IT Project Manager Sr/ Specialist

The Office of Secretary of State (OSOS) offers some of the most unique and diverse job opportunities in state government. Its critical responsibilities include: ensuring a fair and accurate elections process; connecting Washingtonians through the power of libraries; protecting our important government records; and registering corporations and charities. The Secretary of State also administers vital community programs that inspire giving, document our history, and assist crime survivors in avoiding further abuse. This independent office under the state Constitution operates from facilities in the Olympia area and statewide. 

The OSOS is looking for top-performing employees who embody its core values of integrity, service excellence, visionary leadership, collaboration and teamwork. It is committed to both employee growth and work-life balance. The benefits of working in state government also include potential eligibility for the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Visit our website at: www.sos.wa.gov.

The Division of Information Technology (IT) is a support arm of the entire organization-touching every program, every division, all staff members, and most stakeholders. IT is a division comprised of several programs that drive OSOS operations. These programs include: Applications Development, Network Operations, ServiceDesk Support, IT Project Management, IT Policy and Planning, Digital Archives, and VoteWa. This IT position maintains expertise in a wide range of technology and their application to customers.


This position works as a senior project manager, managing IT projects for all OSOS divisions. These projects include multiple work streams that must be managed for efficiency and dependencies. This work includes initiating, planning, controlling, monitoring, closing, and reporting on the most complex enterprise projects. These software development or technology infrastructure projects that require detailed planning and execution and responding to constant changes in IT technology and best practices. These projects are performed in partnership with many internal stakeholders, partner agencies such as the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), Office of Financial Management (OFM) and Washington Technology Solutions (WaTech), and external vendors. The systems include our elections systems, digital archive systems, corporations and charities systems, technology infrastructure and many more.    
 
This OSOS IT Project Manager also represents the agency on OCIO teams related to very large IT projects that fall under OCIO and Quality Assurance (QA) oversight and may be funded from the state’s IT Investment Pool.  
 
This IT Project Manager also provides IT business analysis functions, working with business units to translate complex business requirements into IT system requirements. This position works closely with the IT Leadership team to improve project management processes related to all IT projects.
 
This position maintains a broad, deep understanding of OSOS’s business as well as a broad understanding of IT disciplines including IT Architecture, IT Security, IT Project Management, IT Quality Assurance, and IT Service Delivery.
 
The incumbent is fluent in best practices and industry standard methodologies for IT Projects.IT Project Management: Employs experienced project management knowledge and leadership to lead some of the most agency-wide, large-scale software development or technology infrastructure IT projects. Organizes the project team, develops project plans, schedules, and budgets, and leads the execution of the plans.
Tasks include:

• Leads IT projects by adhering to established project management principles outlined in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and Agile Manifesto. This includes the 12 principles of agile project management, so that project risk is greatly reduced by focusing on an iterative and highly collaborative project management approach which works to identify issues early and embraces change throughout the project.
• Develops IT project plans, sets and manages project schedule to include detailed work breakdown structure, manages budget and product backlog, develops and implements communication plans and strategy, staffing plan, and other project management artifacts to ensure business needs are met, ensuring OSOS and the state receives the highest value return on its investment in completed information systems or IT infrastructure projects.
• Develops business cases, cost/benefit analysis and feasibility of proposed IT software development and infrastructure projects.
• Negotiates with the executive sponsor, steering committee and business team so that delivered information technology solutions optimize resources, schedule and budget.
• Coordinates technical staff, business team and vendors to negotiate practical technology solutions that meet business requirements.
• Uses Business Process Reengineering methods and Organizational Change Management (OCM) strategies so new, more efficient processes and accompanying information systems are implemented and accepted by the business. 
• Develops change management plans that include consideration of the human elements involved in change as well as the technical ramifications of changes in IT systems, ensuring new technology solutions are adopted by the business with minimal impact to agency staff. 
• Coordinates the work of project team members through regularly scheduled meetings so that all team members are apprised of the project’s progress, allowing the project manager the ability to quickly take corrective action to address problems as they arise.
• Leads Project Retrospective (Lessons Learned) meetings to guarantee requirements are implemented as intended by users, and to foster continuous improvement and develop lessons learned to evolve and mature our project management practices.
• Ensures lessons learned from project retrospectives are documented and considered in future projects to tailor and improve project management practices.
• Analyzes project risks, manages Risk Registers and develops risk mitigation strategies to ensure project success.
• Organizes and leads project team meetings so that the project team remains focused on completing the highest priority work first.
• Manages dependencies between multiple projects and work streams to ensure efficient use of staff resources and work efforts.
• When the assigned project includes procurement, develops procurement and statement of work documents.  Evaluates vendor responses and assists in vendor selection process.
• Manages stakeholders by forming, monitoring and maintaining constructive relationships with all individuals that can impact the project.
• Monitors project status by comparing project progress to the project plan.
• Reports directly to management (Executive Sponsor and Steering Committee) by preparing briefing papers and giving presentations.
• Manages contracted resources related to the project.
• Uses broad and deep understanding of the project management discipline to propose changes to project management processes for the agency.
• Conducts special projects or research as needed to study or resolve IT issues.
• Conducts presentations for various groups, such as management teams, steering committees and business teams to keep them apprised of project progress.

IT Project Consultation and Scoping: leads IT project teams and programmatic staff in analyzing and translating business requirements into IT system requirements  
Tasks include:

• Gains an understanding of the business area for the given software development or infrastructure project to ensure the project is aligned with the strategic goals of the agency.
• Facilitates requirements gathering meetings and workshops across the agency or with programs. Uses experience to know the questions to ask, defines problems, determines needs, and solves problems to facilitate collection of business requirements to ensure end-user requirements are met.   
• Analyzes and develops requirements for information systems and infrastructure projects to include cost-benefit analysis; documents information systems requirements to include user acceptance criteria via detailed user stories and/or use cases to foster a high degree of collaboration between business and technical teams to ensure end-user requirements are met.
• Consults with staff and external partners to analyze technology needs and problems; analyzes and resolves highly complex problems involving multiple system integration issues so that completed information systems integrate with other agency IT business applications and avoid the creation of ‘information silos’.
• Develops business cases to describe the problem, its root causes and impacts, identifies gaps and shortcomings, and recommends solutions so that management has the information needed to make sound decisions. 
• Identifies opportunities for improving business processes through information systems and/or non-system driver changes; assists in the preparation of proposals to develop new systems or to facilitate operational change.
• Identifies the needs of stakeholder groups by applying Business Process Modeling (BPM) techniques to develop as-is and to-be process models.
• Defines Key Performance Indicators (KPI) or other measures to assess the solution’s performance and effectiveness.
• In collaboration with the IT and business staff, develops detailed procurement (e.g., Decision Packages, Fiscal Notes, Request for Proposal, Request for Quote, etc.) and statements of work (SOW) documents.
• Evaluates vendor responses and assists in vendor selection process so that OSOS receives the best value from contracted resources.

IT Project Management Documents and Templates: Develops project management and procurement artifacts for software development or technology infrastructure IT projects
Tasks include:

• Develops project plans and charters by analyzing the overall work and individual tasks required for IT software development and infrastructure projects so that project scope is clearly articulated to all stakeholders at the outset of the project.
• Develops communications plans that include communication to multiple audiences including users, implementers, and management so that all impacted stakeholders are aware of the project to help reduce project risk.
• Evaluates vendor responses and assists in vendor selection process so that OSOS receives the best value from contracted resources.

Keeps Current with Technology/Training: Stays current with IT project management, architecture, security, quality assurance, and service best practices, trends, technology and threats. Works with IT staff, system users, and agency management when needed
Tasks include:

• Independently keeps current with industry standards and practices for project management by attending classes, attending seminars and webinars, participating PMI member activities, and reading industry publications.
• Attends trainings, conferences and other events to maintain or develop skills.
• Maintain awareness of potential external threats or risks to the security posture of the application portfolio

   Required Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology (IT), STEM or related field. (additional years of professional level IT experience may substitute year-for-year for education)
• Four years of recent experience in IT project management
• Ability to read and write English Language
  

Preferred Qualifications:

• Prior experience implementing or managing IT application systems that cross-organizational and agency boundaries.
• Certification as a Project Management Professional (PMP) through the Project Management Institute (PMI), or a university or college.
• Agile Certification, such as a PMI Agile Certified Practitioner or Scrum Master.
• Knowledge and experience with WA OCIO policy 121 (IT Investments – Approval and Oversight Policy) and processes
• Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Foundation Certification.
• Organizational Change Management (OCM) Prosci Certification

Working Conditions
In this position, the incumbent works primarily in an office setting, which will require the ability to sit and/or stand for extended periods of time. The standard work hours are Monday-Friday 8am - 5pm; however, work can be required outside of standard hours to include evenings, weekends, and holidays. Occasional travel to local offices is required and occasional travel to county offices is required. The incumbent in this position must be able to represent the Office of the Secretary of State in a competent, confident, and professional manner, including professional dress, and be able to clearly and effectively communicate ideas and information both verbally and in writing, and work successfully with a wide variety of people in a team environment. The incumbent in this position must have the ability to work under pressure, meet deadlines, and coordinate with other operational areas to resolve complaints or conflicts; and be able to move and maneuver objects weighing approximately 50 lbs with or without reasonable accommodation.    

 Special Requirements

• Prior to a new hire, a background check including criminal record history will be conducted.  Information from the background check will not necessarily preclude employment but will be considered in determining the applicant’s suitability and competence to perform in the position.
• Must have current Washington state driver's license or have requested and obtained an appropriate accommodation.
  

 How to Apply

• Required: To be considered for this position you must attach the following:
  • Letter of interest describing how your experience and qualifications relate to the duties and qualifications of the position.
  • Current resume
• Three Professional references. Personal references will not be considered.
• You must complete the supplemental questions at the end of this application. Incomplete responses such as "see resume" will not be considered.
• All veterans must include a copy of your DD214 to receive preference in the hiring process.  You must black out your social security number before attaching it to your application.

The Office of the Secretary of State is an equal opportunity employer (EOE). We do not discriminate on the basis of religion, age, gender, marital status, color, creed, national origin, political affiliation, military status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any sensory, mental or physical ability. All interested candidates are encouraged to apply. Persons of disability needing assistance in the application process, or those needing the announcement in alternative format, should call (360) 704-4871.