Role Overview
The Project Manager owns full end-to-end delivery of significant projects or programs, holding accountability for scope, schedule, budget, and stakeholder outcomes. This role exercises independent authority over day-to-day decisions and is a key contributor to departmental planning and standards.
Key Responsibilities
- Core Project Management
- Own the full delivery lifecycle - mandate, scope, plan, budget, resourcing, execution, and closing - for significant projects or programs.
- Define success criteria up front and hold the project team accountable to them throughout delivery.
- Own governance, change control, and approvals, ensuring nothing moves outside of agreed process.
- Own project and program budgets, including forecasting, financial reporting, and cost-recovery decisions.
- Scheduling & Delivery
- Build master schedules and enforce critical-path discipline across all workstreams and vendors.
- Make and document trade-off decisions between scope, schedule, and budget, with clear rationale.
- Proactively re-baseline and communicate schedule changes with full transparency to stakeholders.
- Risk Management
- Own the risk and issue register at the project level, driving mitigation plans and contingency reserves.
- Independently resolve the majority of risks and issues, escalating only those with material budget, schedule, or reputational impact.
- Conduct scenario planning for high-impact risks and present options with a clear recommendation to leadership.
- Stakeholder Management
- Own executive and client-facing communication, including steering committees and status reporting.
- Manage expectations proactively, delivering hard news early and with a plan or proposal attached.
- Build trusted relationships with cross-functional leaders, negotiating resourcing and priority trade-offs.
- Leadership & Standards
- Manage, coach, and hold accountable more junior members in the department.
- Set a visible standard of excellence, rigor, and ownership for their project team.
- Conduct honest performance conversations and drive individual development plans for direct reports.
- Lead post-project reviews with candour, ensuring lessons learned are documented and applied on the next project.
Qualifications & Experience
- Bachelor's degree in business, management, or related field; or equivalent years of experience.
- PMP or equivalent certification is strongly preferred.
- Proven track record independently delivering large, high-visibility projects on time and on budget.
- Deep command of project management methodologies (Waterfall, Agile, or hybrid) and governance frameworks.
- Strong leadership, negotiation, and executive-level stakeholder management skills.
- Experience managing and developing direct reports.