Manager - Projects at Cognizant in Santa Monica, California

Job Description:

Program Delivery Manager

Qualification:

Science / Engineering graduate

Responsibility:

Account Operations:

• Review the operational parameters which impact the bottomline (eg pyramid size, utilization etc) for the Project to ensure margins are met.

• Raise invoices, as and when due.

• Submit monthly budget plans and seek approvals required in case of any deviations.

• Communicate and build awareness around MSA and contractual terms.

Opportunity Identification and Pursuit:

• Identify areas of valueadd in the current Project which can be taken up for account mining.

• Support opportunity pursuit when requested (eg differentiators, estimates, underlying risks, scope etc).

• Submit draft proposal for review to the Program Delivery Manager.

Contracting:

• Build an understanding of the MSA structure.

• Prepare or validate the SOW / work orders inclusive of scope and milestones, acceptance criteria for the Project.

• Negotiate on resources, time, scope, milestones within the scope of the Project.

Program Setup:

• 1 Project Planning: Create Project plan including aspects such as cost, schedule, scope, requirements, risk, quality, communication & stakeholder management, effort estimation, resource planning.

• Seek review comments from Program / Engagement Manager and customer (as required).

2 Risk Management and Dependency Management:

Identify and manage Risk during Project onset and during the course of the Project

• 3 Establish Project review and communication governance.

• 4 Estimation and Resource Planning: Leverage scientific models to arrive at effort estimation and subsequently resource loading and scheduling.

• Work with support teams eg Admin, HR to ensure resources are available.

• Understand Project boundaries against SOW (scope of work, out of scope and assumptions).

• Accountable for internal and customer Project environment including knowledge repository, C20, Project administration tools/applications, helpdesk/ticketing system, customer network connectivity, etc.

• Setup team work environment wrt desktops/software/workspace.

• 5 Requirements Gathering: Coordinate/ work on requirements gathering and execution process.

• Identify key acceptance criteria items, key dependencies and complexity to be managed.

Program Delivery:

• 1 Requirements Understanding: Understand high level requirements.

• Plan and track work packages under purview.

• Understand and manage intercomponent dependencies within a work package and interwork package dependencies.

• Validate that the requirements given are ready and full to be taken up by the Technical Lead and the team.

• Identify gaps in requirements vs the envisaged high level scope and milestone (including NFRs, usability, user adoption and other implicit requirements).

2 Status Reporting:

Prepare status reports and conduct management reviews with applicable stakeholders

• 3 Signoff: Review design and architecture artifacts through the design, development and implementation phases as applicable.

• Oversee timely reviews and sign off by the customer.

4 Re-planning:

Undertake continuous re-planning and reprioritization as required to complete the Project on time

• 5 Scope Management: Conduct an impact analysis on the cost and other organizational parameters and report to the customer of any changes in the Project.

• Perform Project estimation reviews and get approval from customer.

6 Escalation Management:

Inform the relevant client stakeholders in a timely manner, in case of exceptions

• 7 Metrics Management: Generate and review Project metrics and identify deviations.

• Identify and drive corrective actions.

• Resolve any escalated issues and escalate further, as required.

Change Management:

• Set up the Change Control procedures which include a Change Register, Change Impact Analysis and a Change Approval Process for the Project.

• Making relevant changes to the SoW to reflect the same.

Relationship Management:

• Act as the point of contact on the Project delivery, for Project related updates with the client and for regular communication of Project updates.

• Understand issues from the client perspective and provide appropriate solutions.

• Liaise with relevant stakeholders (onsite Project team, horizontal teams, client team, Delivery Manager, Program Manager, etc) as required.

People Management:

• Allocate work among team members.

• Resolve team conflict & support team building activities.

• Provide administrative support as and when required.

• Provide inputs on goal setting and performance appraisals of team.

• Identify skill gaps and training needs of team members and provide necessary support to address the same.

• Provide inputs into the learning and career plans for team members.

• Nominate team for awards.

• Conduct training through academy and induction of new team members.

• Establish backup plan for critical roles (for contingency).

Knowledge Management:

• Identify reusable assets.

• Review any best practices / innovations as circulated within the group.

• Identify Project level tools or other items to be built for the Project.

• Participate and network with Community of Practice to discuss/ resolve any business problems as faced during projects.

 

Must Have Skills

• Portfolio & Project mgmt (PPM)

Good To Have Skills

• Spotfire

• Informatica

• Life- Sciences

Technical Skills

SNo	Primary Skill	Proficiency Level *	Rqrd./Dsrd.
1	Portfolio & Project mgmt (PPM)	PL1	Required
2	Spotfire	PL4	Desired
3	Informatica	PL4	Desired

 

Domain Skills

SNo	Primary Skill	Proficiency Level *	Rqrd./Dsrd.
1	Life- Sciences	PL4	Desired

 

* Proficiency Legends

Proficiency Level	Generic Reference
PL1	The associate has basic awareness and comprehension of the skill and is in the process of acquiring this skill through various channels.
PL2	The associate possesses working knowledge of the skill, and can actively and independently apply this skill in engagements and projects.
PL3	The associate has comprehensive, in-depth and specialized knowledge of the skill. She / he has extensively demonstrated successful application of the skill in engagements or projects.
PL4	The associate can function as a subject matter expert for this skill. The associate is capable of analyzing, evaluating and synthesizing solutions using the skill.

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