Project Manager

Job Purpose

A print & communications giant, whose turnover dominates a large proportion of the market share, has undergone further expansion due to unparalleled resources and financial backing. As such, they have an exciting opportunity for a talented and experienced Project Manager to join this successful company and to manage the end to end completion of their presented projects.
In this pivotal role you will be the key interface with Sales when on-boarding new projects and the main handover point to the operations team, responsible for the effective transition of new services to new and existing clients in a fast pace environment.

Principle Accountabilities

The following accountabilities are required in a Project Manager;

• Establishing project governance within the project and the creation of supporting documentation
• Adherence to the defined processes between Professional Services, Sales, Development, Operations and Client Services and the use of agreed templates to deliver information in a timely manner
• Creating high level and detailed plans by questioning briefs and technical specifications to map key deliverables, milestones etc. Consulting with internal and external specialists, clients etc. Reporting against this plan and obtaining Client sign off for plans and other key project deliverables
• Active management of the delivery of documented solutions ensuring different contributions are coordinated and mapped to ensure the outcome
• Budget management responsibility during the life of the project with use of escalation routes to highlight any commercial risk noted from within the project
• Project planning, risk and resource shortfall analysis across multiple departments
• Support/drive testing development, scripts, performance of testing to ensure delivery of working solutions
• Key stakeholder communication during the life of the project, with communication vehicles and tone of voice adapted depending on audience
• Operational readiness management to “go live”, working with the company Operations and the client with a balance of risk against revenue
• Responsible for risk management within the project lifecycle; capturing inrisks RAID log and use of the formal escalation paths to ensure that risk is understood, the implications are known (project/Client and cost) and the potential outcomes identified and mitigated wherever possible
• Management of the change management process during the life of the project. Ensuring that commercial cover has been agreed for any changes to project scope or solution
• Sales cycle support in the form of document creation of pre-contract award project plans, specifications and roadmaps. The Project manager must be confident in presenting information in a simple way to achieve desired outcomes
• Identify new areas for improvement for delivery/ solutions
• Support on face to face client meetings as required including supporting: data gathering & writing documents for requirements, solutions, service agreements, training material and service levels
• Managing the customer to ensure the company delivers a working service to budget and agreed timescales. This includes management of customers who may not have the same level of project and planning skills, striking a workable balance and recognising when to escalate issues / slippage

We are looking for someone who has a wealth of experience in managing projects within the print industry, specifically transactional/bulk printing and also records management, Mail and distribution (on site/off site/Hybrid) and workflow and automation solutions would be advantageous. A general understanding of IT including databases, SQL, tables etc will also be highly sought after, along with ITIL (Foundation), Lean Six Sigma (Yellow Belt) accreditations or use of adopting methodologies within the workplace.

Personal Attributes

The following personal attributes are essential

• A self-starter able to manage large and complex programs to completion within a fast pace organisation
• Able to facilitate the client and own organisation in prompt decision making focussing on the risks, dependencies and preferred outcomes
• Be systematic and logical in the approach to decision making, ensuring that all the necessary facts and information are available and accurate and the decision taken and acted upon is astute and carefully considered
• Consider problems as a challenge, collect information relevant to the problem, be disciplined in ascertaining the root cause, identify and develop a practical solution, communicate the findings and implement action to resolve the problem
• Mentor, counsel, coach and generally support those who are not confident in their area of competence, building morale and personal esteem and generally encouraging others to give their best performance
• Remain confident when dealing with negative situations, convince others to have ideas and create new options, as well as encouraging and enthusing them to come up with solutions to difficult problems
• Adopt an accommodating and helpful manner, debate, agree and where necessary accept the objectives set by others and work within agreed parameters in order to ensuring tasks are complete
• Be proactive and energetic in the work situation, seeking to get things done and at the same time deal with a variety of tasks
• Willingness to travel widely (nationwide) as required to support the business needs including overnight stays in hotels