Group Strategic Project Office Co-ordinator at Massmart

Summary

• This position will serve as the day-to-day contact point for project teams working on projects associated with the Catalyst office. This person will be a critical enabler for the project teams, focused on managing interdependencies, breaking down roadblocks, supporting tracking progress towards objectives and providing guidance on project management principles to enable execution rigour.

Responsibilities:
1. Support programme management

Provide project specific input to inform the orchestration of the overall programme – 

support the lead in driving the overall programme under the direction of Group Head with express purpose of ushering in alignment, clarity and prioritization

Process setup

• Input into the framework for program governance (weekly meeting cadence, SteerCo setup, etc.)
• Partner with project leads support the establishment of project level decision rights
• Onboard project teams, with support of executive sponsor and team leads

Process management

• Support project teams to align with program calendar and decision drumbeat
• Work with project teams to implement methodology to identify, track, resolve, and    escalate interdependencies, prioritize and sequence moves of all associated project wor
• Track major milestones and resource needs for assigned projects
•  Manage interdependencies, prioritize and sequence project flow for assigned projects

Communication & engagement

• Develop and deploy coms plan for program engagement
• Assist project teams in tracking results and their impact to the integrated financial model

Change/Risk management

• Implement risk identification process (population, survey, feedback loop, training, etc.) within assigned projects
• Aid in identification of key stakeholders and identify and diagnose past change failures

2. Leverage creation & performance measurement

• Solution improvement – Support development, pressure test and finalize initiative charters of assigned teams
• Drive leverage between and on behalf of project teams by serving as critical liaison between ExCo members and project team leads
• Identify and resolve executional risks, breakdown roadblocks and elevate issues quickly
• Financial/Goal tracking - Formalize project ambition via metrics, KPIs, and success factors and establish initial top-down plan

3. Executive communication

• Ensure key executives and stakeholders are kept informed and engaged
• Communicate objectives across a range of stakeholders and articulate the rationale behind those goals
• Influence and work effectively with key cross-functional stakeholders and senior leadership teams across the organization, including Walmart when applicable

Requirements:
Minimum Academic, Professional Qualifications & Experience required for this position

• Relevant degree with 2+ years experience in project management
• Previous experience: project management office background preferred. Consulting background also beneficial given project management focus

Competencies & Skills

• Ability to Influence: Ability to lead, sometime without direct authority, but rather an earned currency which comes about through business savvy, servant leadership, and value creation
• Comfort with ambiguity: Self-starter, ability to develop initial hypotheses / solutions with limited certainty / input
• Strategic/Critical Thinking with bias for Action: Ability to recognize and assess challenges and opportunities quickly and transition to action in short order
• Strong communication skills and ability to influence cross functionally by tailoring messaging for various audiences and stakeholders. Excel at articulating relevant arguments, concisely and grounded in fact
• Emotional intelligence: Ability to interact with a wide variety of stakeholders at all levels / functions of the organization and across diverse cultures
• Collaboration and flexibility: Desire to work in an agile team and deliver "Executive ready" outputs under - sometimes - very tight deadlines
• Grit: Spirit of perseverance, desire to achieve, standard of excellence