Project Manager II – Hardware

The Hardware Project Manager (PM) is responsible for managing one or more hearing aid or technology development projects. The PM will work closely with the project team composed of cross-functional membership from Mechanical Engineering, Electroacoustics, Electrical Engineering, Digital Signal Processing (DSP), Wireless, Applications, Product Management, Research, Microelectronic Packaging, Software Engineering, Operations, and other departments to deliver the target scope, on time and on budget. Projects may be new products, technology development, product extensions, or continuation/improvement projects. The PM will create, manage, and execute a detailed project schedule in a Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM)/SharePoint environment. This is a high-visibility role with regular executive management interaction. This PM must manage stakeholders and lead projects with his/her strong and effective communication skills. The PM is a key partner to Program Managers and is responsible for ensuring that Program teams receive deliverables and communications that are key to program success. This role reports to the Manager of the Enterprise Project Management Office (E-PMO).

Responsibilities:

• Capable of planning and executing medium to large projects (>15 team members, >$1M)
• The primary focus is on Hearing Aid development or major platform overhauls
• Responsible for managing project scope, schedule, budget, and risk with substantial cross-functional team engagement
• Create, maintain, and execute a detailed project plan and schedule using established best practices
• Work effectively with the cross-functional team and Program Manager to develop high-quality product development project plans and schedules including tasks, dates, deliverables, and resource commitments using MS Project
• Work with the project team and department leaders to quickly resolve schedule and resource conflicts
• Ensure schedule is properly maintained consistent with established best practices, accurate, and kept up to date on a weekly basis
• Manage project activities to meet or exceed scope, date, and cost commitments
• Facilitate weekly team meetings using best practices to review project progress and coordinate required activities
• Call special team meetings as needed to brainstorm, problem-solve, or conduct other activities needed to ensure project success
• Proactively track, manage, and drive resolution of project risks, issues, and action items on a timely basis
• Anticipate and proactively manage project risk
• Proactively assess, identify, and manage project risk and establish mitigation and contingency plans
• Institutionalize risk mitigation and prevention by capturing lessons learned.
• Communicate effectively within the project team, contributing departments, and upward to R&D leadership
• Communicate quickly, accurately, and completely to the project team ensuring that all team members are properly informed, and activities are properly coordinated across departments
• Communicate outward and upward beyond the project team to stakeholders and leadership in a concise, accurate, complete, and objective way with an emphasis on data and facts
• Support deployment of new project management tools and practices
• Actively employ new project management tools and policies as they are developed and rolled out
• Identify opportunities for process improvement
• Proactively identify opportunities to improve our project management capability and reduce product development risk and cycle time

Results – Performance Measures (How to Measure Success):

• Risk identification and burn-down. Weekly and monthly reviews + annual perf. Review
• Schedule, scope, and cost variance statistics. Weekly and monthly reviews + annual perf. review
• Rate of consistent understanding of project status. Weekly and monthly reviews + annual perf. review

Other Duties (Non-Measurable):

• Support Employee Corporate and/or Department Guidelines.
• Schedule Buy-in with all stakeholders and swim lane owners.
• Resource Forecast Buy in with all stakeholders and department managers.
• Check and verify quality.
• Support corporate health and safety objectives.
• React to change productively and handle other essential duties as assigned.

Job Requirements:

Education:

• 4-year degree in Engineering, Project Management, or another relevant field

Experience:

• 1-5 years of project management experience in an engineering and new product development environment
• Fundamental understanding of basic electronics and software/firmware programming

Knowledge:

• Proficient with MS Project and MS Office applications

Required Skills & Abilities:

• Detail, data, and process-driven
• Ability to anticipate roadblocks, diagnose problems, and generate effective solutions
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work with diverse groups
• Strong negotiation, conflict resolution, and interpersonal skills
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Strong organizational and time management skills
• Ability to navigate and deal with ambiguity
• Excellent oral, written, and presentation communication skills
• Experience in the development of technology hardware products, software, and systems

Desirable Skills, Abilities & Experience:

• PMI certification
• Experience with hearing aids
• Experience with MS Project Server and MS SharePoint