IT Project Manager
Description
This is an exciting opportunity to work for one of the top law firms in the U.S.! Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is looking for an Information Technology Project Manager to join our team in our Seattle office.
This position offers the flexibility to be fully remote while working within reasonable commuting distance from the Seattle office.
The IT Project Manager’s primary role is to effectively oversee and coordinate all aspects of projects, both internal and external to the IT department. Types of projects may include new software deployments, platform enhancements/upgrades, service/equipment retirements, process improvement exercises, custom development, physical office modifications, data analysis, and others. DWT’s Enterprise Project Management Office works across practice groups, core business teams, knowledge management, practice support, and others. Experience with project management in a legal environment is strongly preferred. Adeptness at both strategic thinking and tactical execution are essential to success.
At Davis Wright Tremaine, you will find challenging assignments, opportunities for professional growth and community involvement, and a culture of inclusion. DWT fosters inclusiveness and authenticity. Regardless of position, everyone here has a voice and the support is unparalleled.
On a typical day you will:
Project Planning and Initiation:
- Collaborate with stakeholders across legal teams, business groups, and IT to define project scope, goals/requirements, deliverables, and success criteria.
- Develop comprehensive project plans, including charters, timelines, resourcing assignments, and budget estimates.
- Conduct business analysis and feasibility studies/proofs of concept to identify and overcome potential project obstacles.
- Coordinate with security, legal, technical, and business teams to ensure compliance with industry regulations and standards.
Team Leadership and Management:
- Lead cross-functional teams comprising legal, IT, and professional support staff.
- Delegate tasks and responsibilities effectively, ensuring clear understanding of roles, next steps, and dependencies.
- Motivate and inspire team members to meet project milestones and deliverables as well as timeline and budget targets.
- Conduct regular team meetings to track progress, address issues, and communicate updates.
- Maintain project documentation and artifacts throughout the project lifecycle.
Resource Allocation and Budgeting:
- Allocate personnel resources efficiently and with a mindfulness of competing priorities and workloads.
- Monitor project expenditures and adjust plans to maintain financial targets.
- Implement cost-saving measures and/or project team adjustments without compromising project quality or timelines.
Risk Management and Issue Resolution:
- Identify potential risks and develop mitigation strategies to minimize impact.
- Monitor project activities for deviations from the plan and implement corrective actions.
- Address conflicts and issues promptly, seeking resolution through collaboration and relationship-driven leadership.
- Escalate critical issues or roadblocks to senior management for timely intervention.
- Document lessons learned and best practices for future projects.
Stakeholder Communication:
- Serve as the primary point of contact for project-related inquiries and updates; ensure transparency and open communication channels throughout the project lifecycle.
- Proactively communicate project status on milestones and deliverables via routine progress reports and EPMO reporting tools.
- Facilitate meetings with stakeholders (inside and outside our department) to share KPIs, manage expectations, and mitigate scope creep.
- Create customer-centric communication plans to lay the foundation and catalyze the change process for new tools and processes.
- Present project plans and deliverables to Senior Leadership and Stakeholders.
- Ensure clear expectations around operationalization and ownership at project conclusion.
Quality Assurance and Deliverable Management:
- Establish quality standards and performance metrics for project deliverables.
- Implement testing and validation processes to verify system functionality; coordinate user acceptance testing (UAT) and gather feedback for improvements.
- Document and track project changes, updates, and version control.
- Ensure compliance with contractual and security requirements.
Technology Implementation and Integration:
- Oversee the deployment of legal software platforms/updates, and development of new solutions.
- Collaborate with IT teams to integrate new systems with existing workflows.
- Conduct user training sessions to familiarize staff with new technologies.
- Monitor system performance and help troubleshoot technical issues as they arise.
- Prepare Help Desk documentation/knowledge base articles (if applicable)
Continuous Improvement and Innovation:
- Conduct post-project reviews to evaluate outcomes and identify areas for improvement; gather feedback from stakeholders and implement process enhancements.
- Promote a culture of innovation, encouraging team members to suggest ideas.
- Lead process improvement efforts and exercises for legal and business teams.
- Assist the EPMO team with maintenance of templates and tools to keep our repository up to date and best in class.
Core Competencies:
- Leadership: Exhibit leadership qualities without being authoritative. Lead by serving the project teams and facilitating their self-organization.
- Effective Communication: Clear and transparent written and verbal communication is crucial. The ability to explain technical concepts to a non-technical audience using customer-centric language, and provide guidance in making good decisions is required. Particularly must be able to communicate easily with stakeholders about their requirements, expectations, and risks within the context of a given effort.
- Empathy: It is essential to understand and empathize with the team's challenges. Supporting and motivating team members through relationship-driven leadership is core to this position.
- Problem-solving: You must be a critical thinker, adept at problem-solving and using available resources to find solutions and help keep your project teams on track.
- Adaptability: You must be open to change and comfortable with adjusting to the evolving needs of the team and the project. Also important is comfort working with ambiguous/incomplete stakeholder requirements and transforming those into targets.
- Facilitation Skills: The ability to effectively facilitate meetings with large teams on video calls (Teams, Zoom) and drive progress toward project milestones and the intended outcomes is vital. Ensure all project team members understand the project's goals, status, obstacles, next steps, and purpose.
- Technical Knowledge: Having a technical background is highly beneficial, especially when working with our development and engineering teams.
- Time Management: Our Project Managers handle multiple concurrent assignments. You must manage time effectively to keep your projects on schedule and meeting goals/deadlines.
- Organization and Process-Orientation: Organization of project artifacts, internal resources, third parties/vendors, and tasks is essential. Use appropriate verification techniques to manage changes in project scope, schedule, and costs. Measure project performance using appropriate systems, tools, and techniques.
- Relationship Building: Manage relationships with intentionality to build trust with internal and external stakeholders.
- Vendor Performance Management: Clear and direct communication with vendors to ensure mutual understanding of requirements, timelines, and performance expectations is a core element of many of our projects.
- Humility: Ask for help or guidance when you need it; escalate risks and issues to management, as appropriate. Willingness and ability to learn new systems, processes, and skills is also essential.
- Calmness Under Pressure: Capability to handle stressful situations in a composed, professional, and constructive manner while maintaining focus on the objectives at hand is crucial to success.
- Objectivity: Ability to objectively approach project assignments, both technical and non-technical, within the context of the entire organization, strategic automation goals, and larger project efforts.
- Security-Minded: Uphold a culture that promotes Information Security as an integral part of IT architecture and business processes.
- Self-Directed: Capacity to work independently with minimal supervision is required.
Join us if you have:
- BA or BS degree strongly preferred.
- PMP, CAPM, Scrum Master, CompTIA Project+, or Product/Program Management Certification preferred.
- Experience with Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Forms, PowerPoint, and Visio (or other process mapping tools) is required. Experience with MS Flow, PowerBI, and Copilot are desired.
- Demonstrated knack for quickly learning new technologies to understand the value-add and pass that knowledge on to others.
- Experience planning and executing projects with teammates across U.S. time zones.
- Previous experience in a law firm or professional services organization, supporting a multi-office environment is strongly preferred. Experience directly assisting stakeholders (preferably attorneys) in the use of technology and finding solutions to problems required. Must be able to translate attorney and staff needs into system requirements.
Who We Are
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP is an AmLaw 100 law firm with 11 offices nationwide. We are relentlessly committed to client service and look for candidates who share that commitment. At DWT, client service means having empathy for each client’s and each lawyer’s work and personal pressures, business objectives, and legal needs; anticipating their needs; and having the capabilities and commitment to deliver what matters most to them.
What’s in it For You?
DWT offers competitive compensation in addition to ample benefits including but not limited to:
- Choice of health and vision insurance plans
- 2 paid volunteer days for qualifying community service work
- Dental plan
- Fertility and adoption benefit
- Paid sabbatical after 13 years of service
- Tuition reimbursement
- Commuter benefits
- Retirement contribution
This job description intends to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by individuals assigned to this position. It is not intended to include all duties and responsibilities.
The annualized salary range for this position in Washington is $100,000 to $110,000. Actual pay will be adjusted based on the candidate’s education, training, experience and other job-related factors permitted by law. Full time employees may be eligible for a bonus, health insurance with an optional HSA, long term disability, dental insurance, vision care, telemedicine and virtual short term solution based counseling services, life insurance, Healthcare and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts, subsidized backup care and caregiving resources, 401(k), vacation, sick time, 11 paid holidays each year and an employee assistance program. For full-time employees, the initial vacation benefit is 15 days per year and 11 days of sick leave per year, accrued bi-weekly. Additional voluntary programs include: voluntary accident insurance, voluntary life, voluntary disability, voluntary long term care, and pet insurance. Commuter and Transit programs are also available.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are part of the fabric of Davis Wright Tremaine – central to who we are and what we do. Our vision is to foster a culture where all talented individuals – including those who are from traditionally underrepresented communities in the legal profession – can have, and can see, a path to success. We embed DEI throughout our law firm with our four-pillar framework: Community, Growth, Education, and Engagement. We invite you to learn more about our commitment to DEI at https://www.dwt.com/about/diversity-equity-and-inclusion.
Davis Wright Tremaine provides reasonable accommodations for those who need them to complete the application or recruiting process and for employees who need reasonable accommodations to perform the essential functions of their positions due to a disability or for religious reasons. If you need to request accommodation during the application or recruiting process, please email [email protected].
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