Sphera is a leading global provider of enterprise software and services that enables companies to manage and optimize their environmental, health, safety and sustainability. Our mission is to create a safer, more sustainable and productive world.

We are a portfolio company of Genstar Capital, a leading middle-market private equity firm focused on investments in targeted segments of the software, industrial technology, financial services and healthcare industries. We operate like a start-up tech company but have over $100 million in annual revenue, with more than 3,000 customers, and operate in 70+ countries.

We are guided by our core values of Customer Centricity, Accountability, Bias to Action, Innovation, and Collaboration. These values help us recruit the right talent to join our rapidly expanding team of nearly 700 Spherions around the globe. It is important to us that each and every Spherion is not only eager to challenge themselves and knows how to get work done but is an awesome addition to our company culture.

The Program Management Director will be an integral part of our team supporting the Engineering and Product Management organizations to ensure operational delivery for product initiatives. In this role you will be responsible for the planning, execution, and delivery of projects for multiple product lines. You will acquire a deep understanding of Sphera’s systems and capabilities to provide solutions to a variety of business and technical challenges 

You will oversee the delivery of the Operational Risk, Product Stewardship, and Environmental Performance programs, including product requirements, development,
commercialization/go-to-market activities, and client communication. Additional tasks include providing regular status reporting, product roadmap updates, supporting the change management process, and assisting with annual planning. 

This position will include interacting directly with technology and commercial functional teams in a global environment. The ideal candidate is a motivated self-starter with
leadership and management qualities that can work independently in a fast paced, ambiguous environment with limited supervision. You must be a fast learner who can quickly absorb the nuances of complex, varied product offerings. Position will be located in Chicago, IL.

Responsibilities

·         Effectively manage execution of the product portfolio of initiatives, partnering with engineering and product management to deliver solutions to the market

·         Lead project planning activities and facilitate project meetings, ensuring the project team delivers against its commitments with the highest quality deliverables in a timely fashion

·         Leveraging strong project management industry expertise and collaboration skills, identify required activities to successfully deliver the program, ensuring appropriate task assignments are in place

·         Provide project progress reports to project team, stakeholders, management, and executives

·         Build collaborative and productive relationships by partnering with team members and external stakeholders to help accomplish key business objectives

·         Have strong understanding of business and technical problems that teams are solving, able to work with stakeholders and teams to prioritize, clarify, and organize
team’s work based on this knowledge

·         Support the maintenance of project management guidelines, training programs, policies and procedures; instill continuous improvement practices on teams

·         Assist with the development of SLA, RFIs, and RFPs as required to enable third party solutions and IT services

·         Monitor vendor activities to ensure compliance with contract expectations and company standards

·         Maintain an attitude of commitment and exhibit responsibility for the needs of team
members and external customers

·         Identify risks, perform risk analysis, effectively manage risks; proactively raise prioritization and scheduling tradeoff decisions, escalating and identifying
alternate options as appropriate; Follow defined Risk Management processes

·         Oversee and ensure all status materials are compiled and completed in a timely fashion. Document and distribute project and activity status on regular basis

·         Collaborate with Engineering and Product Management to manage key performance metrics and assist with budget management and roadmap documentation

·         Assess existing processes and identify opportunity for improvement 

Qualifications:
  

·         B.S. in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Administration, or similar

·         10+ years’ experience as project manager, delivering complex system integrated business application projects. 

·         Program management experience; experience managing or providing guidance to less
experienced project managers.

·         PMP certified with current credentials.

·         Deep knowledge of the software development lifecycle from requirements gathering to post-implementation customer support and customer adoption.

·         Experience in Agile environment is preferred.

·         Experience presenting to executive level leaders.

·         Strong organizational skills as well as the ability to adapt quickly to changing
priorities, assignments, and roles.

·         Self-motivated; able to work independently while coordinating activities with cross-divisional teams.

·         Team player; able to communicate with technical and business experts at all levels of the organization.

·         Excellent MS Office experience (Project, Power Point, Excel, Visio).

·         Solid analytical and problem-solving skills; ability to think strategically.

·         Excellent verbal and written communication and presentation skills.

Sphera is an equal opportunity employer.  We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, parental status, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status and other legally protected characteristics.