Project Lead

Role Overview

The Project Lead will be responsible for planning, executing, and finalizing projects according to strict deadlines and within budget. This includes coordinating the efforts of team members and third-party contractors or consultants and working closely with project’s Integration and Design Leads, Delivery Team Leads, Testing Leads, and Deployment Leads. The Project Lead is expected to deliver projects following high quality project management practices, publish clear and transparent project status reports, track project risks/issues and financial health, and ensure the overall quality of stage gate entry/exit activities.

Project Management Activities

• Developing and maintaining project plans
• Tracking milestones, deliverables, and change requests.
• Serving as a liaison to communicate information regarding changes, milestones reached, and other pertinent information.
• Ensuring each project stays on schedule and adheres to the deadlines.
• Coordinating and managing resources
• Providing direction on methodology and approach to project team members and business resources
• Determining test plan, tracking, and reporting out its execution
• Determining cutover plan, tracking, and reporting out its execution
• Determining training plan, tracking, and reporting out its execution
  
  

High Quality Project Management Practices

• Act as an advocate and champion for project governance and stage gate processes to deliver consistency and appropriate risk management and mitigation.
• Support the adoption of high-quality project management practices, tools, and methodologies.
  
  

Project Status Reporting

• Publish clear and transparent project status reports, providing stakeholders with timely updates on project progress, risks, issues, and financial health.
• Communicate effectively with stakeholders to address concerns, provide insights, and facilitate decision-making related to project management.
  
  

Risk And Issue Management

• Publish clear and transparent project status reports, providing stakeholders with timely updates on project progress, risks, issues, and financial health.
• Ensure adequate escalation management frameworks are in place to enable timely and quality resolutions of risks and issues.
  
  

Stage Gate Management

• Manage and drive project stage gate entry and exit criteria making sure these are met as per the plan.
  
  

Stakeholder Management

• Enable partnership and collaboration between IT, Functional and Business stakeholders by seeking to remove barriers and acting as a conduit for clear communication – must be able to communicate technically and functionally.
• Collaborate closely with Integration and Design Leads, Delivery Team Leads, Testing Program Lead, and Release and Deployment teams to ensure alignment and coordination of project activities.
• Build strong relationships with key stakeholders to understand project needs, expectations, and priorities.
  
  

Required Education

• B.S. degree in a technical discipline (Engineering, Computer Science) or a relevant Business discipline (i.e. Finance, Accounting, Supply Chain) with demonstrated Project Management experience.
  
  

Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years of experience in project management.
• Expertise in project management methodologies, tools, and practices, with a track record of successful project delivery.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience in managing project budgets, resources, and timelines.
• Knowledge of SAP and related systems is highly regarded.
• Certification in project management (e.g., PMP, PRINCE2) is a plus.
• Proven experience working on a matrix/global organization.
• Strong bias for action and ability to deliver solutions on-time and within budget.
• Demonstrated analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Willingness to take initiative to identify and resolve issues or gaps outside defined areas of responsibility.
• Ability to deliver through ambiguity and changing priorities.
• Strong presentation skills and ability to pull key pieces of information together to communicate at all levels of the organization.
• Fluent in English