Agile Project Manager

Position - Project Manager

Duration - 6-12+ Months

Location - Remote

Major Job objective and Description of Responsibilities:

• Create and manage detailed project plans utilizing the Program Management Office standards (MS Project)
• Create cohesive project plans with identifiable critical path, task dependencies, and major milestones, and manages the approved plans and schedules, ensuring successful completion within scope, budget, time, and quality parameters.
• Manage multiple projects across various Advertising, Circulation, Editorial, Sales, and other departments
• Proactively identify and manage risks, issues, and dependencies, and develop plans to escalate and mitigate them
• Provide project governance with clear and consistent communication of project-level status to executive leadership, project sponsors, and stakeholders
• Represent the PMO and advocate for project management standards and best practices
• Collaborating across departments to establish release and product development schedules.
• Support Product, Development, and Quality teams with iteration planning, and story breakdown and play the role of Scrum Master
• Calculating and tracking team productivity (velocity), to help determine and manage release timelines.
• Communicating release schedules and timelines to other departments
• Advocating for process changes and experiments to improve team efficiency and consistency
• Create hour by hour cutover plan, that includes all planned infrastructure/device migration/deployment activities, including periodic updates for project go-live, and manage the transition to Application Support
• Work on end-user communication plan to ensure the adaptability of new application/features and minimal operational impact on the users
• Coach team members as needed, including resolving conflict
• Manage projects in Sharepoint and Confluence; create process flows or other architectural diagrams
• Above all else, foster and model a collaborative team environment is driven to build great software while having fun

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities:

Experience as Scrum Master / Project Manager is required

Certified Scrum Master (CSM) or PMP preferred

• Good knowledge of Software Development Life Cycle
• Experience in Jira, Rally (or similar development tracking tools), and Confluence (or similar wiki-based knowledge management tools)
• Experience writing user stories and conducting all the Scrum ceremonies
• Proven leadership, motivation, negotiation, and conflict resolution skills

Strong written and oral communication skills are a must; can present formally or informally

Experience using Agile performance metrics to drive accountability and continuous improvement

Can maintain a high level of energy and engagement

A love to learn and improve as a Scrum Master, always looking to bring something new and helpful to the team

Understanding contemporary agile methodologies, best practices, and trends are required.

Experience with Agile development processes like Scrum, Kanban, and XP preferred.

Publishing/Media Industry knowledge preferred

Prior knowledge of Salesforce SalesCloud or Marketing Cloud will be a huge plus

Essential Functions:

Must be able to work cooperatively and adaptively in a team setting.

Must be able to work under pressure, multitask and produce high-quality work in a deadline-driven environment.

Must be able to utilize computers, software systems, and tools.

Must be able to work irregular and/or long hours.

Must be able to sit and/or stand for periods of up to 12-14 hours

Must have a valid driver's license and be able to drive if necessary

Must be able to travel

Must be able to handle up to 30 pounds of equipment,

Must be able to engage physical movement on uneven surfaces in inclement weather subject to outside environmental conditions and noise