Senior Project Manager - Business Change Projects

Project Manager

The Project Manager will be responsible for ensuring the successful delivery of one or more Business Change projects. Business Change projects are those that involve new business processes, new ways of working, supported by new or redeveloped IT systems. The scope of responsibility for the Business Project Manager will be all work streams, sub-projects or activities that are required to achieve the defined business outcomes for the project.

The Project manager will be responsible for:

• Project definition and planning
• Stakeholder engagement and communication
• Reporting to Steer Co, executive and management
• Task definition, delivery management and monitoring
• Managing day-to-day relationships with external suppliers, and other groups inside McGraw Hill
• Dependency management – particularly with resources and other business activities

In a project which will include, but not be limited to:

• Definition of new business processes and ways of working
• Communications, Training and Change Management
• Data cleanse and migration
• IT Systems development and/or modification
• Systems implementation, integration, installation, configuration
• Cybersecurity assessment and testing
• Unit, system, business, and User Acceptance Testing

Context:
McGraw Hill is a global organisation. The Business Project Manager role will be primarily remote working, but will include working with MH teams in one of the many offices across the US and with the potential for some international travel.

Key skills and capabilities:
The Project Manager must be able to engage effectively with the Steer Co, executive and senior management to ensure clear objectives for the project, outcomes and the business constraints and context are understood. The Project Manager will need to work on a daily basis with business and technology professionals, will need to challenge when appropriate, and gain agreement on project objectives, scope, costs and benefits.

The Project Manager must be able to create a project plan with an understanding of the requirements of each task and the resources available, then manage delivery against that plan, while managing risks and issues as they arise. The Project Manager will be responsible for regular reporting to the Steer Co, sponsors, compliance with McGraw Hill Project governance; and for wider communication with project stakeholders.

The Project Manager will be able to use their experience and insight to spot potential issues, good communication skills to keep all relevant parties informed, strong leadership skills to build teams and provide direction, and a calm demeanour to make the best decisions under pressure.

Key Responsibilities:

• Prepare brief but effective project definition and governance documents
• Develop realistic and achievable project plans
• Build and manage global, cross-functional project teams
• Manage external staff & vendors
• Continuously monitor the performance of all resources and vendors to ensure consistent performance
• Drive deliverables, day by day
• Provide appropriate communications, targeted to the audience
• Manage budgets, where appropriate
• Prioritise objectives to ensure success
• Track project deliverables
• Scrutinise progress to highlight potential issues
• Provide regular updates on project health to PMO

Key

Skills:

• Pro-active in identifying what needs to be done to ensure successful delivery
• Effective management of individuals in the wider project team – which will include dedicated team members, but a larger group from the business who are part time resources.