DescriptionPosition Summary:

The University of Colorado’s (CU) Office of Advancement manages and coordinates administrative functions that support the campus-based fundraising field staff. These functions include communications, database management, estate gift planning, gift processing, marketing, research, and other services. These centralized services place the institution in an optimal position to attract substantial support from the philanthropic sector.

The Project Manager efficiently and effectively plans, organizes, and assists in the leadership of CU Advancement’s Next Generation Donor Management Project. This position provides project management experience including, but not limited to, project plan development, requirements gathering, timeline creation and implementation, risk analysis with corresponding mitigation plans, communication plan development, and monitoring and control of execution with correlating issue tracking and resolution. The Project Manager facilitates coordination between stakeholder & customer expectations, project needs, and project team members. This position is accountable for meeting project objectives, managing projects, and ensuring appropriate communication occurs between project teams, management, and/or the appropriate governance committees regarding progress, status, issues, and metrics. The individual in this role assesses past, current, and upcoming tasks immediately, addressing latency or project issues with the appropriate manager and sponsor involvement. The Project Manager also works to ensure resource usage for the Donor Management Project via weekly assessments to analyze and correct resource over allocations. The overarching goal of this position is to successfully manage Advancement’s Next Generation Donor Management project while following CU’s information technology (IT) Governance project processes and standards.

The Project Manager reports to the Director of Technical Architecture and is exempt from the State of Colorado Classified Staff system.   The main project for this position is slated to conclude August 2022, and this position may or may not continue past that date.

Duties:

Duties and responsibilities of the position include, but are not limited to: 

Planning Phase Deliverables & Reviews

• Plans project and program management deliverables to ensure all stakeholders are prepared and understanding of objectives, this includes:
  • Conducting Phase Kickoff Meetings with all applicable stakeholders
  • Maintaining collaboration between project team members on Project Charter updates
  • Collaborating on the maintenance of the Roles and Responsibilities Matrix
  • Assisting with Functional & Technical Requirements documentation
  • Leading the creation of the Test Plan and ensuring that all stakeholders have given buy-in
  • Facilitating the identification of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), which includes Resources
  • Overseeing and maintaining the Risk Assessment (updated) and Risk Register
  • Overseeing the creation of the Transition to Service Plan, Project Plan Summary, and Go/No-Go Readiness Assessment
  • Creating Status Reports for stakeholder review and updates
  • Overseeing the Organizational Change Management (OCM) Plan, Communications Plan, and Training Plans
• Engages/participates in Board Reviews on behalf of the project, which includes: 
  • Overseeing Accessibility Review, Architecture Review, Data Governance, Security Review, and Final Phase review by Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and IT Governance
• Participates in Agile meetings to include Back Log Grooming, Sprint Planning, Standups and Retros

Execution

• Oversees the expected work and deliverables for all program and project documentation, which includes: 
  • Conducting Phase Kickoff Meetings with all applicable stakeholders
  • Managing the Work Breakdown Structure (baselined)
  • Maintaining the Risk Assessment (updated) and Risk Register (updated) 
  • Managing the Issue Log
  • Performing the Go/No-Go Readiness Assessment and updating the Transition to Service Plan (updated)
  • Submitting Change Requests (as needed)
  • Preparing weekly Status Reports
  • Developing the Organizational Change Management Plan
  • Creating the End User Support Plan
  • Generating the Test Cases/Script Report, Test Metrics, and Test Closure Report
• Engages/participates in Board Reviews, which includes: 
  • Managing weekly or bi-weekly project steering committee meetings
  • Updating IT Governance statuses
• Participates in Agile meetings to include Back Log Grooming, Sprint Planning, Standups and Retros

Closing

• Facilitates Lessons Learned to include data gathering and review

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

To be successful in this position, candidates will need the following:

• Knowledge of the Project Management Institute’s standards for project management demonstrated via multiple project example
• Knowledge of Agile-style project management methodologies (e.g. Scrum, Kanban)
• Oral, written, and listening communication skills, including the ability to accurately interpret what others are saying and convey messages, information, concepts, and details clearly
• Collaboration skills, including the ability to work with others from different areas and backgrounds to reach a common goal by sharing knowledge and strategy and maintaining constant communication
• Analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to examine and summarize data and trends in order to work out issues and produce results
• Research skills, including the ability to utilize a variety of tools to ask questions, gather information, and review, analyze, and interpret data
• Computer skills, including the ability to utilize Microsoft Office programs (i.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.) and learn and experiment with new software and systems
• Ability to support the Product Owner in managing customer expectations for project deliverables, managing stakeholder communications, and assisting in the implementation of an effective system of project governance
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision and reliable professional judgment, as well as collaboratively with a team to achieve desired results
• Ability to work under pressure, manage concurrent and competing tasks and responsibilities, and adapt to changing priorities while maintaining personal effectiveness
• Ability to apply research and information collected to the projects assigned
• Ability to establish and maintain good working relationships with co-workers, supervisors, other University personnel, and the public
• Ability to utilize a central project tool with exposure to workflows, central templates, resource reports, and timeline functionality (e.g. Microsoft Project Server, TaskRay)
• Ability to provide accurate, understandable, and useful sprint performance and progress metrics/reporting toward release and launch plans as well as utilize those metrics to provide feedback, demonstrate performance, and drive progress

QualificationsMinimum Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution of higher education, or equivalent professional experience (professional experience may be substituted for the educational requirement on a year-for-year basis)
• Three (3) years’ IT project management experience, which includes:
  • Working with SCRUM/Agile methodologies on enterprise-level application development projects

Preferred Qualifications:

• Five (5) years’ IT project management experience, which includes one or more of the following:
  • Experience managing large-scale projects across multiple organizations (CRM or ERP related)
  • Experience working between executive level management, mid-level managers, and project teams to facilitate the planning and execution of phased activities
• Experience working with or in higher education, non-profit, or government, particularly as it relates to IT project management
• Experience coaching and training department team members regarding project management fundamentals and standards
• Experience working in or with a software consulting company
• Project Management Professional (PMP), or equivalent certification

Who we are: System Administration, which also houses the Office of the President, is located in the uptown neighborhood of Denver with a few smaller offices located on the campuses.  This position is located in Denver.  Many of our departments support the educational and research missions of the four University of Colorado campuses, but System Administration is not considered a campus. We provide diverse opportunities for professional development, innovation, and collaboration with talented staff and faculty.  Learn more about CU System Administration.

The University of Colorado has been proactive in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. You can visit our COVID-19 webpage for more information.

What we offer:

Salary: Salary is competitive and commensurate with skills and experience.

The University of Colorado has been financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and has issued furloughs for select employee groups. This position may be subject to furlough. You can visit our furlough FAQ for more information.

Benefits: The University of Colorado offers an excellent benefits package including:

• Medical: Multiple plan options
• Dental: Multiple plan options
• Additional Insurance: Disability, Life, Vision and Wellness
• Retirement 401(a) Plan: Employer contributes 10% of your gross pay
• Paid Time Off: Accruals over the year
  • Vacation Days: 22
  • Sick Days: 15
  • Holiday Days: 10
• Tuition Benefit: System employees have the benefit on all campuses 
• ECO Pass: RTD Bus and light rail service
• Additional Perks & Programs: Click here to access a few more Perks and Programs

Click here to access our Total Compensation Calculator to see what your total rewards could be at CU. This position is a University Staff position.

More information on benefits programs, including eligibility, is available at www.cu.edu/employee-services/

Job Category: Information Technology
Primary Location: Denver
Schedule: Full-time
Posting Date: Oct 5, 2020
Unposting Date: Ongoing