12 months contract

The program manager is responsible for overseeing a large-scale, information technology influenced master project that includes multiple subprojects. The program manager will develop and maintain a high-level timeline for both master and subprojects in coordination with a cross functional team; and detailed timelines for each project, to include an integrated project schedule, when needed. The program manager will lead meetings and report regularly to executives and the associated steering committees on project status, including scope, schedule, resources, issues, and risks in collaboration with the project team. The program manager will have strong working knowledge and skills in waterfall and agile (including SAFe agile) project management methodologies.

Duties:

• Provides overall leadership, direction, and oversight of communications and status requests for all aspects of the integrated projects and sub-projects
• Enforces Committee-established project roles and responsibilities.
• Identifies and plans for needed resources.
• Assists with and manages project and timelines, including the sequence and cadence.
• In coordination with any assigned employee or contractor, facilitates workgroups to:

Gather comprehensive, detailed requirements and associated documentation for the MIS solicitation,

o Negotiate terms with the current MIS contractor that enable a clear, defensible solicitation,

o Determine the solicitation type and develop a clear, defensible solicitation,

o Identify issues with user community states and ITOs and resolve them timely,

o Identify issues with USDA FNS and resolve them timely, o Coordinate EBT to MIS interface development milestones, timelines, and statement of work to include user testing,

o Identify grocer readiness milestones and track progress, escalate risks, and

o Determine the ideal consortium structure, including governance.

• Develops, maintains, stores and archives project plans, artifacts, and required documentation for each contract, project, and subproject in coordination with the project team.
• Serves as the primary point of contact for executive project communications and status reporting.
• Coordinates executive stakeholder participation in project planning, execution, change control, and closeout, maximizing involvement during each.
• Performs risk management, to include identifying and documenting risks, and recommending and employing risk mitigation strategies.
• Performs other duties as assigned as required to complete each project.

Examples of Work Products Could Include:

• Develop a project plan for each project and subproject in the portfolio, with a focus on constraints, roles, and responsibilities, within the existing timeline
• Develop a tool for monitoring project and procurement risks and escalating to the WIC MIS/EBT executive steering committee (ESC).
• Develop a tool for managing the timeline and escalating potential schedule delays and proposed mitigation strategies.
• Develop, with ESC input, a work plan for completing all tasks and producing all deliverables on time.
• Develop, with ESC input, a plan to communicate with and obtain input from stakeholders including grocers, user community members and the Texas Legislature.
• Develop a template for and deliver weekly status reports.

Required Experience

• Developing clear, concise project documentation.
• Team management through team meetings, task assignment, mentoring, facilitation and training.
• Progress monitoring and use of risk management practices.
• Ability to keep leadership informed on project issues and progress.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Speed to decision in a complex, large organization
• Effective management of resources in a mixed functional and matrixed project environment.
• Expert problem resolution skills.
• Comprehensive experience with Waterfall and Agile project management lifecycles (analysis and planning to development and deployment/implementation)
• Experience with Microsoft Project, Office, Visio, and dashboard tools, such as PowerBI, Tableau.
• Experience with managing multiple competing priorities, conflict management, and negotiation/facilitation

Preferred Skills

• Experience leading highly complex strategic transformation and business-process re-engineering efforts
• Experience in highly complex IT procurements with a Texas state agency.
• Experience managing matrixed organizational and cross-divisional initiatives.
• Experience managing projects for a Health and Human Services
• Experience with WIC technology ecosystem
• Experience with projects in a Microsoft Dynamics/Azure Environment