Founded in 1886, American Water is the largest and most geographically diverse publicly traded U.S. water and wastewater utility company. With headquarters in Camden, NJ, the company employs over 6,800 dedicated professionals who provide regulated and market-based drinking water, wastewater and other related services to an estimated 15 million people in 46 states. To learn more about American Water and additional career opportunities, visit www.amwater.com.
Primary Role
The Associate Director, Delivery Management (ADDM) is responsible for managing multiple complex, multi-disciplinary IT programs and projects by driving cross functional execution for the organization’s critical business initiatives and will establish, implement, develop, and embed best practices for project management throughout the organization. This includes significantly contributing towards defining and documenting all policies and processes of project lifecycles in order to deliver these projects according to plan and within budget.
The ADDM is accountable for leading teams of Project Managers, Product Managers & Scrum Masters for successful delivery of portfolio initiatives. This individual will direct and manage development of all projects within the PMO portfolio from start to finish. They will develop best practices, techniques, and tools for project planning, execution, project management, ongoing milestone/deliverable tracking, communication, and key performance metrics. They will review budget proposals and recommend subsequent budget changes to appropriate approvers where necessary. One of the key responsibilities of this role is to track and monitor all project milestones and deliverables and identify and manage project dependencies and critical path.
They will assess status reports, change requests, and requirements documentation to ensure smooth project progression. Conduct project inquiry and analysis and create recommendation reports to identify successful and unsuccessful project elements. They will also coach, mentor, motivate, and supervise new project team leads, team members, and contractors, and influence them to take positive action and accountability for their assigned work.
The ADDM drives strong partnerships between technology teams and product/project manager and designers. They promote consistent team execution while overseeing/improving the portfolio management and delivery processes. This individual will lead collaboration with internal and external resources to ensure that the delivery team identify and resolve issues and conflicts within and between various project teams harmoniously.
Key Accountabilities
Responsible for the resource pool of project/product/scrum managers and ensures utilization, effectiveness, and alignment
Develop a high performing team to achieve superior results
Should empower team members to exceed expectations of their role
Should foster a culture of learning, recognizing coaching opportunities, and teamwork
Utilize tools and metrics to evaluate performance of the delivery framework, identify pain points and work with key stakeholders to build and execute improvement solutions
Define and oversee effective project management methodologies, tools, and processes in both waterfall and agile methodologies
Work with T&I leadership and delivery teams to simplify and develop Project and Program Delivery Frameworks, ensuring new processes are fit for purpose in terms of pace of delivery, ease of use/efficient working practices and compliance with regulations
Act as subject matter expert in the selection and use of tools and associated processes to support IT portfolio to project management, including Agile and Waterfall methodologies
Acts as a liaison with Business/Process owners and T&I teams to coordinate the delivery of IT solutions to the business
Oversee the identification and documentation of client and contracted technology deliverables and specific requirements while communicating said requirements to the T&I teams
Report progress and issues to the concerned teams and management as required
Partner with the Change Management and Communication resources to enable successful rollout and adoption of technology changes
Key Accountabilities - Continued
Understands the available IT tools with respect to complexity, functions, and standards
Ensures business value realization and optimization, from value plans through consultancy, business case development, financial awareness, managing expectations, and identifying technology opportunities to add value
Monitors progress to ensure the emerging solution meets business demands and business requirements
Develops departmental plans and prioritizes to meet demand
Leads engagement initiatives, goal setting and management of innovation within the team
Manages activities through direct staff, team leads, professional staff, or operation staff; may manage indirect staff
Responsible for the performance and results of a team
Knowledge/Skills
Strong knowledge of process improvement and project delivery in an IT/Digital environment, working across multiple businesses in both Waterfall and Agile delivery approaches
Experience with developing key performance metrics for programs and projects and their visual presentation to senior stakeholders
Knowledge of root cause analysis and solution seeking to emerging themes around gaps in performance
Sound knowledge of end to end Portfolio to Project management
Expert knowledge and application of various software development life cycles and techniques (e.g., waterfall and agile)
Attention to detail and strong organizational skills in order to manage multiple phases of a project plan
Customer oriented approach in managing communications and issues
Ability to effectively communicate complex process concepts to the business users and T&I teams
Ability to operate effectively in a matrixed organizational structure
Ability to listen, build rapport and credibility as a strategic partner vertically within the business unit, as well as with leadership and functional teams
Ability to map joint organizational vision and long-term thinking, imagination, and idea generation
Knowledge/Skills - Continued
Ability to effectively drive business, culture, and technology change in a dynamic and complex operating environment
Strong leadership, business, technical, analytical and problem solving
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and proven ability to work effectively at all levels of the organization’s hierarchy
Highly organized and ability to manage time effectively
Ability to balance what is “right” with what is “realistic”
Ability to stay focused on identified priorities
Ability to make decisions in situations of ambiguity and the absence of complete facts
Ability to work and team with a multitude of functions and teams to balance demands
Deals efficiently with escalations and difficult situations/people under pressure
Experience/Education
15+ years in the IT function of medium to large organizations
10+ years of Project/Product management experience
5+ years of experience in a leadership position
Experience with working in a dynamic and rapidly changing / ambiguous work environment
Proven track record of successful team leadership and development
Bachelor’s degree in Business Management, Computer Science, Information Systems or related field
Masters or MBA will be a plus
PMP/PMI-ACP/Scrum Master/Agile Methodology certification is preferred
American Water is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and prohibits employment discrimination for employees and applicants based on his or her age, race, color, pregnancy, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, marital status, citizenship, or because he or she is an individual with a disability, protected veteran or other status protected by federal, state, and local laws.