Principal Project Manager (West/Midwest/Central)

Here at Ellucian, we are motivated by a mission - power education so institutions can empower student success.  We are the global market leader in EdTech for higher education, serving more than 2,900 customers and reaching over 22 million students in 50 countries.  We are dedicated to helping higher education unlock learning for all by providing solutions that support the entire student lifecycle and deliver insights needed now and into the future.

We embrace the power to lead, the courage to innovate, and the determination to grow. At our core, we believe in humanizing our approach, recognizing that our people are our greatest strength. With a shared vision of transformation, we endeavor to shape a brighter future for higher education.

Ellucian is seeking an experienced Principal Project Manager to join the North American field delivery team to lead concurrent implementations of our integrated administrative solutions for colleges and universities.
The Principal Project Manager will manage and lead high-priority projects including SaaS and Cloud implementations which often require considerable resources and high levels of complex functional and technical integration and knowledge. While not expert in the field, the expectations for candidates to fill this role include significant experience in all of the areas below.
Where you will make an impact

• Lead multiple projects through all phases of the Ellucian Implementation Methodology from initiation/planning through the execution and delivery of the contract concluding with project transition and close, ensuring a successful project.
• Develop and maintain effective working relationships with team members, client stakeholders, and peers.
• Apply Project Management disciplines such as quality, risk, resource, and change management while being accountable for meeting the time, cost, and scope of each project.
• Communicate the plan, roles, constraints, milestones, and critical path to all team members and project stakeholders.
• Understand and apply standard project management and delivery methodology and project tracking standards to build effective plans and deliver quality solutions.
• Anticipate and mitigate risks and identify opportunities
• Lead project team status meetings to ensure the project milestones are met and dependencies are tracked
• Manage activities of customer and resources to deliver a fully integrated solution.
• Act as a shared point of contact between internal and external stakeholders.
• Proactively and timely coordinate and communicate project activities to all involved parties.
• Provide management with an articulate summary of project status.
• Facilitate discussions with appropriate leadership and key sponsors to negotiate key decisions related to the triple constraints (time, cost, scope) while maintaining excellent customer satisfaction.
• Build and maintain positive professional relationships and functions as the change agent for customers.
• Manage all resources when project turnaround situations occur. Lead cross-functional team resolutions to mitigate project risks and issues.
• Provide timely and constructive performance feedback regarding resources assigned to projects.
• Improve team dynamics and performance by building team cohesiveness through leadership, mentoring, and motivating to facilitate cooperation, ensure project efficiency, and boost morale.

What you will bring

• Significant skills/knowledge/experience in project implementation for CRM OR ERP SaaS projects
• Experience in a number of operational elements that affect financial and resource forecasts are on track; including but not limited to:
  
  • Up-to-date accuracy of all project plans for the duration of the project
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Accurate revenue recognition, which requires timely review and approval of time sheets, expense reports, billing request documents, and credit requests.
• Accomplish project goals within a matrix-management environment.
• Assist Customer Relations team in developing solutions by providing knowledge and expertise during the sales cycle (this may include the ability to sell the value of project management services).
• Identify business growth opportunities by applying knowledge of higher education’s industry, business processes, and software products.
• Mentor a group of up to 5 Project Managers each managing a set of projects to successful completion.  Mentor less experienced PM’s in managing project metrics such as financial backlog, customer satisfaction, utilization, and escalations.
• Develop methods, techniques, and evaluation criteria for obtaining results.
• Certifications in cloud and project management disciplines that suggest expert level KSA’s for these areas.
• Higher education experience preferred
• Experience with Certinia preferred

• Comprehensive health coverage: medical, dental, and vision  
• Flexible time off  
• Thrive Flex Lifestyle Account (LSA) that allows you to contribute towards your health, financial or learning interests
• 401k w/ match & BrightPlan - to help you save for the future
• Parental Leave
• 5 charitable days to support the community that supports us
• Telemedicine
• Wellness
  
  • Headspace Care (mental health)
  • Wellbeats (virtual fitness classes)
• RethinkCare & Wellthy– caregiver support
• Diversity and inclusion programs which provide access to internal employee resource groups  
• Employee referral bonuses to encourage the addition of great new people to the team
• We Foster a learning culture with:
  
  • Education Assistance Program
  • Professional development opportunities

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