CMS Functional Practice Lead

At Kin + Carta, we’ve got opportunities to offer you — for growth, for leadership, for big, world-changing impact and for, dare we say it, fun. We are a global workforce that is committed to building a world that works better for everyone. And that starts with our Kin. That’s why we’re proud of: 

• The life we create within our virtual walls, every day
• Our B Corp certification
• Our ranking in Consulting Magazine's 2022 “Best Large Firms to Work For”
• The work we’ve done with some of the world’s most innovative companies

The role

We are looking for a highly motivated, experienced, and versatile program leader to spearhead our CMS Functional Practice at Kin + Carta. The job of the CMS Functional Practice Lead is to develop and maintain our CMS best practices, creating a consistent and repeatable framework for delivery success, and equip our Kin (employees) with the skills and tactics to lead large, complex CMS & Commerce platform technology projects. This individual will be a champion for project best practices, and work with cross-functional leaders across the region and the globe to solidify and institutionalize our CMS project methodology. We’re looking for someone who is detail oriented, a strategic thinker, has sold engagements in a consulting capacity and is willing to roll up their sleeves. 

Role responsibilities

Talent Strategy

• Lead, mentor and coach talent & skill development to CMS Program Managers, Functional Leads, and Business Analysts
• Take ownership for CMS talent strategy. Develop  job requisitions, interviewing guidelines, band and leveling recommendations, and overall hiring strategy.
• Collaborate with operations, supply management, client teams and talent acquisition to hire the right people against our current client requirements, needs of the practice and our IDEA principles.
• Ensure our talent strategy aligns seamlessly with our partner channels and evolving platform technology focus areas.
• Ensure that our Kin are equipped via talent development with the right practice skills, executing against a standard for their band, setting career growth direction tied to band expectations with a focus on strong margin & agreed shape of workforce. Manage key members of the practice, and ensure delegation of high quality management to the others as necessary. 
• Establish & uphold standards, practices and goals for obtaining and maintaining certifications for practice Kin and leadership. 
• Work in collaboration with Partnership teams to define certification goals and metrics.

Delivery Methodology

• Spearhead the development, maintenance, and execution of cutting-edge best practices, methodologies, and standards for CMS projects across the organization.
• Develop craft best practices and standards for CMS functional roles
• Instill robust governance within project leaders and teams to successfully deliver on CMS projects
• Provide functional and technical leadership, oversight, and guidance across CMS projects
• Provide education to the wider Kin+Carta organization on CMS project methodologies and ways of working best practices
• Provide a framework and document the craft’s best practices for client delivery to increase repeatability, document lessons learned and improve the quality of our work. This includes ensuring the practice is always using the best/most appropriate tools for delivery potentially by fostering relationships with tool vendors.
• Develop and conduct relevant training for the practice on best practices, methodologies, and standards. 

Delivery Quality

• Support the delivery of billable work, expanding the practice’s impact on client teams, bringing lessons learned and maturing our practices, while building key client stakeholder relationships.
• Provide client-facing communications in alignment with leadership team to ensure clients understand CMS-specific approaches, methodologies and activities
• Instill program management standards across projects, including quality assurance of deliverables and adherence to defined project fundamentals
• Support casting (project assignments) efforts for delivery health and team growth. Ensure delivery is on-track, with balanced support structures across teams.
• Ensure the practice has a healthy utilization performance that aligns to corporate standards. 
• Identify, monitor and elevate concerns with project execution and support mitigation strategies to remediate any issues. Continually review and share lessons learned as a part of making project execution more repeatable and reliable across time. 
• Facilitate and coach others on resolving craft-related delivery issues.

Practice Organization

• Ensure the right organizational structure (including any sub practices) to maximize career and delivery opportunities, along with craft development.
• Provide direction on internal engagement and communications to all practice members, plan internal goals to support the practice’s maturity
• Ensure vision and strategy for the practice that is inspirational and motivating for practice members and that aligns with relevant global and regional business strategies

Business Development

• Drive contribution to new business engagements. Encourage creation of appropriate content including case studies and other credential-building materials. 
• Support the creation of Statements of Work and casting plans inline with the agreed on project plan and ensuring the early mitigation of project risk.
• As needed, support estimation activities and identify assumptions and related risk mitigation strategies as part of new business pursuits. 

Minimum qualifications

We want all new hires to succeed in their roles at Kin + Carta. That's why we've outlined the job requirements below. To be considered for this role, it's important that you meet all Minimum Qualifications.

• 10 years consulting or agency experience in a client facing leadership role
• 7 years experience in leading CMS & Commerce platform technology projects
• 5 years of management experience, including management of managers
• In-depth knowledge of CMS platforms and technologies, with a focus on industry best practices. Prefer specific experience with one or more of the following platforms: Optimizely, Contentstack, Contentful, Adobe AEM, VTEX, SAP/Hybris. Related experience will be considered. 
• Experience leading fixed price and time & materials projects
• Experience developing and institutionalizing new methodologies and ways of working across an organization
• Proven ability to impact teams and their projects at the relationship level and are trusted to lead high stakes initiatives.
• Experience leading and supporting high-performing digital teams and their projects in complex corporate environments as a Consultant.
• Effective communication and leadership at the Senior Stakeholder Level.
• Demonstrated ability to drive continuous improvement and innovation within a practice.
• 10 years working with cross-functional teams and collaborating across all areas of the business to drive initiatives forward
• Individual is expected to be 50% billable to client projects on average but this will flex depending on the business needs.
• Individual is expected to periodically travel to client sites or Kin + Carta offices.

About Kin + Carta

Kin + Carta is a global digital transformation consultancy committed to working alongside our clients to build a world that works better #ForEveryone. We build digital solutions that connect people, data and technology for some of the world’s most influential companies. As a Certified B Corp, we are committed to Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Awareness, and our triple bottom line focus of people, the planet and profit. 

If you need accommodations at any point in the application or interview process, please let us know.