Description

About Us: VML

VML is a global brand and customer experience agency that harnesses creativity, technology, and culture to create connected brands. But what does that mean? It means we're a creative agency that is built on the promise of collaboration and human connection. Creating connected brands isn't just what we do — it's what we're known for and who we are. We empower our clients to excel at the intersection of "brand" and "customer experience," starting with simple goals: Create work that becomes part of people's lives; promote value for our clients; and, in the best of cases, help the world. 

We're committed to building a united global network of creators and thinkers, regardless of their age, race, skin color, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. With over 12,000 employees across the globe, our influence is made stronger by applying our collective experiences to tell stories that not only sell products and experiences, but also guarantee positive representations of all communities. 

Our unique culture is rooted in a great deal of care for you and your success. Above all else, we are committed to strengthening your experience by ensuring your inner potential continues to be discovered. 

We also offer about a dozen employee resource groups (ERGs) that allow you to tap into your personal identities, interests and passions. Our ERGs celebrate ethnic diversity, life as a working parent or caregiver, neurodiversity, the LGBTQ+ community, wellbeing, and more. Regardless of your interests, there is no shortage of opportunities to get involved, so tap into our global network and find where you can make your ideas come to life. 

VML is looking for experienced Senior Project Manager who can quickly understand our clients’ needs and objectives and has the ability to efficiently translate them into clear and concise user stories and acceptance criteria to be consumed by our teams. The senior manager will help client stakeholders, product owners, and agile teams communicate effectively throughout each stage of a project. VML needs individuals who are proactive problem solvers that can manage team dynamics, manage project financial performance, clearly communicate status, and drive progression towards dates. 

Responsibilities

Business Analysis 

• Client business practices and operations
• Problem statement
• Business key performance indicators (KPI) and Definition of Success
• Business, functional, and non-functional requirements (user stories). Non-functional requirements include, but not limited to: security, scalability, performance, SEO, and accessibility
• Work with client product owners and stakeholders to efficiently, clearly and concisely document
• Coordinate story mapping or other requirements gathering sessions
• Organize and lead product demonstrations regularly
• May function as a client proxy for agile teams
• Works with client product owner to set priority, build roadmaps, and facilitate working sessions

Requirements Analysis 

• Work with agile teams to groom and refine user stories and acceptance criteria to meet the agile team’s definition of ready.
• Annotate wireframes and/or creative to provide all needed detail for execution
• Decompose or combine stories to support effective execution
• Ability to communicate technical domain specific information to non-technical peers

Project Management 

• Establishes dates required for completion of activities and evaluates impact of change to the overall timeline.
• Manages progress and identifies risks, issues and gaps that could impact timelines, and goals of services.
• Removes impediments from the working delivery team.
• Provides accurate and frequent status to internal teams on a regular basis.
• Manages resourcing based on project needs.
• Provides necessary external status reporting to clients as needed.

Team Leadership 

• Facilitate understanding of clients’ environment to properly set up project teams, identify needed documentation, and setup status reporting
• Collaborate with agile team and leadership to produce estimates and timelines for various possible solutions
• Work with agile teams and product owners to define release plans
• Create exceptional quality project setup documents detailing scope, assumptions, success criteria, risks, and communication strategy
• Proactively work with agile teams to eliminate blockers and impediments
• Facilitate team retrospectives, stand ups, and sprint planning sessions
• Proactively identifies dependencies and issues between teams and facilitates resolution
• Tracks project scope changes, delivery timing, and key project metrics
• Communicates project progress, changes, and risks internally and externally
• Quickly learn the basics of a given industry as needed to support client work
• Mentor and support Business Systems Analysts
• Adhere to and evangelize VMLY&R standard processes, tools and guidelines

Quality 

• Perform desk checks and ad hoc testing before, during, and after quality assurance and user acceptance testing occurs
• Perform regular post-production deployment checks

Required Skills & Experience

• College degree or Business Systems Analyst experience
• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, computer science, computer information systems, marketing, or equivalent experience, preferred
• 5+ years of analyst, project management, technical, and/or business experience
• Understanding of agile software development methodologies, specifically Scrum
• Experience in running or working with agile teams (preferably Scrum)
• Certified Scrum Master or Certified Scrum Product Owner, preferred
• Understanding of business requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria
• Ability to break down and simplify complex problems and systems into smaller and more consumable components
• Ability to provide proactive and assertive servant leadership in problem solving, managing financial success of projects, maintaining timelines, and reducing waste
• Strong interpersonal skills and able to resolve conflict with productive outcomes
• Ability to be an effective and valuable part of a team
• Ability to effectively work across departments with diplomacy and a firm understanding of other’s roles and perspectives
• Able to view problems in context at the system level and align solutions with the strategic direction of our clients and company.
• Proactive, adaptable, and flexible
• Life-long learner, demonstrated commitment to continuous improvement
• Strong attention to detail
• Demonstrable ability to operate under tight deadline with complex business/technical solutions
• Ability to work across multiple projects
• Ability to manage workload with minimal supervision
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Experience with at least one application lifecycle management solution
• Working knowledge of JIRA and Confluence, preferred

Our Benefits

As the world leader in communications services, we rely on the creativity of our people to deliver the best work for our clients. In return, we invest in our employees by offering them a diverse suite of benefits from best-in-class carriers, with enough choice and flexibility to keep them and their families healthy and happy today and tomorrow. 

• Corporate gift matching program
• Paid time off for volunteering
• Paid parental leave
• Ranked No. 1 in advertising for our adoption assistance program
• Corporate discounts
• VML Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) team, which guides, celebrates, and promotes cultural literacy; increases employee engagement; recruits and retains a diverse workforce; and builds internal opportunities for people to learn and grow.

The base salary for this position at the time of this posting may range from $60,000 to $140,000. Individual compensation varies based on job related factors, including location, business needs, level of responsibility, experience, and qualifications. We offer a competitive benefits package, click here for more details. 

VML is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without regard to race, color, religion or belief, sex, age, national origin, citizenship status, marital status, military/veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, or physical or mental disability. We believe in creating a dynamic work environment that values diversity and inclusion and strives to recruit a diverse slate of candidates to help us achieve that goal.