Senior Project Manager

SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER

At Blue Bird (BLBD), we come to work every day with one common goal:  to design, build, sell and service North America’s finest school bus. That's what we do - no distractions, no competing priorities. Since 1927, we have focused on listening to our customers, embracing their needs, and delivering innovations that lead the market.  Today, we are a billion-dollar school bus manufacturer headquartered in Macon, Georgia and with manufacturing facilities located just over an hour south of Atlanta, in Fort Valley, GA. 

We are pleased to share that we have an exciting career opportunity for an experienced Senior Project Manager as part a key member of the Blue Bird Engineering Team.  This position is onsite and will require you be to seated in the Fort Valley Main Production Facility.  Relocation will be provided for the successful candidate.

JOB SUMMARY:

Reporting to the Engineering Director, this role is responsible for leading all aspects of complex, major program offerings to ensure business objectives are met. This role’s key objectives include: project planning, ensuring execution of required deliverables and commitments, and communicating project status updates to project sponsors, key stakeholders and senior management.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Provides leadership, vision and direction for assigned project teams.
• Leads the development of the project scope, timing and budget, and coordinates activities to ensure projects are on time and on budget.
• Leverages the team’s input to develop detailed and achievable Microsoft Project timing plan.
• Creates and negotiates a Statement of Work (SOW) between internal stakeholders and third-party providers and monitors/assigns internal actions for completion of the SOW and key milestones.
• Identifies resource requirements needed to complete the project successfully and communicates needs to functional area leaders.
• Evaluates project status continuously and regularly reports the status to Executive Management and key stakeholders.
• Prepares Gate Review documents for project approval and leads the review meeting with management.
• Review processes and documents with the team to ensure communication is concise; proposes ideas for continuous improvement
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Ability to complete projects on time and within the stated budget using Project Management tools.
• Makes decisions and takes independent action on matters directly affecting project objectives.
• Must possess excellent communication, organization, time-management, business acumen and leadership skills.
• Advanced skills using Microsoft Project, Excel, PowerPoint, preferred
• Experience with process development and continuous improvement, preferred

EDUCATION AND EXPEREINCE:

• MBA or Engineering Management Master’s degree, required
• PMP Certification, preferred
• Technical background or engineering development background, preferred
• Minimum 10 years of increasing responsibilities, with at least five years of managing major projects in a manufacturing or technical environment.

WE VALUE

• Ability to anticipate and understand customer needs and provide guidance;
• Excellent interpersonal and customer relationship skills to handle difficult and sensitive matters;
• Strong project management skills. Exposure to difficult or complex projects a plus;
• Ability to influence stakeholders;
• Effective communication and ability to communicate complex compensation details in a clear manner;
• Working in a collaborative team and balancing the needs of individual stakeholders while delivering corporate objectives.

Blue Bird’s winning culture is fueled by our ability to respect, encourage, celebrate and embrace the unique perspectives of all of our employees.  We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer who is committed to providing all of our employees with a work environment free of discrimination or harassment.  We base our employment decisions on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, national, social or ethnic origin, religion, sex (including pregnancy), age, physical, mental or sensory disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital status, past or present military service, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate.