Project Manager

Position Summary:

Fried Frank is currently recruiting for the role of Project Manager to effectively deliver complex projects on time, within scope, and within the allocated budget. This role will report directly to the Head of the Project Management Office and also work closely with key project stakeholders within the firm. The ideal candidate will possess excellent interpersonal skills and be able to effectively communicate with key business leaders, technical staff, subject matter experts, and stakeholders across the organization. This is an exciting opportunity for someone who wants to branch out into different areas of project management to further enhance their skill set and broaden their experience.

 Duties & Responsibilities:

• Develop flexible/agile project plans that consider the scope, objectives, technical feasibility, risks, resource availability, performance, and business risk.
• Create and maintain project documentation such as risk logs and status reports.
• Establish regular communications with key business partners, subject matter experts, and team members to manage project scope, schedule, and costs efficiently and effectively.
• Manage and mitigate project risks through the use of thorough risk assessments, and devising risk mitigation and contingency plans.
• Coordinate, prioritize, and monitor key project tasks and key decisions to ensure alignment with project success factors as articulated by executive management and project stakeholders.
• Engage and collaborate with key stakeholders to understand their requirements, expectations, and priorities.
• Prepare and present analysis and metrics for leadership/management.
• Methodically update and track activities with disciplined attention to quality, accuracy, and timeliness.
• Enable transparency and decision-making across key stakeholder groups by providing critical communication and clear status of projects to ensure alignment and support.
• Drive project execution while making trade-off recommendations, understand the technical challenges, enable solutions, report on status, and resolve blocking issues.
• Manage escalations and unblock constraints and dependencies.
• Lead change through the execution of the desired vision, gain buy-in from stakeholders, and champion change as part of the project throughout the organization.
• Build out testing strategies and plans, and manage testing and issue resolution for projects.
• Manage the delivery of work from third-party vendors and report on budget to actuals.
• Contribute to internal growth initiatives of the PMO including mentorship, strategy, and methodology enhancement.
• Champion the use of project management tools, methodologies, and project management software on behalf of the PMO.

Qualifications:

•  Demonstrated experience managing a sizeable portfolio including large-scale multi-disciplinary projects is required.
• Knowledge of PM methodologies to effectively communicate concepts and implement multi-disciplinary approaches where appropriate.
• Experience managing the following projects is strongly preferred - enterprise systems implementations, software rollout (inclusive of communications and change management planning), operational projects including office moves, Request For Proposals (RFPs), Data Governance, Information Governance, and changes to existing firm policies.
• Strong facilitation skills to lead complicated discussions with participants from various stakeholder groups.
• Critical thinker who can anticipate problems and risks using experience, logical reasoning, and data and process analysis.
• Strong interest in learning about the different functional areas at the firm and how the PMO can help them succeed with their projects.

 Education / Experience:

• 5-7 years of project management experience, preferably in the legal industry
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience
• Project Management Professional (PMP) or equivalent project management certification preferred

 Skills & Abilities:

• Demonstrated competency in a variety of project management tools to build roadmaps and plans: Asana, MS Project, Playbook
• Knowledge of different project management methodologies - Waterfall, Agile, Hybrid, Scrum, KanBan, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Critical Path Method (CPM)
• Strong proficiency in the Microsoft Office Suite
• Ability to learn and speak the language of the business to different stakeholder groups
• Willingness to experiment with new technologies