Project Manager

Overview

The Project Manager position focuses on organizing and leading cross-functional teams' resources to deliver client solutions that achieve stated business objectives on time, within budget, and with quality. The Project Manager position is fast paced and ever changing, requiring flexibility, self-initiative, and regular management of changing priorities.

For over 30 years, Zoot Enterprises has been a global provider of advanced origination, acquisition, and decision management solutions. Our customer-centric tools and services enable Zoot's clients to add value and differentiation, while providing nimble, scalable solutions for specific business objectives. Zoot provides a cloud based, secure processing environment. We offer tailored data driven decisioning technology solutions that empower our clients to streamline processes, increase flexibility and efficiency, accelerate growth, while accessing hundreds of cutting edge data sources to help reduce risk.

Essential Job Functions

• Apply Zoot's Project Lifecycle in accordance with PMO best practices and guidelines to achieve desired project outcome.
• Manage project execution to ensure adherence to budget, schedule, and scope.
• Support multiple clients while managing one or more projects.
• Create a project environment that enables peak performance of team members.
• Manage and communicate a clear vision of the project's objectives and motivate the project team to achieve them.
• Manage relationships and expectations of project stakeholders keeping them informed of progress and issues.
• Proactively identify and resolve conflict within the project team.
• Analyze risks, establish contingency plans, and identify trigger events for initiating mitigating action.
• Analyze key project metrics and make adjustments consistent with project objectives.
• Adaptability and flexibility including ability to manage deadlines under pressure, ambiguity and change.
• Know and comply with Zoot's Policies and Procedures, Code of Business Conduct, and Employee Agreement.
• Achieve a service-focused culture with emphasis on delivering on-time, high-quality products and services to internal and external customers.
• Other duties as assigned - it is understood that this list of major duties and responsibilities is not an inclusive list and that other duties and responsibilities, which may include helping others in the same or different departments, may be assigned by supervision.

Core Competencies Required

Job Specific:

• Command Skills - Able to lead people to accomplish tasks, even if not their direct supervisor; takes unpopular stands if necessary; encourages direct and difficult debate but is able to reach a decision and move on; looked to for direction during problem situations; looks to resolve challenges, not defer to someone else.
• Composure - Able to maintain a rational and objective demeanor when faced with stressful or emotional situations; makes emotional and physical changes to manage, control, and reduce tension in trying situations; handles pressure and/or stress effectively and does not become defensive or irritated; professional maturity; not derailed by obstacles or rejection.
• Conflict Management - Sees conflict as opportunities rather than difficult situations; good at focused listening to all sides; can come to conclusions on difficult situations and settle disputes in a way that considers the needs of the people and the business; finds common ground and gets cooperation with minimal distress.
• Dealing with Ambiguity - Able to cope with change; versatile; can shift gears as priorities or business needs change; able to act without having all of the answers; doesn't get frustrated when things are ambiguous; able to move on if situation necessitates it, even if other tasks/projects aren't complete; able to balance acting with uncertainty with risk.
• Decision Making - Makes decisions in a timely manner, sometimes with incomplete information and under tight deadlines and pressure; able to make a quick decision; also able to make good decisions using a mixture of analysis, experience, and judgment; decisions generally turn out to be correct/accurate when evaluated over time; is someone others can rely on for quality decisions.
• Diplomacy - Tactful when sharing feedback with others, while still being honest; thinks before speaking; doesn't react emotionally when negative items are shared with them; speaks to others in a way that shows regard for their feelings; avoids making insensitive statements that may offend others.
• Planning - Accurately scopes out length and difficulty of tasks and projects; sets objectives and goals; breaks down work into the process steps; develops schedules and task/people assignments; anticipates and adjusts for problems and obstacles; able to set priorities for self and others, based on project needs and organizational goals.
• Process Oriented - Able to determine the processes necessary to accomplish tasks; utilizes existing processes effectively; knows how to organize or combine tasks that align with processes to make workflow efficient; looks to improve existing processes when appropriate.
• Team Building - Taps the power of the team to identify and solve problems and make decisions to accomplish goals efficiently; fosters an environment of teamwork in which members seek and rely on the strengths of others on the team and solving problems as a group; aligns the correct person to the correct job/task.

Companywide:

• Accountability - Takes responsibility for tasks and projects as assigned; holds self and others accountable for high quality, timely, and cost-effective results; accepts responsibility for mistakes.
• Action Oriented, Initiative - Works hard every day, self-motivated; energized by both tasks expected of the role and new or challenging projects; willing to act even with minimal planning, however, doesn't act carelessly and takes responsibility for actions, whether end result is positive or negative; moves on to the next task or project without being asked or seeks out additional ways to help.
• Communication (General) - Effective with the form(s) of communication that are applicable to a given role (oral, presentation, written); able to be detailed enough to show that the right work was done, yet succinct enough to effectively communicate data, opinions, or findings.
• Critical Thinking - Uses logical, strategic, analytical, reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a given situation and possible solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems; able to think outside the box to generate possible solutions.
• Customer Focused, Service Oriented - Actively works to meet the expectations, requirements, or needs of internal and external customers; understands who their customer is; acts with customers in mind; establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers and gains their trust and respect.
• Development Focused - Knows or is able to recognize personal strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and limits; learns from mistakes; receptive to sharing one's own shortcomings with others; is comfortable with balanced performance reviews (both positives and areas to improve) and honest professional development and career discussions.
• Integrity and Trust - Widely trusted across the organization; seen as a direct, truthful individual; maintains confidentiality as required; admits mistakes; doesn't misrepresent themselves or the facts for personal gain.
• Listening - Practices attentive and active listening; has the patience and ability to hear people out; able to accurately restate the opinions of others to validate understanding, even if there is disagreement.
• Mentoring - Able to effectively share knowledge and insight with others so that they can accomplish tasks, achieve goals, and enhance skills.
• Organization and Time Management - Able to manage multiple projects or tasks and adapt to changing priorities; effective and efficient with own time; able to bring resources (e.g. people, materials, processes, budget) together to get things done and uses them effectively; shows up on time and respects the time of others.
• Problem Solving - Willing to solve difficult problems with effective solutions; examines all angles and sources before developing a solution; looks beyond easy solutions and doesn't stop at the first answer; able to uncover or anticipate hidden problems; provides honest analysis, even if the answer isn't what people want to hear.
• Professionalism - Easy to approach and talk to; able to put others at ease, either naturally or due to self-awareness to adjust; warm, pleasant, and gracious; sensitive to and patient with the personalities of others; builds rapport by making people feel comfortable; works well with others; is seen as a team player and is cooperative; easily gains trust and support of peers; encourages collaboration; able to be candid with peers; solves problems in a way that minimizes negative impacts to others.
• Technical Aptitude - Has the functional and technical knowledge and skills to perform a job's duties at a high level of accomplishment.
• Working with Existing Tools - Able to leverage current tools, services, process, and procedures to accomplish tasks; seeks additional understanding of existing processes and procedures; finds ways to improve upon existing options before proposing or exploring new options.

Education, Training, and Experience Requirements

This position requires:

High School Diploma

Bachelor Degree Computer Science, Management of Information Systems, Finance, or related field.

Experience 4+ years of formal project management experience utilizing applicable industry project management methodologies, techniques, and tools

Or, an equal combination of education and experience.

Physical Requirements

• All positions at Zoot require the ability to move about inside an office environment which includes the operation of computers and other office productivity machinery and frequently communicates with other employees, clients, vendors, and visitors.
• This position specifically requires sitting for a long period at a computer work station.

Working Conditions

• In order to optimize team performance, the work space for this position is typically a cubicle setting in an open space environment.

Work Hours and Location

• It is expected that exempt employees, and specifically this position, regularly and consistently report to work, on-site at Zoot headquarters, during normal business hours.
• This position will require travel 10% of the time.

Occasional nighttime and weekend work is required within the position.