Director, Projects

Summary

The Director, Projects is responsible for planning, leading, and managing a broad range of projects and initiatives for the Communications & External Affairs team. This role will serve as a key liaison between the SVP of Communications & External Affairs, the team, departments, and external stakeholders, ensuring seamless communication, collaboration, and execution of strategic initiatives. The ideal candidate will possess high EQ and strong relationship building skills, coupled with exceptional organizational and leadership skills.

This role will serve as a Special Projects advisor to the SVP.

Responsibilities

• Provide project leadership and support to the Business Unit and strengthen management team relationships
• Act as a thought partner to the executive leadership and  participate in executive level decision making
• Align Business Unit management and team on priority initiatives
• Directly assist Business Unit Leader with the identification, management and execution of emerging priority initiatives and special projects
• Prioritize and form key messages from stream of executive ideas and conversations
• Partner in the development and management of the Business Unit Leader’s messaging and presentations. Develop plans for communicating key messages throughout the organization. Develop briefing documents and organize preparation materials and sessions prior to meetings/events.
• Provide insight to the Business Unit Leader about what the team and the division needs from them
• Execute project initiatives, provide internal customer support, and drive functional excellence and process improvement. Drive milestone completion, organize and prioritize critical issues and required information for Leadership to facilitate efficient decision making.
• Recommend new approaches, policies and procedures to effect continual improvements in business objectives and productivity
• Interface with key personnel in business units and identify and elevate issues that need resolution. Facilitate meetings with external stakeholders including customers for developing strategic partnerships.
• Manage staff or contingent staff/contractors

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Demonstrated ability to facilitate organizational change and foster linkage between business objectives and company Strategy
• Experience with rapid and complex changing work environment
• Resourceful with ability to take initiative, demonstrate strong sense of ownership over tasks, and work independently and creatively in a fast paced environment
• Organization and the ability to establish and move forward in the execution of high-priority, cross-functional initiatives through coordinated project plans
• Strategic, diligent and analytical thinker, with superior problem-solving skills
• Excellent time management, planning and organizational skills in order to manage multiple competing priorities, simultaneously
• Strong influencing and collaboration skills with demonstrated ability leverage relationships and work effectively across all levels of the business with all internal and external stakeholders
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including sharing ideas and information across diverse audiences and creating compelling presentations
• Exceptional presentation  and computer skills 
• Experience with executive management and board-level presentations and decision-making processes, preferred
• Ability to observe confidentiality
• Open-minded to experiment with new ways of working and business models
• Excellent interpersonal skills, creative problem solving, and an ability to work both independently and in a highly collaborative environment
• Strategic thinker - ability to step back from the day-to-day to see the bigger picture

Education, Experience and Certifications

• Bachelor's Degree required
• Advanced degree preferred
• Demonstrated application of Lean and/or Six Sigma tools to improve processes is required; certification is desirable
• Minimum 7 years of professional level experience
• Minimum 3 years combination of supervisory, project management, and project implementation, or similar experience. Certification in a Project Management discipline, such as Project Management Professional (PMP) is desirable.

Physical Requirements

• Up to 15% travel, primarily within NY State
• Attend a variety of meetings, conferences, seminars during and outside of normal business hours
• Overnight travel to the various NYPA locations within New York State