Under the leadership of the Director of Operational Excellence, the Senior Project Manager for Operational Excellence is responsible for creating a culture of ongoing business process improvement and operational excellence by successfully managing projects throughout the project lifecycle. Reporting directly to the Director of Operational Excellence, this position is a member of the Business Optimization team focused on delivering continuous improvement by working strategically across campus divisions to optimize business processes. This role will serve as a partner, responsible for developing and maintaining strong relationships with business and project stakeholders to align strategies and improvement initiatives. This role will help lead teams across the University in identifying, planning, and implementing lean/process improvement projects that tie strongly to their strategic priorities. The Senior Project Manager must be self-directed, creative, strategic, innovative, and outcome and customer focused.
A bachelor’s degree and five years of relevant experience are required. Seven years of experience is preferred.
Additional experience or education may be considered in lieu of one another.
A PMP certification is required in order to be considered for this role.
Additional preferred skills and qualifications:
- Higher Education experience preferred.
- Lean/process improvement experience preferred.
- Demonstrated record of successful project management, project facilitation (virtual/ in-person), requirements gathering and documentation, process development, strategic problem-solving, and analytical skills.
- Must have strong attention to detail, excellent quality of deliverables.
- Passion for exceeding customer expectations with an ability to anticipate business needs.
- Experience leading complex programs, projects, improvements, and initiatives using a structured approach.
What You Will Do
- Maintain an extensive understanding of the business policies, processes, and regulatory environment, while supporting the Director of Operational Excellence.
- Lead multiple, complex projects and improvement plans that cut across various organizational and functional boundaries.
- Utilize effective project management tools for planning, execution, monitoring and reporting.
- Provide project management expertise and guidance to ensure teams successfully achieve their objectives on time and within budget, including the following tasks:
- Initiating projects ‐ charter development.
- Planning ‐ requirements gathering, scope definition, and schedule development.
- Executing ‐ task management, status reporting, budget tracking.
- Monitoring ‐ risk and issue management.
- Relationship building and management.
- Facilitation of meetings throughout the project.
- Lead continuous measurement and monitoring processes, risks, and controls by conducting post-implementation reviews and project follow-up.
- Champion the use of project management and lean/process improvement methodologies.
- Support creative business solutions while overcoming constraints of existing business practices.
- Develop opportunities for cross-team effectiveness for strong teamwork, collaboration, and excellent service delivery in both an on-campus and hybrid/remote environment.
- Encourage, lead, and enable quality/efficient business processes supporting the mission, vision, and strategic priorities.
- Build and maintain strong working relationships with stakeholders.
- Lead project management, operational excellence, and other related training events as needed.
