Overview

The Senior Project Manager is responsible for the overall direction, coordination, implementation, execution, control, and completion of specific projects, ensuring consistency with company strategy, commitments, and goals.  This includes acquiring and managing resources and coordinating the efforts of team members, business stakeholders, and third-party contractors or consultants to deliver projects according to plan, and within defined timelines and budget. 

The Senior Project Manager will direct multiple complex projects involving one or more project teams utilizing Agile, Iterative, or Hybrid methodologies.   They are responsible for the adoption and adaptation of project management methodologies based on the context of the project and selecting appropriately from predictive (plan-driven) approaches or adaptive (iterative/agile) approaches.  The Senior Project Manager will also define the project’s objectives and oversee quality control throughout its life cycle.  Responsible for preparing and communicating status reports on the health of the project.

Core Responsibilities

• Define, document and successfully complete complex application development projects (typically with significant business, political or high-profile impact, and high-risk dependencies).
• Adopt and adapt project management methods and tools, selecting appropriately from plan-driven/predictive approaches or more adaptive (iterative and agile) approaches.
• Ensure that effective project control, change control, risk management, design, development, and testing processes are maintained.
• Monitor and control resources, revenue and capital costs against the project budget, and manage expectations of all project stakeholders.
• Align project objectives with company goals, and make sure the project team is clear on objectives.
• Work with Solution Managers to staff initiatives with appropriate skill sets.
• Communicate project status, progress, and issues effectively and appropriately, including periodic report creation and distribution.
• Drive vendor selection activities, using the established RFP process. May be assigned Statement of Work (SOW) activities as appropriate.
• Provide ongoing facilitation and coaching that enables the team to excel at Agile development.
• Manage sprint velocity-related metrics and goals.
• Run scrum ceremonies, e.g., daily huddles, backlog grooming, sprint planning, and sprint retrospectives to actively manage risks and external dependencies.
• On-Call and/or after-hours work required

Skills Qualifications

• Expertise in project management methodologies and techniques with proven teamwork and influential skills, including Agile, Iterative, and Hybrid methodologies
• Practical experience managing complex projects/programs in application development, leveraging geographically dispersed teams in the life insurance industry.
• Significant experience performing the Scrum Master role for a software development team that was diligently applying Scrum principles, practices, and theory
• Experience with life, annuity, and universal life (UL) products is required
• Skilled in developing a culture of teamwork and customer service, including facilitation, situational awareness, conflict resolution, continual improvement, empowerment, and increasing transparency.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Ability to elicit cooperation from a wide variety of sources, including upper management, clients, vendors, and other departments
• Experience managing projects with Ingenium Policy Administration system or any other major policy admin platforms will be a major plus.
• Competency in Microsoft applications, including Visio, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook
• Experience and Agile tools such as Azure DevOps Boards, JIRA, Rally, etc
• Experience managing a policy admin platform transformation program/implementing a new policy admin product will be a HUGE plus.

Education

Required:

• BA or BS in Business, Project Management, Computer Science, or other business-related field
• 10 or more years of project management experience, including at least 5+ years working with Agile in Application Development. Life Insurance Industry experience required

 Preferred:

• PMP Certification, Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and/or Professional Scrum Master (PSM) certifications preferred

Physical Demands

Authorization to work in the United States is required

This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship. 

Compensation

The wage range for this role takes into account a broad array of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions, including but not limited to: skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.  The range below applies as long as the work is performed in Connecticut; the Knights of Columbus reserves the right to adjust the wage range if the position is performed in another location.  At the Knights of Columbus, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is $104,500 - $172,400.