Project Manager

Project Manager (Redwood City, CA)

JOB SUMMARY
The Project Manager (PM I) leads the planning, execution, monitoring, and delivery of business and technology initiatives that support organizational objectives. This role manages projects from initiation through implementation and closure, including a brief post-production stabilization period. Upon successful stabilization, ownership and ongoing support are transitioned to the designated business and technology support teams.

The Project Manager serves as the primary point of contact for project delivery and partners closely with business stakeholders, executive sponsors, IT teams, vendors, operational partners, and leadership to coordinate activities, manage risks, track and resolve issues, ensure projects are delivered on time, within scope, and within budget, and drive successful outcomes that align with business goals.

While the primary focus of this role is project leadership and delivery, the Project Manager is also expected to perform Business Analyst functions when project needs require. This includes facilitating requirements gathering, documenting business and functional requirements, analyzing business processes, supporting solution design discussions, validating business needs, and assisting with testing and implementation activities. The Project Manager serves as a bridge between business and technical teams to help ensure solutions meet business objectives and operational needs.

In addition to managing assigned projects, the Project Manager plays an active role in project portfolio demand and intake management. This includes reviewing incoming project requests, ensuring requests are properly documented and filed within the project intake system, validating completeness of submitted information, coordinating follow-up activities as needed, and maintaining visibility into the project demand pipeline.

Essential Functions
Essential Functions
Project Implementation & Delivery
Lead approved and prioritized cross-functional business and technology projects from initiation through closure.
Ensure Vendor Management due diligence requirements have been completed by the project owner prior to project implementation.

Conduct stakeholder analysis and define project scope, objectives, deliverables, milestones, assumptions, constraints, and dependencies in partnership with project sponsors and stakeholders.

Develop and maintain risk registers, including risk identification, assessment, mitigation strategies, and contingency plans, to minimize organizational exposure and project risk.

Develop project work plans, schedules, key milestones, and target dates; drive project execution and adjust plans as necessary to ensure successful delivery of committed outcomes.

Effectively apply PMO methodologies and enforce project governance, implementation, and delivery standards.

Ensure project documentation is accurate, complete, current, and maintained within approved repositories.

Business Analysis & Solution Validation

Facilitate requirements gathering sessions with business stakeholders, subject matter experts, vendors, and technical teams.

Document and maintain business requirements, functional requirements, business rules, process flows, use cases, and acceptance criteria.

Analyze current-state and future-state business processes and identify opportunities for operational improvement and process optimization.

Validate proposed solutions with stakeholders and confirm business needs, requirements, and project objectives have been addressed.

Testing, Implementation & Operational Readiness

Coordinate testing activities, user acceptance testing, implementation planning, deployment readiness, and go-live activities.

Partner with impacted business units to ensure operational procedures, departmental workflows, job aids, training materials, and supporting documentation are developed or updated to reflect new or modified processes, systems, controls, regulatory requirements, and operational changes introduced by the project.

Ensure all tracked issues, defects, risks, and action items are resolved, mitigated, formally accepted, or appropriately documented prior to deployment.

Confirm stakeholder expectations have been met and obtain final approval and signoff from impacted business owners and the appropriate Vice President(s) prior to production deployment.

Facilitate a successful transition to operational ownership and support following implementation and stabilization.

Portfolio Intake & Demand Management

Support administration and management of the project portfolio demand and intake pipeline.

Ensure project requests are appropriately documented, categorized, tracked, and routed through the intake process.

Maintain accurate intake and portfolio records to support project prioritization, capacity planning, and portfolio reporting.

Provide visibility into project demand, resource needs, and portfolio pipeline status to leadership.

Knowledge & Business Acumen

Financial & Operational Management
• Understand project budgeting, financial planning, and cost management principles.
• Understand cost-benefit analysis and business case development.
• Understand vendor contracts, project-related legal documents, and procurement processes.

Technical Knowledge
• Understand software development lifecycle (SDLC) methodologies and information technology concepts.
• Understand web-based, cloud, internet, and client-server architectures.
• Awareness of emerging technologies and industry trends.
• Proficiency with project management and business analysis tools, including Microsoft Project, OneNote, Visio, Jira, Microsoft Office Suite, MS Teams, and other tools.

Analytical & Communication Skills

• Ability to synthesize complex information from multiple stakeholders, business units, vendors, and technical teams into clear, actionable insights, recommendations, requirements, project plans, and executive communications.
• Ability to analyze and distill large volumes of information, identify key themes, risks, dependencies, and decision points, and present findings to stakeholders at the appropriate level of detail.
• Ability to translate technical, operational, and business concepts into concise communications tailored to diverse audiences, including executives, business stakeholders, and project teams.

• Performs other duties as assigned.

• Excellent listening and speaking skills.

• Excellent written communication skills.