Project Director-Public (State & Local) ERP advisory-US
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The Public Sector Project Director is responsible for all phases of planning and execution of public sector enterprise software and services procurement, as well as implementation oversight. This position supports public sector clients in designing and developing an ERP procurement strategy including, but not limited to, defining project mission, goals and objectives, gathering system requirements, authoring Requests For Proposals (RFPs) or Requests For Information (RFIs), along with developing other associated procurement documents. This individual is responsible for facilitating the vendor evaluation and selection process, while remaining vendor, software and product neutral. Additionally, the Project Director is responsible for supporting contract negotiations to the awarded software provider, integrator, or both, and overseeing the duration of the implementation engagement to include areas of scope such as QA oversight, project management of the overall engagement, overseeing management of designated supplemental resources, and reviewing work products and deliverables produced throughout the SDLC methodology.
This role requires executive briefing skills, strong technical writing and organizational skills, group facilitation and conflict management skills, as well as strong working knowledge of the public sector procurement process, along with understanding and sensitivity to public sector business demands, culture and legislative impacts.
• The primary responsibility of the Project Director is to objectively lead the client through a well-designed, documented solicitation and evaluation process that is not protested, resulting in a clear statement of work and contract with a qualified solution provider. This may also include serving in an extended capacity throughout the overall project implementation, if contracted by the client. These accountabilities may include leading, supporting and/or overseeing the planning and the development of all project deliverables and assuming overall responsibility for staffing, budget, work plans, scope, project milestones, issues management and risk management utilizing CLIENTS’s project management methods, tools and templates.
Minimum Qualifications:
- Ten plus years of recent experience leading the solicitation and vendor evaluation of large, complex public sector IT projects, preferably ERP-related.
- Significant delivery management experience, including managing teams at all project phases, exemplary track record in successful client relationship management and multi-project oversight on multi-year engagements.
- Possesses knowledge and experience in public sector procurement strategies.
- Ability to independently manage client relationships, including executive sponsors and senior project management to ensure client satisfaction throughout the engagement.
- Demonstrated experience in successfully leading all phases of a public sector vendor evaluation and selection, as well as implementation.
- Adept at learning the client business, creating internal partnerships, fostering collaboration and recommending strategies that fit the client culture and business model.
- Experience developing and creating public sector procurement documents (e.g., RFPs) and related acquisition documents for software and services.
- Ability to design and draft evaluation materials including an Evaluation Guide, demonstration scripts, interview scripts, scoring criteria, scoring analyses and others.
- Ability to provide high level expertise across a broad range of business and IT-related subject matter areas.
- Experience with public sector procurement policies and procedures.
- Experience performing cost benefit analysis regarding new IT purchases.
- Experience managing large IT budgets.
- Experience negotiating and managing software and services contracts.
- Public sector experience (minimum of five to seven years at multiple client engagements).
- Strong presentation, verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex ideas in easy to understand business terms, to all levels of management including Executive Leaders.
- Ability to effectively manage multiple competing priorities with high attention to detail.
- Possesses strong analytical skills and good listening skills with ability to effectively coach and mentor others; must be able to lead by influence.
- Exhibits effective team/teambuilding skills.
- Ability to make decisions and properly escalate those decisions that cannot be resolved on a timely basis.
- Oversees project delivery from a department and organization wide perspective, based on project implementation scope and stakeholder impact.
- Bachelor of Arts or Science degree required, technical or business field preferred.
- MBA or other advanced degree(s) desirable.
- Demonstrates working knowledge with MS-Office Suite of software applications and tools, including: Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, MS-Project and MS-Outlook.
Key Responsibilities:
- Design, develop and execute procurement strategy.
- Charter the acquisition project, establishing project mission, goals, and objectives, facilitating the establishment of effective project governance, and developing project standards and procedures.
- Serve as primary author of the comprehensive procurement documents for client procurement of software and/or services.
- Develop comprehensive statement of work for sample contract in procurement document.
- Draft presentation for and lead vendor pre-proposal briefing.
- Draft and coordinate responses to vendor questions during proposal period.
- Coordinate design and execution of vendor evaluation and vendor selection process.
- Document formal evaluation process for Evaluation Team.
- Facilitate, coordinate and manage vendor presentations during the evaluation process.
- Provide expert insight and analysis as requested by the client.
- Support the Client Evaluation Team throughout the selection process.
- Provide financial and solution alternative analysis for client during contract negotiations and contract execution.
- Organize and support the negotiation process with selected vendor(s).
- Recommend negotiation strategies based on expertise and experience.
- Finalize statement of work into a clear, actionable, accountable plan document.
- Draft and organize Best and Final Offers as needed.
- Develop and deliver Evaluation Process Summary and results to Executive Team.
- Manage assignments, milestones, schedules and monitor progress against the plan.
- Monitor that the project is effectively resourced and manage relationships with a wide range of groups and individuals at all levels.
- Check that all required project management documents are developed, completed and signed off at the appropriate review gate.
- Draft, review and recommend approval of deliverables.
- Facilitate resolution of issues with input from the Client Project Directors.
- Escalate unresolved issues timely to Project Directors and/or Steering Committee, in accordance with policies, as appropriate.
- Report project progress, budget and status to the appropriate levels (e.g., Executive Sponsor, Executive Council, Steering Committee) and recommend corrective action when necessary.
- Identify, document and manage risks accordingly to include ensuring a risk mitigation plan is in place.
- Hold Implementation Vendor and Implementation Project Director accountable through oversight and reporting for completing the Implementation Project on time, within scope, within budget and according to the required quality standards (with agreed specifications).
- Help to mitigate/resolve issues, risks and conflicts that are elevated by the Vendor Implementation Project Director.
- Ensure establishment of Manage project change request process and facilitate the approval process for requests submitted by the Vendor Implementation Project Director.
- Periodically review the detailed project plan, and monitoring schedules on an ongoing basis to include validating identified issues and concerns have been documented, communicated appropriately and solutioned or mitigated in accordance with the Project Plan.
- Responsible for the independent management oversight of the Project, securing the required resources and advocating to senior management.
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