Duration: 6+ months

Leading Technology Company is looking for a Contract Senior Business Analyst / Project Manager

Summary:

Assist in the definition, improvement and implementation of core, cross-functional processes (e.g. product development lifecycle process); perform related analysis

Responsibilities:

• Document existing processes or define new processes
• Assist in the implementation of cross-functional process implementation
• Create supporting work products (e.g. process flows, analysis, and presentations)
• Lead or support analysis relating to process implementation or related activities
• Facilitate or assist in the facilitation of workshops, training sessions, and meetings
• Act as a change agent when implementing processes
• Communicate cross-functionally with stakeholders across multiple groups
• Become a thought leader on processes (e.g. PDLC) that are being implemented
• As necessary, benchmark external companies
• Manage or assist in the management of the backlog of upcoming tasks that must be conducted to successfully implement larger initiatives
• Recommend process improvements and assist with the prioritization of efforts that will have significant positive impact on key stakeholder groups
• Project manage portions of the implementation of work streams
• Support and participate in related initiatives as requested

Please send resume to Jroberts@htassociates.com

Duration: 6+ months

Leading Technology Company is looking for a Contract Program Manager for their Agile Program Office

Summary:

Program Manager is responsible for defining and implementing key elements of an enhanced, cross-functional planning and execution process.  Interface with all areas impacted by the project including stakeholders and end users.  Lead and manage key related work streams.

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for managing multiple key work streams of company’s enhanced, cross-functional planning and execution process
• Leads or supports the following related efforts: Performs process development, Facilitates workshops or meetings
• Manages tool analysis, requirements definition, and implementation
• Implements enterprise architecture; performs related reporting and monitoring
• Integrates external best practices and benchmarks relating to process and tools into solution definition
• Partners with key stakeholders across groups (e.g. Production, Field, Product Management, Tools/Software, etc.) to effectively deliver value end-to-end; ensure alignment throughout organization relating to this effort
• Articulates a clear and compelling vision for the future of this effort
• Defines priorities and effectively balances/multitasks.
• Takes a proactive, broad-based, long term perspective on the efforts
• Execute the tasks as defined in the program backlog / plan in order to achieve the project goals
• Measure project performance using agile/lean techniques in order to monitor the progress of the project and to ensure that ongoing improvements are implemented in timely and efficient manner

Requirements:

• Undergraduate degree required
• 8+ years of successful management and solution delivery for large complex cross-functional projects in an agile environment
• 3+ years of experience defining or implementing planning and execution solutions (e.g. Sales/Product and Operations Planning, ERP systems, work-flow management, etc.) in complex companies
• Extensive background in process development and improvement
• Excellent leadership skills and problem solving required
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills
• Ability to work effectively with others
• Exceptional multi-tasking ability
• Ability to do some travel

Please send resume to Jroberts@htassociates.com

(Near O’Hare Airport)

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

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

(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

Position Summary:

The Program Manager will be responsible for coordinating execution of next generation offerings for merchant solutions.   Specifically, the successful candidate will help coordinate the activities of applications, content, platform and hardware teams.

Responsibilities:

• Coordinate 24 month roadmaps, functional prioritization and associated investments
• Maximize the efficiency of product creation, ensuring that the efforts of individual teams create maximum value and minimize bottlenecks
• Manage development of prototypes and proof of concept initiatives with internal and external suppliers
• Work closely with local markets organizations to coordinate product launches and product delivery
• Develop and maintain strong relationships across product organizations to optimize flow of information and resources
• Act as a central information hub for data on product execution, go to market delivery and go forward investment planning.
  

Requirements:

• 5-10 years of Program Management experience with focus on web based or mobile software development. Hardware experience a plus
• MBA or equivalent experience a plus
• Experience creating / deploying products in mature and emerging markets
• Strong writing and communications skills
• Solid knowledge of financial / business Modeling
• Proven ability to run large scale programs involving both software and hardware
• Ability to instill organizational best practices in cross-functional product development
• Ability to lead in ambiguous/dynamic situations, and communicate complex ideas in a clear, concise manner.
• International business experience and willingness to travel frequently.

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

Position Summary:

The Program Manager will be responsible for coordinating execution of next generation offerings for merchant solutions.   Specifically, the successful candidate will help coordinate the activities of applications, content, platform and hardware teams.

Responsibilities:

• Coordinate 24 month roadmaps, functional prioritization and associated investments
• Maximize the efficiency of product creation, ensuring that the efforts of individual teams create maximum value and minimize bottlenecks
• Manage development of prototypes and proof of concept initiatives with internal and external suppliers
• Work closely with local markets organizations to coordinate product launches and product delivery
• Develop and maintain strong relationships across product organizations to optimize flow of information and resources
• Act as a central information hub for data on product execution, go to market delivery and go forward investment planning.
  

Requirements:

• 5-10 years of Program Management experience with focus on web based or mobile software development. Hardware experience a plus
• MBA or equivalent experience a plus
• Experience creating / deploying products in mature and emerging markets
• Strong writing and communications skills
• Solid knowledge of financial / business Modeling
• Proven ability to run large scale programs involving both software and hardware
• Ability to instill organizational best practices in cross-functional product development
• Ability to lead in ambiguous/dynamic situations, and communicate complex ideas in a clear, concise manner.
• International business experience and willingness to travel frequently.

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

The Manager, Portfolio Analysis will be responsible for supporting overall portfolio management and strategy by planning, tracking, and helping to optimize investment for the constituent solution experiences and consumer themes. The role will focus primarily on assembling the definitive set of financial and operational information to present an accurate and comprehensive view of product performance for the experiences.

The Manager will work closely with Finance & Control, Licensing, Business Planning, Platform, Apps and Location Content to create and maintain scorecards that capture and succinctly present key data to communicate product performance to the executive team, business leads and product owners. Additionally, this manager will liaise with Sales and Pricing/Licensing to drive new business models and create business cases for new and existing products.

• Drive portfolio-level financial planning for L&C in partnership with Finance & Control and sub-unit planning functions
• Develop and publish product performance scorecards to support L&C management in portfolio investment decision-making
• Develop and implement processes and tools to institutionalize and automate the creation of product performance data (working with F&C and L&C Analytics)
• Leverage market, competitive and financial analysis to identify and communicate risks, gaps and new opportunity areas across the portfolio
• Partner with Business Planning and Pricing/Licensing to estimate revenue/business value, develop product cost estimates, and prioritize next generation solutions

Qualifications

• 3+ years experience in Internet/technology or mobile industry
• 8+ years experience in Finance, Strategy, Program Management, Product Marketing, or Product Management
• Superior analytical and critical thinking skills
• Persuasive written and verbal communications skills
• Strong collaboration and relationship-building skills
• Ability to function and self-motivate in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment
• Undergraduate degree required, MBA strongly preferred
• Travel Requirements: 10%

Please submit qualifications and resume to Jennifer: jroberts@htassociates.com

Summary:

We are currently looking for a Financial Systems Analyst (Financial Budgeting and Planning Systems Experience)  Does not have to have Hyperion or essbase, but MUST have experience supporting the financial analysis needs of the IT department

Responsibilities:

• The Financial Systems Analyst will be a Corporate Finance team member reporting to the Financial Systems (IT) Manager, focused on improving financial planning processes and tools.
• Assist Financial Systems Manager with design, development, implementation, testing and maintenance of Hyperion Planning and Essbase system (EPM 11x).
• Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
  • Creating and maintaining Essbase/Planning applications, Planning data entry forms, reports, security, scripts, calculations, business rules, and batch processes
  • Own metadata update processes, change control processes and other systems processes
  • Support the budget and forecast processes and monthly system maintenance cycles.
  • Create and update system process documentation
  • Document development scenarios and perform testing
• Help management develop strategic goals and objectives for the system.
• Provide user support and issue resolution: track, troubleshoot and resolve. Provide occasional training for Finance system users domestically and internationally
• Analyze requests for changes, new requirements to production system, determine impact on existing systems processes and develop appropriate specifications, enhancements and/or procedures to comply.
• Liaise with other Finance team members, Business Systems, Accounting, HR and Oracle Technical Support

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Management Information Systems, Finance or related experience
• 2-5 years of relevant working experience in supporting financial budgeting and planning systems
• Prior experience with Hyperion Planning and Essbase development, administration and support is a plus, but not required. Experience with Financial Reporting Studio (FRS) a plus.
• Strong functional understanding of Finance business processes
• Strong financial analysis and modeling skills preferred
• High degree of proficiency with Microsoft Excel required
• Proficiency in Word, Access, PowerPoint,
• Experience with MaxL, MDX or SQL preferred
• Experience with scripting in an Essbase environment
• Experience with Hyperion reporting tools (Hyperion Reports, Smart View, Excel Add-in, Web Analysis)
• Excellent analytical skills, communication skills, and the ability to work independently and as a team player
• Project management experience and a proven ability to meet deadlines and prioritize tasks
• Demonstrated ability to think creatively and problem solve

Please submit qualifications and resume to Jennifer: jroberts@htassociates.com

Candidate needs to have experience with 3D Visual/Graphics products

Summary:

Develop and execute go-to-market product strategies; work closely with R&D and Product Marketing to maximize long-term product profitability and achieve short-term revenue targets while leading the product positioning and implementation for the company’s 3D Visual Product Line.  This includes Implementing and driving business and product strategies and responsibility for successful execution of product management deliverables.

Responsibilities:

• Ownership of the product cycle
• Work directly with Next Generation Product Management to develop new innovative 3D visualization and mapping products and features
• Work directly with Product Marketing to message product features and availability
• Responsible for market and product requirements document creation in support of advanced 3D mapping features and other advanced navigation functionality
• Interact directly with all internal departments to execute the product cycle (R&D, DMO, Quality, Finance)
• Builds and maintains relationship with product vendors
• Develops customer technical presentations and internal training materials
• Responsible for project prioritization and creation of the annual roadmap and budget

 Qualifications

• Undergraduate / university degree in technical or software related field
• Master’s degree in business administration (MBA) desired
• 4+ years relevant product management or product marketing experience
• Prior experience in a technology-related industry preferred
• Ability to apply an innovative approach towards completion of deliverables within a product development framework
• Ability to influence others to successfully complete deliverables; manages by influence
• Ability to communicate complex concepts and ideas in a clear and concise manner to internal and external audiences
• Adept at creating and developing relationships with key internal customers and partners

 Send resumes to Jennifer:  Jroberts@htassociates.com

(Northwest Suburbs)

Summary:

The Sr. Product Manager will be responsible for exceeding 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 eCommerce marketplaces, this individual will have direct ownership for products.

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:

• Turn customers into fans 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:

• 5+ years Internet Product Management experience in consumer eCommerce
• People person who takes pride in the quality of their work
• 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
• Confident and entrepreneurial with excellent communication skills up and down the organization
• Attention to detail and fundamental understanding of how change ripples throughout products and functional areas
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent
• Cross business discipline understanding and experience

Please send resumes to Jroberts@htassociates.com