Project Manager: Data Delivery at Santam Insurance

What will make you successful in this role?

• The person will typically be allocated to a data use case (project) with budget of more than R3million to deliver over a 6-18 month period with a small/medium sized team of resources (3-6 full time people). The person will manage cross-functional initiatives which derive value from data introducing change. 

Key areas of responsibility:

• Data Use Case (Project) Identification, Definition, Inception and Kick-off. Includes kick-off sessions; definition of charter; facilitate definition of requirements and user stories.
• Data Use Case (Project) Planning. Includes scoping, conceptual sprint planning and development; project and work stream definition; sizing and estimating; sprint, release and milestone management.
• Financial and Cost management. Includes accurate budgeting, actuals tracking, forecast projections, monitoring and control of expenses, invoicing and payment.
• Time and Cost management. Includes budget definition, monitoring and control; time recording and costing; Invoicing and payments; cost containment.
• Managing Project Scop. Includes understanding project scope and product backlog; monitoring scope.
• Risk, Issue and Decision management. Includes dependency management and escalation.
• Reporting. Includes reporting on status, financials, schedule, risk, blockers and issues, quality; reporting on metrics including burn up/down charts, team velocity; updating reporting and management tools.
• Defining and implementing the required delivery Governance framework. Includes review and sign-offs, decision-making, steerco management, change control and content review, management of tolerances, closure and lessons learned.
• Quality Management by ensuring data use case’s deliverables meet the requirements and the appropriate quality. Includes ceremonies such as: team retrospectives, attending Scrum-of-Scrum sessions, managing dependencies, blockers/ impediments and resourcing.
• Stakeholder management. Includes the ability to work with external and internal stakeholders across divisions at all levels demonstrating strong interpersonal skills.
• Data Use Case success management. Includes regularly review of measures of success ensuring deliverables meet the requirements and the appropriate quality.
• Support implementation of the fit-for-purpose way of working. Adherence to the Agile framework, governance, standards for reporting and Tools (JIRA, Confluence) as required.

Qualifications & Experience

• Relevant 3+ year degree or equivalent qualification.
• Certificate or Diploma in Project Management from an industry recognized training institution. Agile certification recommended.
• At least 10-15 years’ experience in managing projects and/or change initiatives.
• At least 5 years’ experience working in the Financial Services and/or Insurance industry to demonstrate understanding of the business context. 
• Knowledge of, and experience in, working with a Data management framework (such as DAMA framework) understanding the concepts and practices of information and data management. Includes understanding of data management principles and practices.
• Knowledge of, and experience in, data driven and/or digital enablement initiatives.
• Sound experience working with stakeholders at different levels across organisations/divisions; both on-shore and off-shore, face-to-face and remote.
• Demonstrate experience in the application of industry standard project management methodologies and processes; and working in an Agile environment with Scrum method knowledge strongly preferred.
• Experience using the Tools and Techniques in alignment with the agreed Santam ways of working. Including but not limited to, PPO, JIRA, Confluence, Portfolio for JIRA and SharePoint.
• Demonstrate experience and sound knowledge of the system development lifecycle processes and methods from business concept to deployment stages.
• System development life-cycle knowledge and solution implementation experience required. Understanding of the integration between business strategy delivery in terms of data, technology, people and process.
• Ability to act as Scrum Master supporting the scrum teams to ensure the delivery of sprint goals and measureable business value. Includes: partnering with the business Product Owner determining the product backlog and the on-going refinement and prioritization of the backlog that ensures the availability of work for the development team; proactively work to eliminate blockers/impediments and other barriers for the development team;  guide the team members on best practices and facilitate scrum ceremonies.

 
Knowledge & Skills

• Well-honed MS Office skills.
• Agile and Scrum Method and Tool experience (JIRA, JIRA Portfolio and Confluence suggested).
• MS Project skills and Project Management Tool experience (PPO suggested).
• Facilitation skills.
• Financial and business acumen.
• Foster and support the Agile approach.
• Demonstrate a growth mindset in support of the Agile values and Santam culture: Trust, Respect, Collaborative, Self-organisation, Adapt, Transparent, Courage, Focus, Openness, Servant Leadership.
• Deep understanding of project management methods, techniques and tools.
• Deep understanding of agile ways of working, techniques and tools.
• Deep understanding of the system development lifecycle and frameworks for business solution delivery. Incudes waterfall, iterative and agile methods.
• Understanding of key components of Data management such as Data governance; Data analytics; Data technology, architecture, modelling, design and integration. 
• Understands architectural considerations in order to effectively factor them into planning, decisions and recommendations and effectively communicate.
• Familiarity with change management disciplines including stakeholder management, communication and business readiness.
• Ability to identify project implications based on an understanding of systems, processes and business.

Competencies

• Drives results
• Client Focus and Collaborates
• Flexible and adaptable
• Relating and networking. Strong stakeholder management expertise
• Analysing
• Applying expertise and technology
• Project Oversight, Planning, Project Management Tools, Project Tracking and Reporting, Project Portfolio Management
• Organisational Savvy
• Decision Quality
• Plan and Aligns
• Manages complexity
• Core thinking competencies: analytical, information seeking, problem solving.
• Action oriented competencies: self-confident, flexible, takes initiative.
• Ability to work independently and determine course of action.
• Negotiation and contracting of resources and work packages with project teams and managers.
• Strong interpersonal skills; action orientated to drive for results yet remaining flexible to the context; emotional self-control; good communication skills at all levels of management; ability to leverage relationships and target messages to different audiences effectively; sound interpersonal skills.