Responsible for the coordination and completion of project/program. Oversees all aspects of projects/program. Sets deadlines, assigns responsibilities, and monitors and summarizes progress of project/program. Prepares reports for upper management regarding status of project/program. May require a bachelor's degree and 2-4 years of experience in the field or in a related area. Familiar with a variety of the field's concepts, practices, and procedures. Relies on limited experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals. Performs a variety of tasks. Leads and directs the work of others. A wide degree of creativity and latitude is expected.
You are a single-threaded owner responsible for the planning, execution, and delivery of straightforward projects related to an existing program. You may be embedded in a single team or your work may focus on a small segment of a business (e.g., finance, legal, compliance, retail, engineering, HR, etc.), operations (e.g., Catalog, CS, FC, datacenter, etc.) and/or other larger programs. In either case, procedures related the program or business are well-defined. Your job is to apply project-management best practices to make the team and process area you are in more efficient. You resolve blocking problems, and facilitate delivery. You are able to assign individual responsibilities, develop appropriate milestones and launch schedules to ensure timely and successful delivery of a project.
You take the time to learn the business needs and/or workflows involved in your projects (e.g., requirements, data sources, metrics, mechanisms, risks, key dependencies, any automation/tools, etc.). You understand a broad range of analytics techniques and know how (and when) to use them. You work backward[2]; starting with customers, stakeholders, and any related team owners. You work to understand their needs/problem(s) and you incorporate their context into project plans. You define and clarify business procedures and process requirements. You drive productive discussions. You help the team and their customers reach consensus. You understand any technologies involved in project(s) at a high level, enough to participate constructively in solution discussions. You are an advocate for the customer and for your team. You negotiate process improvements and needed features (and their priority), distinguishing between important and urgent. You establish milestones and drive sensible deadlines. You manage project communications and may serve as the first point of contact for team projects.
You run effective meetings and are able to dive deeply into details as easily as convey high-level plans. Your verbal and written style are clear and concise. You are able to transform raw thoughts into clear documentation and requirements (e.g., project charter, statement of work, responsibility matrix, functional requirements, implementation approach, reporting, etc.). You ensure the right information about the state of a project is delivered to the right audience at the right time (e.g., status reports, metrics reports, etc.). You clearly articulate scope, timeline, owners, risks, and the steps to mitigate those risks at each stage. You identify roadblocks, drive the resolution of problems, and either manage their resolution or ensure a clear hand-off to the right owner. You make sure each project has measures of success (Q: How do you know your project is on track? How do you know it saves money? How do you know the outcome is acceptable? How do you know your customers are satisfied?). You participate in the interview process and help train new members of the team.