IT Senior Project Manager

Life-Science Innovations has a new, full time opportunity for a hybrid-remote IT Senior Project Manager to join their team.

The IT Senior Project Manager’s role is to support the intake of new project ideas, working closely with business sponsors to define project scope and vision, business case development, and project prioritization. The ideal candidate should be detail oriented, analytical, and possess a strong curiosity and innovative problem-solving skills.

Our Purpose is to Share Smarter, Serve Better - By providing tailored professional shared services, partnering with our customers to become an extension of their team. 

Life-Science Innovations is the administrative partner that serves a group of companies involved in agri-business, bioscience, and technology, located on the beautiful MinnWest Technology Campus in Willmar, MN.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Responsible for the successful delivery of a project during the initiating, planning, executing, and closing phases. 

• Author Project Contract documents such as Statements of Work, Change Orders, Work Authorization Forms, and/or Project Charters for the provision of services to customers (affiliates) and collaborate with third party vendors to co-write project contract documentation for the receipt of services.

• Assist IT leadership in designing, refining, and implementing the project intake, prioritization, and execution processes that support project management.

• Conduct lessons learned and project closure activities. 

• Initiate project health check surveys and solicit feedback from SMEs and stakeholders throughout the project and at closure. 

• Drive process, policy and transformation changes needed. 

• Ensure IT best practices are consistently followed within projects.

• Author other standard project management documentation such as communication plans, quality plans, RACI matrices and RAID Logs. 

• Work with LSI finance, and affiliates as needed, to secure Capital Improvement Project (CIP) funding by preparing CIP forms as well as presentations and supplemental materials for the board to approve. 

• Facilitate steering committee meetings. 

• Formulate project scope and delivery strategies, establish milestones/schedules, maintain and report project status. 

• Plan and identify resources needed for assigned projects. 

• Manage the project budget by performing cost estimation, confirming funding sources, and capturing actual cost throughout the project. 

• Prepare and report on project financials. 

• Review resource time sheets to ensure time is properly tracked to the project. Work with resource managers and HR to correct timesheets when needed. 

• Work with IT Leadership, Finance and HR to define project charge codes, and ensure that they are set up in the time-tracking system and assigned to the appropriate resources at the outset of the project as well as closed out at the conclusion of the project. 

• Work with finance to ensure projects are appropriately closed out including the closing of CIP codes in the ERP system and the billing of the project to customers/ affiliates. 

• Manage project close out process including conducting lessons learned sessions, generating project closure surveys, and measuring the results against project KPIs; produce required reports / presentations to share with Project Stakeholders. 

• Manage transition of software and / or hardware from project team to support team post go live. 

• Create project plan with a clear work breakdown structure that can be easily understood by both project team members and stakeholders. 

• Create team collaboration area / site (ex: MS Teams, SharePoint, etc), organize project file structure. 

• Onboard project team members.

• Responsible for Project Kick Off meeting content and presentation. 

• Build a baseline of scope, schedule, and cost to measure against throughout the project. 

• Keep project plan updated and adjust baseline as necessary. 

• Report project status and variances on a set schedule. 

• Lead the project change process, including the writing and management of change orders, and the building of business cases where necessary to justify the change.

• Track issues, risks, and action items. 

• Serve as initial point of escalation for all project related issues and risks. 

• Develop and propose risk mitigation and issue remediation plans; coordinate activities necessary to drive through to resolution. 

• Keep leadership informed of key issues and risks so that they understand the impacts of the project and can make informed decisions regarding them. 

• Assign work, set expectations, and hold teams accountable for completing assigned deliverables within planned timeframes and in accordance with the project’s quality standards. 

• Work with project team members to ensure that they have the bandwidth, resources (hardware, software, etc...) and information they need in order to be successful on the project. Negotiate with senior leadership to remove roadblocks on behalf of project team members in order to ensure their success. 

• Deliver timely, honest, fact based, feedback (both positive and constructive) on vendor, team member, and contractor performance. 

• Work with all project team members to align their individual goals (rocks) with project activities. 

• Conduct formal written project performance evaluations of internal project team members. 

• Facilitate the evaluation, selection and securing of solutions (hardware, software, and services). 

• Facilitate the vetting and selection of external resources such as vendors and contractors. 

• Review contracts and Master Service Agreements (MSAs) and present to business stakeholders for approval. 

• Review vendor invoices prior to approval. Work with vendors to resolve billing discrepancies. 

• Collaborate with vendors and contractors throughout the project ensuring expectations are understood and agreed upon. 

• Structure and execute the project within the boundaries of LSI IT best practices. 

The ideal candidate will have the following educational and experience background:

• 5+ years of experience in Project Management. 

• 5+ years of experience in leading a cross-organizational or cross-functional team. 

• 2+ years of experience managing projects with standard software implementation tools such as Azure DevOps (ADO), Team Foundation Server (TFS), JIRA, or the IBM Rational suite of tools (Clear Case, ClearQuest, ReqPro, Rose, etc…). 

• 2+ years of professional services experience preferred. 

• 2+ years of experience managing vendor relationships. 

• Experience managing IT Security and/or Infrastructure projects preferred. 

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems, Information Management, Computer Science, Project Management, Business Administration or related field or an equivalent combination of technical education. 

• Certification in PMP, PgMP, PfMP, Certified Scrum Master, or Certified Product Owner is preferred. 

• Thorough understanding of portfolio and program management techniques and methods (e.g., prioritization, demand/capacity management). 

• Extensive knowledge and expertise in project management (e.g., documenting, project tracking and management reporting). 

• Proficiency with project management software. 

• Well versed in project planning, scheduling, forecasting, and tracking. 

• General knowledge of software development lifecycle. 

• Knowledge of standard implementation methodologies: Waterfall, Agile, Scrum 

• Knowledge of work breakdown structures and baselines. 

• General knowledge of ITIL and CMMI standards and practices. 

• General knowledge of at least one industry preferred: biotechnology, engineering, genetics, agriculture, retail, meat processing and consumer packaged goods. 

• Well versed in Business Analysis best practices and standards. 

• Knowledge of how to balance resources and project demands across programs and portfolios as well as support demands. 

• Strong leadership skills. 

• Excellent analytical, financial, and creative problem-solving skills. 

• Excellent active listening, interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills. 

• Logical and efficient, with keen attention to detail. 

• Highly self-motivated and directed. 

• Strong customer service focus. 

• Experience working in and building team-oriented, collaborative environments. 

• Understands and engages in business and technical perspectives. 

• Ability to generate excitement with end users regarding new features and functionality and able to build business cases to justify the project as a means of creating efficiencies and improving business processes and outcomes. 

Company Organizational Purpose & Core Values: 

• Employee Well-Being: We are committed to maximizing every employee’s talent in their role within the organization, and care about the well-being of each employee from a whole-life perspective.
• Communication | Collaboration: Success is built on relationships. We will bring expertise, professionalism and a genuine love for our craft to the table – and expect the same in return.
• Stewardship: Our investment of time, talent, and treasure will do great things in the long run. We make decisions based on our responsibility to our employees, our customers, our stakeholders and our community.
• Trustworthiness: There are no substitutes for honesty and kindness and doing what’s right.
• Excellence: We are persistent in achieving objectives efficiently and effectively; finding new ways to grow our company and each other

Benefits at LSI: 
We are proud to offer a generous benefit package in addition to competitive compensation. Our benefits include medical, dental, and vision insurance options, a Health Savings Account with company match, 401K plan with company match up to 4% of your compensation, PTO accrual, two personal days per year, holiday pay, company paid short and long term disability, and company paid life insurance.

Apply Online or to Further Inquire Contact:

Laura Orsten | Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist

[email protected] 

(320) 222-9524