Procurement Project Management Specialist
Herndon, VA

Job Description

Role Summary:

The Procurement Project Management Specialist is an essential and integral member of the Procurement Team. After taking an integral role in the creation of the VCI Procurement department, they will represent IT in the Procurement Team and, on the other hand, they will represent the Procurement Team to IT. This role is vital to ensure that all IT issues associated with procurement events and ongoing activities are represented. This includes ensuring that technical requirements are established in a timely manner to allow VCI to make souring decisions. Transparency of status will be essential, and escalation will be managed through this role. This Specialist will ensure communication with stakeholders so that they understand tasks at hand and their importance. This should be considered as a development role for any aspiring project manager in IT, in a project considered to be top priority by VCI Management. They must be able to challenge their peers and more senior employees in both IT and business owner functions.

Role Responsibilities -

* Be the 'voice of IT' in the Procurement team
* Ensure all Procurement-related IT inputs and responsibilities are included in Procurement project plans
* Assist Business Owners with the understanding of VCI's complex IT processes in the context of Procurement in order to ensure constant forward progress on projects
* Take stakeholder requirements and turn them into clear and simple project plans for use by the Procurement team
* Coordinate all aspects of the vendor life cycle, including adherence to timeline and communication with, and between, all internal and external stakeholders in all IT-related aspects
* Support and maintain a project reporting structure
* Optimize contract management processes to support procurement strategies and proactive project planning
* Educate Procurement Team members in IT processes with a view to having excellent collaboration between the functions
* Ensure that Procurement projects are following the appropriate IT-related approval Forums (BPC, IT SIB, etc…)
* Ensure the timely submission and approval of documents/decisions within the procurement process
* Create regular reports showing status IT-related activities within projects
* Identify improvement activities and other ad hoc requirements

Experience:

* 7 years project management experience in Financial services IT
* 10 years in cross-functional projects
* 5 years exposure to procurement activities

Education:

Required - Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Procurement or IT-related discipline

Desired - IT Project Management Qualification

General Skills:

* Experience of coordinating multiple stakeholders (including VP's, Directors and Managers) within VCI to ensure constant, ongoing progress of complex projects
* Expert knowledge of VCI IT project management processes
* Expert knowledge of IT-related issues when creating legal contracts with vendors
* Superb interpersonal skills, capable of communicating at all levels in a business
* Self-motivated, capable of maintaining progress and escalating appropriately
* Excellent written, verbal and presentation skills
* Must work with a high level of integrity
* Proven ability to work both independently and with teammates
* Ability to identify opportunities to improve process and make recommendations to support them

Required Specialized Skills:

* Experience of strategic business transformation projects in large organizations
* Demonstrated knowledge and experience of project management methodologies and techniques in an IT environment
* Ability to operate with minimal oversight
* Experience in Financial Services IT risk management
* Strong understanding of the VCI, or similar business, IT organization
* Ability to lead and manage IT input and support to procurement projects including understanding and translating business needs into requirements
* Ability to interrogate, constructively challenge and support IT input to Procurement projects
* Tenacious, collaborative and assertive
* Effectively analyzing complex information to internal stakeholders

Desired Specialized Skills:

* Experience of working effectively in complex global organizations, satisfying the needs of diverse stakeholders, and often working under the pressure of competing and sometimes conflicting priorities

Work Flexibility:

* Must be able to travel domestically on a regular basis (up to 30%)
* Stakeholders will be at all VCI sites

We are proud to be an EEO employer M/F/D/V. We maintain a drug-free workplace and perform pre-employment substance abuse testing.

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