We are looking for a strong Full-time FTE Project Manager to be in grounded in a PMO with a leading Insurance Provider that will mostly be focused on “delivery” with some process and will be engaged to lead small to large-scale projects that are “highly-visible” across the organization.

The projects will be no less than 200k and will extend beyond 2m in size focused on a Waterfall environment.

Candidate will be responsible for managing the projects from inception thru delivery to include

• Kick-off  strategy
• Managing the finances
• Putting controls in place
• Etc

The projects this person will manage will all be SDLC in nature so the candidate must have a solid b/g in managing SDLC initiatives.  Some of the projects this project Manager will be engaging in include:

• Implementing changes to insurance products
• Implementing mobile tables and smart phones to field personnel
• Direct marketing
• Refreshing of technology as they attempt to move to a standardized technology platform
• Maintain current systems
• Upgrading  technology and move organization to a thin client environment
• Implementing an electronic agent system
• Updating call center & customer support
• Integration  projects to support sales

Position Summary:

This is a senior level position that manages projects to meet quality, schedule, milestone, and budget commitments. Reporting to a senior level manager or executive, incumbents work under minimal supervision. They are expected to be expert in professional project management methodologies. Projects managed typically have high levels of complexity, risk, and impact on the company. An incumbent in this position may manage several projects at a time and is expected to continue developing their expertise in project management methodologies through experience and coursework or certification and they are expected to manage or mentor other project management resources.

This individual manages project expectations, scope, risk and changes; provide issue identifications and resolution; provide a work plan at the required level of detail which indicates the key dependencies, resources, the time-frame for completion of the project and the key deliverables within it. Finally, this individual is accountable for continual tracking and analysis of project performance against the project plan to ensure project success; ensuring that the goals and objectives of the project are understood and contractually agreed with the project sponsor; and for the continual assessment of resource displacement and reassignment based on work plan schedule(s).

Responsibilities:

• Lead project team(s) in the development and implementation of assigned projects.

• Develop & maintain project documentation, including charters and scoping, measures of success, project plans, weekly status reports, issue tracking/escalation/resolution, and financial tracking/forecasting.
• Lead and document business requirements gathering efforts.
• Lead process mapping and documentation/mapping; redesign modeling/mapping.
• Liaise with technology and  business organizations to ensure engagement and project progress.
• Facilitate team meetings and work sessions.
• Communicate regularly in accordance with agreed upon communications plan.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Expertise in understanding and communicating technical concepts to a non-technical audience.
• Experience in the Insurance processing industry helpful.
• Strong knowledge of MS Project,  Excel, PowerPoint and Word required.
• Ability to manage multiple projects in a dynamic development environment.
• Superior ability to identify,  understand and communicate business needs for technical projects.
• Superior analytical skills; ability to influence change and drive results.
• Superior ability to interact well with senior management; strong presentation skills.
• Excellent written/verbal skills.

• Knowledge of Peoplesoft systems a plus.

• Experience in the enterprise portfolio management tool Clarity is preferred.

Requirements:

• Bachelor of Science Degree in Business, Information Systems
• Project Management.
• Certified and/or working toward  certification in CPM or PMP, Six Sigma, Process Improvement or SDLC preferred.
• 7+ years experience leading large complex cross functional projects in accordance with PMBOK or another formalized project methodology required.

Please send resume to Jennifer: Jroberts@htassociates.com

(Northwestern Chicago Suburbs)

We are looking for a dynamic hands-on Senior Product Manager with experience in the consumer eCommerce space.  Software product experience is also a PLUS!

This individual will play a major part in the overall growth strategy of the organization.  The Senior Product Manager will be responsible for exceeding the company’s customer expectations through the formulation of strategic goals, executable roadmaps and hands-on day-to-day management activities.  Playing a pivotal role in the development of the organization’s online eCommerce sales, this individual will have direct ownership for products within the overall eCommerce platform.

Key areas of responsibility include strategic thinking, proven innovation, market and product requirements gathering and definition, working hand-in-hand with internal and external clients, design and technology teams, and guiding projects through the product development lifecycle. The role requires someone who is comfortable operating at a fast pace, is detail oriented, drives for results and takes pride in offering quality customer experiences.

Responsibilities:

• Promote and create customer loyalty through highly innovative, quality driven product strategies, roadmaps and feature sets
• Drive products and customer experience from concept to launch, working with cross-functional teams of Business Executives, Managers, Designers and Engineers
• Perform market definition, business planning, product profitability analysis
• Maintain digital space thought leadership by continually monitoring and detecting market changes and opportunities
• Capture, monitor and present hard data (KPIs) to back up assumptions and feature concepts
• Responsible for check-pointing deliverables ensuring deliverables match market opportunity
• People person who enjoys the role of customer evangelist

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree required, MBA preferred
• 5+ years of Internet / Online Product Management  experience in consumer eCommerce or related fields
• Significant experience with key product management  functions: market research and competitive analysis, requirements definition, concept validation using mocks/wireframes and testing, product roadmap and working within organizations to effect positive change
• Track record of successfully shaping and  implementing business strategy for technical products or services
• History of productizing software solutions leading  to repeatable and optimized revenue streams
• Experience establishing clear project parameters supporting and enabling project team success
• Proven hands-on experience using eCommerce best  practices and iterative product development
• Attention to detail and fundamental understanding of  how change ripples throughout products and functional areas
• Cross business discipline understanding and experience

Please forward resumes to Jennifer at HT Associates:  Jroberts@htassociates.com

(Northwestern Chicago Suburbs)

We are looking for a dynamic hands-on Senior Product Manager with experience in the consumer eCommerce space.  This individual will play a major part in the overall growth strategy of the organization.  The Senior Product Manager will be responsible for exceeding the company’s customer expectations through the formulation of strategic goals, executable roadmaps and hands-on day-to-day management activities.  Playing a pivotal role in the development of the organization’s online eCommerce sales, this individual will have direct ownership for products within the overall eCommerce platform.

Key areas of responsibility include strategic thinking, proven innovation, market and product requirements gathering and definition, working hand-in-hand with internal and external clients, design and technology teams, and guiding projects through the product development lifecycle. The role requires someone who is comfortable operating at a fast pace, is detail oriented, drives for results and takes pride in offering quality customer experiences.

Responsibilities:

• Promote and create customer loyalty through highly innovative, quality driven product strategies, roadmaps and feature sets
• Drive products and customer experience from concept to launch, working with cross-functional teams of Business Executives, Managers, Designers and Engineers
• Perform market definition, business planning, product profitability analysis
• Maintain digital space thought leadership by continually monitoring and detecting market changes and opportunities
• Capture, monitor and present hard data (KPIs) to back up assumptions and feature concepts
• Responsible for check-pointing deliverables ensuring deliverables match market opportunity
• People person who enjoys the role of customer evangelist

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree required, MBA preferred
• 5+ years of Internet / Online Product Management experience in consumer eCommerce or related fields
• Significant experience with key product management  functions: market research and competitive analysis, requirements  definition, concept validation using mocks/wireframes and testing, product  roadmap and working within organizations to effect positive change
• Track record of successfully shaping and  implementing business strategy for technical products or services
• History of productizing software solutions leading to repeatable and optimized revenue streams
• Experience establishing clear project parameters supporting and enabling project team success
• Proven hands-on experience using eCommerce best  practices and iterative product development
• Attention to detail and fundamental understanding of  how change ripples throughout products and functional areas
• Cross business discipline understanding and experience

 Please send resume to Jroberts@htassociates.com

(Near O’Hare Airport)

Need a sharp Product/ Product Marketing Mgr for leading Managed Services Data Provider in Chicago to drive the creation of next generation products & services for a global leader in managed retail services & data analytics.

Strong preference to candidates coming from within the Data Management, Managed Retail Services, Technology sector offering both products and services!

This resource will report into a Director who manages a team of 5 Product Managers and is seeking to add another Sr. Product Manager.  Currently his team supports a wide array of products and services with each having a product manager support those products.

The product manager that he seeks to hire will be engaged to drive the creation of next generation back-end products and services.  This person will own many components to include:

• Back-end counting solution
• Web services strategy
• Indentifying & engaging with 3^rd party data providers
• They will be tasked with evolving and expanding this portfolio globally.
• They will be responsible for many tasks to include:
• Taking “ownership” of the products portfolio
• Assessing the market and identifying revenue generating opportunities
• Trending
• Assessing the competitive landscape
• Identifying customer wants & needs
• identifying 3^rd party providers such as weather service providers
• creating new products & services
• engaging with customers
• creating & presenting the business case
• assisting in developing a “go to” market & launch strategy
• engaging and directing product development teams and provide robust requirements
• etc.

Their primary interest is not having a seasoned veteran come in and manage what we have, but rather chart out a course for the future.  In addition to Product Mgmt experience, they would like to see more candidates leveraging cutting edge technologies and/or models, such as:

• Cloud computing – they are primarily a services provider, but are not using cloud platforms currently – how do we begin to leverage this new model, and how can it improve our customers experience?
• Mobile – both facilitating mobile customer experiences and outfitting store associates with devices – how can we ensure our data is used at the device level?
• Social marketing – more and more retail purchase decisions are affected by social networks and/or media – how should our traffic insights leverage this shift?
• Web analytics – their customers are shifting their investments to online sales and “multi-channel” (coordinating online/offline) – how do our products fit?

SUMMARY:

The Product Marketing Manager’s responsibility is to guide our industry leading product offerings from conception to launch. The Product Manager will have a highly visible role managing one or more Managed Services products and be viewed as an expert within the company. The individual will lead multiple projects from competitive research, requirements gathering and definition through deployment, positioning and subsequent feature upgrades.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

The successful candidate will be responsible for all aspects of the assigned product(s) including:

Product and Market Research

• Perform deep user-level analysis to understand key customer problems & solutions and to ensure new capabilities across the company’s product portfolio are delivered and working correctly

Product Envisioning

• Create the vision strategy to lead the way in defining/redefining products and services that provide competitive advantage for clients
• Develop comprehensive market requirements that clearly articulate the target opportunity, customer, value proposition, business model, and packaging/pricing
• Champion and present opportunities for new traffic based products and capabilities to management for consideration and approval

Product Planning and Development

• Write detailed product requirements documents providing developers all the information needed to gain a full understanding of what the product needs to do and how it must work
• Assemble thorough financial models and justifications, and recommend pricing and licensing models for upcoming major product releases
• Translate requirements to internal and external engineering teams chartered with development and testing of products, and play a leadership role in achieving product development goals
• Participate as product owner in frequent product reviews to ensure development understands and implements product requirements

Product Delivery and Maintenance

• Develop detailed product release plans, leading cross-functional efforts to bring new products to market
• Work with sales to conduct customer site pilot testing, supporting the product and developing business intelligence based findings and recommendations
• Work with business units and other product managers to define the roadmap and strategic vision, and contribute to continuous improvement of program and project management practices
• Work closely with marketing to develop product messaging, promotions, collateral materials, internal/external communications, trade/industry events, etc.

BASE QUALIFICATIONS

• 4-7 years of relevant work experience in product management and/or product development
• Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing or related field
• Experience in business analytics, with a thorough understanding of the retail industry and key standards/technologies and trends. Demonstrated ability to explain findings and recommendations.
• Ability to present to C-level executives and senior managers
• Ability to champion innovative ideas; including ideation, solution design, definition, acceptance, development through to delivery
• Ability to build financial models, business cases, and set pricing strategies

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Retail Industry experience, including store operations and/or retail marketing
• Background in building new analytic and shopper insights
• M.B.A.

Background in product management, product marketing or product development

Please forward resume to Jennifer for immediate consideration: jroberts@htassociates.com

Director of Customer Marketing with B2B experience needed for Global Technology company in Chicago to help our client assist their customers in generating revenue through their products & services!

Must be BOTH Tactical as well as Strategic!

Prefer candidates from a technology driven industry!
Resumes maybe sent to Jennifer: Jroberts@htassociates.com

This is a high profile role within the organization to help support the company’s next generation of products and services while working with the sales organization to generate revenue along with the product development group.  Our  client is looking for an individual who can help “tell the story of the company, products and services along with the value!”

The Director of Customer Marketing must be someone who is engaging, understands B2B marketing as well as tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers and be a strong support to the B2B customer.

This person needs to be an exceptional leader of a team that becomes an indispensable resource to the sales organization and earns credibility by developing strong relationships with key internal departments/decision makers throughout the organization.  He/she will also quickly gain the confidence of internal and external customers as the subject expert of their assigned responsibilities.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

•    Develops and directs a dynamic customer marketing organization, capable of providing the needed support to our customers and Account Executives.
•    Develops and implements overall marketing policies, objectives, strategies and plans which maximize profitability, return on investments and enhance our market position.
•    Works with the senior sales team to lead the development of a marketing strategy to grow revenues consistent with the global strategic plan.
•    Team closely with sales to gather and synthesize near and long-term customer product and service requirements.
•    Team with product management to develop and launch new and innovative products and services.
•    Establish effective metrics for all key marketing initiatives, using these metrics to provide continuous insight and advice on key areas of success and areas for improvement.
•    Provides detailed analysis and insight into revenue trends by market segment and customer to help sales develop annual budget and monthly forecasts.
•    Ensures comprehensive analysis of the market place and of competitive activity.  Identifies areas for profitable exploitation with existing, new or improved products and services.
•    Develops effective working relationships with counterpart executives throughout organization to maximize business opportunities and ensure cohesion with marketing and sales plans and direction.
•    Manage a team of 8 to 10 employees across North America

QUALIFICATIONS:

•    Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business or Engineering with an MBA degree with a focus on marketing.
•    Minimum 8-10 years experience in a fast moving Sales & Marketing environment
•    Experience dealing with global customers and managing interactions within an international environment.
•    Demonstrable record of achievement in marketing and sales management.

Please forward resumes directly to Jroberts@htassociates.com

This role is for a large global technology company and will be a critical part of the compensation department, HR team, Sales and Field Operations organization.

MUST have experience with BOTH sales incentive and rewards compensation as well as Executive compensation plans

Minimum Requirements / Qualifications:

• 8+ years of broad-based compensation experience and incentive design experience with a large global Fortune 500, technology / Communications Company is required.
• Consulting firm experience and/or experience in finance is a plus
• Experience supporting and consulting with clients to address compensation issues
• Expertise in sales incentive design and services incentive design, including knowledge of plan design, accounting and financial implications, and governance procedures
• Undergraduate degree required, MBA highly desirable
• Strong consulting skills are required
• Strong executive presence and presentation skills are required
• Strong knowledge of current market practices and trends in sales compensation and technology / communications industry
• Hands-on experience designing and implementing incentive compensation programs

Responsibilities:

(Northwest Suburbs)

We are currently seeking a Senior Project Manager to lead the successful delivery of key strategic projects focused on revenue generating web activities.  This is an exceptional opportunity to build your career in a progressive e-commerce organization.

• Portfolio Management
• Drive & execute projects through successful delivery
• Engage with cross functional teams  such as the business, marketing, eCommerce, product management, development, etc. to ensure execution & delivery of new products and services
• Engage with product management to capture and define their product requirements and communicate those to the product development team
• Define, evolve and implement best practices and processes and methodologies around the SDLC process
• Strong experience engaging directly with the business and managing those relationships

MUST HAVE:

• Strong PM exp
• Exp with a variety of SDLC methodologies such as waterfall, agile, etc.
• Ability to work in a small but growing environment and wear “multiple hats”
• Must have strong delivery, process & governance exp

Key Responsibilities:

• Plan and oversee complex programs of business-technology projects, effectively managing scope, resources, time, and risk in order to achieve stated business objectives.
• Develop realistic and comprehensive integrated project plans encompassing scheduling/task management, budget management, communications, and risk management.
• Provide direction and input into project deliverables to ensure solutions are consistent with strategic business and product plans. Facilitate meetings with IT and business stakeholders to clearly define scope and manage change requests.
• Work heavily with sales and marketing to achieve revenue objectives.
• Assign work tasks, communicating quality and schedule expectations to IT and business management. Motivate team members to efficiently produce high quality work products in a matrix team environment.
• Monitor overall project progress and report status to project stakeholders on an ongoing basis to ensure completion of projects within specified time, effort and budget constraints.
• Work with Product Management, Engineering (App Development), QA and other senior leaders in Product and Technology to resolve team, people, resource and schedule conflicts and dependencies.
• Help define, manage, and evolve SDLC and Project Portfolio Management processes utilizing industry best-practices that help the company be more effective.

Requirements and Qualifications:

• 7+ years project management experience with proven experience leading cross-functional projects in matrixed environments with high integration across lines of business and technical disciplines.
• Experience working with a wide variety of methodologies, including Waterfall, Agile methodologies (Scrum, etc).
• In-depth understanding of activities, artifacts and deliverables that pertain to each phase of the SDLC.
• General understanding of web technologies, application development, quality assurance, and user experience design.
• Proven ability to motivate and manage teams to consistently deliver high-quality projects on-time and within budget.
• Able to communicate effectively at all levels of the organization including business stakeholders, senior management, peers and the project team.
• Extensive experience with Microsoft Project.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced changing environment.
• Outstanding communication and facilitation abilities.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Information Systems, or equivalent. Master’s a plus.
• PMP certification.
• Experience with large-scale E-Commerce development projects.

Please forward resumes for consideration to jroberts@htassociates.com

Exciting opportunity to be a part of a growing and leading technology company focused on vision, technology and innovation!

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree required, MBA preferred
• Experience working in a technical environment (or technical degree)
• 5-8 years general business experience in consulting, product management, sales, business development or product marketing roles
• Proficient knowledge of the Microsoft Suite, and comfort with databases
• Knowledge of product marketing and product communications strategies
• Ability to facilitate cross-functional meetings
• Ability to form and maintain relationship with key stakeholders
• Ability to multi-task in a fast-passed environment while meeting critical deadlines
• Ability to interface with senior managers
• Possesses strong verbal and written communication skills- Ability to communicate ideas in a clear, concise manner
• Ability to process and analyze large amounts of data to support business planning efforts
• Ability to add value to cross-functional teams without formal authority
• Ability to develop and deliver effective training of complex products to a variety of different audiences 

Responsibilities:

• Proactively determine areas for improvement in product collateral, messaging and training – and recommend new tools and  activities to complete such
• Define metrics of success that measure marketing  performance of product messaging related activities
• Ensure coordination and engagement with product collateral across all geographical regions
• Deliver map and content portfolio reviews to customers
• Manage the maintenance and reporting from centralized database sources
• Facilitate the completion of primary market research with the regional PM teams.
• Analyze primary and secondary market research data to  develop crisp salient product positioning statements
• Validate current audience/business unit segmentations  and existing value propositions – leading to incorporating new segmentation strategies based on new product development criteria  (demographics, use cases)
• Help regional Product Management teams develop product marketing messages for new and established products within the Americas (in conjunction with the Content Creation Teams)
• Coordinate with Product Marketing from other regions and product teams to ensure consistent approaches to messaging, training, research, etc.
• Manage curriculum and material development for Sales  training
• Deliver training to sales teams (including sales support teams e.g. Customer Marketing) for specific regional products
• Coordinate the regional PM team’s attendance at industry events, including management of event calendar
• Conduct competitive and industry analysis and manage competitive product message positioning 

Please forward resume to Jennifer at Jroberts@htassociates.com

Individual contributor accountable for delivering on all phases of testing for the largest, most complex programs. Leads large test teams ensuring the solution is deployed to production with quality. This position is also accountable for creating and establishing new or improved test standards. This position is the highest technical position within the Quality Assurance and Testing organization.

**Insurance experience required.  Knowledge of Underwriting systems a plus**

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Leads end-to-end testing effort for the largest, most complex programs.
• Designs and implements testing strategies.
• Designs artifacts and establishes test asset repositories and maintenance procedures for archives.
• Leads large test teams ensuring solution is deployed to production with quality.
• Provides oversight and governance to testing projects.
• Guides project teams on test strategies and plans ensuring standards are achieved.
• Ensures testing assets are of quality and can be leveraged for future work.
• Establishes and improves testing practices involving people, processes and tools.
• Uses industry benchmarks and experience to set standards and determine needed improvements.
• Establishes metrics and utilizes quantitative data to drive improvement opportunities.

Skills, Knowledge & Abilities

• Senior-level technical knowledge of quality assurance and testing practices.
• Expert project management skills.
• Senior-level technical knowledge of application development and infrastructure.
• Excellent analytical skills.
• Ability to effectively communicate with all levels of employees within scope of responsibility.

Please forward resume to Jroberts@htassociates.com

This position reports to the I.T.Centerof Excellence (COE). The COE is responsible for coaching and mentoring practitioners in the areas of Requirements Elicitation, Documentation, and Management, Design, Estimation, and Quality Assurance (Testing). Additionally, process improvement, education of Best Practices and change management skills are imperative. 

This position leads and directs the staff and activities of a business analysis area which consults with business subject matter experts and technology resources to identify, prioritize, document, and manage business requirements in support of a program or project. As a technical resource, this position may also be directly accountable for deliverables for specific projects which are high in priority and complexity

Essentially, this is a BA Director role that will oversee the COE – someone who is highly adept at coaching and mentoring other BA’s……who has served in somewhat of a governance role of the BA practice.

Responsibilities 

• Directs, plans, and controls all activities and staff of a business analysis area and has full management responsibility for performance and development of subordinate staff in accordance with corporate strategic directions.
• Oversees working sessions with key stakeholders to elicit and review business requirements and non-functional requirements. Facilitates larger/more complex working sessions with key stakeholders when necessary.
• Drives quality assurance review of all deliverables and assures that all goals are met and sign-offs received from stakeholders.
• Plans and allocates appropriate resources to project teams and manages resources accordingly.
• Recommends most viable technology solutions to management for approval.
• Oversees system test planning to ensure that test conditions, scripts, validation criteria, and expected results will successfully test the business and non-functional requirements.
• Acts as technical resource to business analysis staff on best practices for requirement definition, documentation and use of appropriate requirement management tools (e.g. Caliber RM).
• Stays up to date on trends and developments within functional area of expertise and the insurance industry. 

Skills, Knowledge & Abilities  

• In depth understanding of the insurance industry, its products, practices, and operations.
• Senior level knowledge of the systems development life cycle, and systems and application program development technological alternatives.
• In-depth knowledge of client area’s business and systems.
• Excellent management skills and ability to organize and plan effectively to meet both short and long range goals and objectives.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills and ability to convey business requirements and technical needs in a clear, concise, and effective manner.
• Excellent client and interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively with clients and IT staff.
• Proven ability to lead and motivate others in accomplishing goals.
• Ability to exercise professional judgment and assume responsibility for decisions which have an impact on people, quality of service, and costs.
• Advanced computer skills including Microsoft Office suite and other business related software systems. 

Education & Experience

• Advanced degree in Business, or related discipline, or equivalent work experience.
• Typically a minimum of nine years of solid, diverse work experience in operations, IT, finance or accounting preferably in the insurance industry and including previous supervisory/ management experience
• Applicable certifications preferred. 

Please forward resumes to Jennifer at HT Associates: jroberts@htassociates.com