Contractor Project Manager

 The Client has implemented the state s Medical Marijuana Program (MMP), signed into law on April 17, 2016. The MMP provides access to medical marijuana for patients with a serious medical condition through a safe and effective method of delivery that balances patient need for access to the latest treatments with patient care and safety.
OBJECTIVES OF ENGAGEMENT:
The primary objective of this engagement is to serve as a Project Manager (PM) for the Bureau of Medical Marijuana (BMM) systems around:
-Provide Project Management Services (operational requirements outlined below).
-- Manage Request for Proposal (RFP) procurement of a new BMM system and manage the implementation of the new system and transition from the old system to the new system.
-- Serve as the BMM PM, representing the interests of OMM in the Enterprise Licensing System (ELS) Implement Project.
- Support the current BMM systems to learn the AS-IS and serve as a backup to the other PMs:
-- System Administration including the daily monitoring of systems, key processes, logs; resolve issues with vendors and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania agencies; monitor and enforce contract performance/service level agreements (SLAs); coordinate and evaluate disaster recovery and security compliance.
-- Program Support maintaining requirements and system documentation; review regulations and program documentation for system impact
-- Change Management assist in supporting the MM System Governance Committee; coordinate activity with vendors to execute committee decisions.
- Assist in the coordination of meetings and tasks in support of the reprocurement of the existing MM Registry and transition of support services
- Manage the transition from a SalesForce Helpdesk ticketing system to a TBD ticketing system

OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS:
The selected contractor must be familiar with the five (5) phases along with inputs/outputs identified by the Project Management Institute (PMI) that combine to turn a project idea into a working product. Strong interpersonal skills are required when consulting with the program area and various IT teams to define requirements and to analyze and resolve problems, ensuring collaboration and agreement with recommended solutions.

The role description is outlined below:
- Direct, administer, manage, and facilitate an enhancement, business process reengineering or development of a high priority, high profile, and commonwealth enterprise wide information technology project of strategic importance.
- Accountable for activities with excess delivery cycles of 8 to 12 months.
- Manage, coordinate, and establish priorities for complete life cycle of projects including the planning, design, programming, testing, and implementation of business solutions designed to meet requirements of various departments in the commonwealth.
- Responsible for the development of estimates for the enhancement, business process re-engineering or development effort in planning, analysis, design, construction, testing, and implementation.
- Works with team leads to adjust and revise project estimates when necessary.
- Ensure new project estimates are approved by the client and agreed upon.
- Develop the detailed Project Management Plan for the enhancement, business process re-engineering or development effort.
- Accountable for the approval and sign-off of the Project Management Plan with customer representatives, and all affected project stakeholders.
- Accountable for delivery of all work tasks identified in the Project Management Plan and Project Schedule.
- Design project plans, which identify needs and define major tasks and milestones, based on scope, resources, budget, and personnel.
- Ensure that tasks provide value and support the strategic direction of the project and meet service commitments.
- Manage, and track the project progress against the project schedule.
- Monitor project milestones and phases and take corrective action as needed to ensure the project is on schedule.
- Monitor and track the project budget and advise necessary stakeholders.
- Plan, organize, prioritize, and manage multiple work efforts across the project team.
- Notify team members of project timelines, milestones, phases, work requests, target dates, and approved executable work packages.
- Responsible to schedule or monitor status reviews, project management inspections, and software quality assurance work product and process reviews with the appropriate stakeholders.
- Responsible for the capture and reporting of required project management metrics.
- Analyze and distribute reports on project metrics associated with work items related to improvement measures.
- Ensure all changes to scope follow processes outlined in the Change Management Plan and are documented.
- Create, review, and obtain approval of the Communication Plan and Deliverables Matrix to ensure effective communication with all stakeholders and management.
- Prepare status reports on a periodic basis for the project team, team leads, group leads, Sponsor, and appropriate stakeholders.
- Report status and recommendations to senior leadership as needed.
- Follow HHS DC IT PMO methodology to ensure consistency throughout the various IT and program areas by reviewing the project standards and procedures with project team members.
- Provide input and support for continual improvement within the HHS DC IT PMO to better service the HHS DC supported program areas.
- Mentor less experienced project management project staff to build overall understanding of project management when needed.
- Work closely with HHS DC IT Application, Data Warehouse, Informatics, Solution Management, Networking, Security and Service Management teams, as required, identifying tasks for the project schedule to support the implementation.
- Facilitate discussions between IT areas and vendors with focus on solution(s) to ensure the needs/requirements of the program area are achieved.
- Anticipate issues and proactively address them. Identify, track, and manage project risk and issues, through the use of a RAID Log. Develop risk mitigation strategies tracking to closure. Engage management in a proactive manner.
- Build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders and customer representatives.
- Serve as the primary point of contact for all project-related issues and the resolution of issues.
- Communicate effectively with customers and software / hardware suppliers supporting the commonwealth as appropriate.
- Communicate to team members how their work assignments relate to and help achieve project objectives.
- Accountable for the final project management evaluation review with stakeholders. Manage and track the project status against the project schedule.
- Following the HHS DC Daptiv guidelines, provide weekly project updates.
- Coordinate system testing with appropriate staff resources.
- Deliver presentations, as necessary.
- Ensure project compliance with HHS DC standards and procedures.
- Develop and facilitate the achievement of project service commitments.
- Ensure that tasks provide value and support the strategic direction of the project.
- Balance workload with project members capacity. Engaging management in a proactive manner.
- Plan, coordinate, and conduct training and orientation sessions.
- Accountable for peer reviews with the appropriate project team resources.
- Coordinate and present proposals, as necessary.
- Identify and manage project risk, and develop risk mitigation strategies, and track to closure.
- Plan project specific training and orientation needs.
- Complete weekly timesheet reporting in PeopleFluent/VectorVMS by COB Friday.
- Provide weekly personal status reporting by COB Friday submitted on SharePoint.
- Following the guidelines of the HHS DC PMO set-up a project SharePoint site and utilize Microsoft Teams for key documentation.

CONTRACTOR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS:
- Seven (7) to nine (9) years of relevant experience directly managing technical initiatives with a large complement of project team members throughout the various IT areas, technical complexity, and vendor involvement.
- This position requires a high degree of skills budgeting, communication (verbal and written), leadership, negotiation and influencing, organizational, problem-solving, teambuilding, human resource, and soft interpersonal skills.
- The ability for the contractor to ramp up quickly and perform independently is essential.
- Project management professional (PMP) certification through the PMI is preferred.
- A four (4) year college degree or equivalent technical study is preferred.
- Familiarity and experience with programs and issues relative to HHS is considered helpful.