Associate Director, Delivery Management

Primary Role

The Associate Director, Delivery Management (ADDM) is responsible for managing multiple complex, multi-disciplinary IT programs and projects by driving cross functional execution for the organization’s critical business initiatives and will establish, implement, develop, and embed best practices for project management throughout the organization. This includes significantly contributing towards defining and documenting all policies and processes of project lifecycles in order to deliver these projects according to plan and within budget.

The ADDM is accountable for leading teams of Project Managers, Product Managers & Scrum Masters for successful delivery of portfolio initiatives. This individual will direct and manage development of all projects within the PMO portfolio from start to finish. They will develop best practices, techniques, and tools for project planning, execution, project management, ongoing milestone/deliverable tracking, communication, and key performance metrics. They will review budget proposals and recommend subsequent budget changes to appropriate approvers where necessary. One of the key responsibilities of this role is to track and monitor all project milestones and deliverables and identify and manage project dependencies and critical path.

They will assess status reports, change requests, and requirements documentation to ensure smooth project progression. Conduct project inquiry and analysis and create recommendation reports to identify successful and unsuccessful project elements. They will also coach, mentor, motivate, and supervise new project team leads, team members, and contractors, and influence them to take positive action and accountability for their assigned work.

The ADDM drives strong partnerships between technology teams and product/project manager and designers. They promote consistent team execution while overseeing/improving the portfolio management and delivery processes. This individual will lead collaboration with internal and external resources to ensure that the delivery team identify and resolve issues and conflicts within and between various project teams harmoniously.

Key Accountabilities

• Responsible for the resource pool of project/product/scrum managers and ensures utilization, effectiveness, and alignment
• Develop a high performing team to achieve superior results
• Should empower team members to exceed expectations of their role
• Should foster a culture of learning, recognizing coaching opportunities, and teamwork
• Utilize tools and metrics to evaluate performance of the delivery framework, identify pain points and work with key stakeholders to build and execute improvement solutions
• Define and oversee effective project management methodologies, tools, and processes in both waterfall and agile methodologies
• Work with T&I leadership and delivery teams to simplify and develop Project and Program Delivery Frameworks, ensuring new processes are fit for purpose in terms of pace of delivery, ease of use/efficient working practices and compliance with regulations
• Act as subject matter expert in the selection and use of tools and associated processes to support IT portfolio to project management, including Agile and Waterfall methodologies
• Acts as a liaison with Business/Process owners and T&I teams to coordinate the delivery of IT solutions to the business
• Oversee the identification and documentation of client and contracted technology deliverables and specific requirements while communicating said requirements to the T&I teams
• Report progress and issues to the concerned teams and management as required
• Partner with the Change Management and Communication resources to enable successful rollout and adoption of technology changes

Key Accountabilities - Continued

• Understands the available IT tools with respect to complexity, functions, and standards
• Ensures business value realization and optimization, from value plans through consultancy, business case development, financial awareness, managing expectations, and identifying technology opportunities to add value
• Monitors progress to ensure the emerging solution meets business demands and business requirements
• Develops departmental plans and prioritizes to meet demand
• Leads engagement initiatives, goal setting and management of innovation within the team
• Manages activities through direct staff, team leads, professional staff, or operation staff; may manage indirect staff
• Responsible for the performance and results of a team

Knowledge/Skills

• Strong knowledge of process improvement and project delivery in an IT/Digital environment, working across multiple businesses in both Waterfall and Agile delivery approaches
• Experience with developing key performance metrics for programs and projects and their visual presentation to senior stakeholders
• Knowledge of root cause analysis and solution seeking to emerging themes around gaps in performance
• Sound knowledge of end to end Portfolio to Project management
• Expert knowledge and application of various software development life cycles and techniques (e.g., waterfall and agile)
• Attention to detail and strong organizational skills in order to manage multiple phases of a project plan
• Customer oriented approach in managing communications and issues
• Ability to effectively communicate complex process concepts to the business users and T&I teams
• Ability to operate effectively in a matrixed organizational structure
• Ability to listen, build rapport and credibility as a strategic partner vertically within the business unit, as well as with leadership and functional teams
• Ability to map joint organizational vision and long-term thinking, imagination, and idea generation

Knowledge/Skills - Continued

• Ability to effectively drive business, culture, and technology change in a dynamic and complex operating environment
• Strong leadership, business, technical, analytical and problem solving
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and proven ability to work effectively at all levels of the organization’s hierarchy
• Highly organized and ability to manage time effectively
• Ability to balance what is “right” with what is “realistic”
• Ability to stay focused on identified priorities
• Ability to make decisions in situations of ambiguity and the absence of complete facts
• Ability to work and team with a multitude of functions and teams to balance demands
• Deals efficiently with escalations and difficult situations/people under pressure

Experience/Education

• 15+ years in the IT function of medium to large organizations
• 10+ years of Project/Product management experience
• 5+ years of experience in a leadership position
• Experience with working in a dynamic and rapidly changing / ambiguous work environment
• Proven track record of successful team leadership and development
• Bachelor’s degree in Business Management, Computer Science, Information Systems or related field
• Masters or MBA will be a plus
• PMP/PMI-ACP/Scrum Master/Agile Methodology certification is preferred

Competencies