R&D Project Manager

Position Overview and Objective

As R&D Project Manager you will work with R&D teams to help drive agile software delivery. This is a hands-on Project Manager role. You will be working with Product and R&D leaders to not only manage project delivery, but also focused on working with R&D leaders and the R&D Operations team to define and rollout project management best practices across R&D teams.

Accountable for organizing project teams to achieve exceptional results with a high-level of predictability and quality whilst delivering significant business value to customers. Expected to have knowledge and experience in blending traditional project management principles and practices with an Agile development approach to provide the right balance of agility and predictability.

Previous product development Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) project management experience is Desired.

Primary Responsibilities and Duties Include:

• Coach teams on agile best practices.

• Analytical and problem-solving experience with large-scale systems.

• Firm understanding of project and program management skills and methodologies.

• Focus on process and continuous improvements of cross-functional collaboration.

• Maintain project scope, schedule, quality and budget.

• Focus on identifying gaps at the organizational level and work to help define the solution. 

• Lead and coach development teams to deliver high value features in partnership with product management.

• Work with Product Managers to support R&D deliverables into wider go-to-market strategies.

• Create and track project delivery key performance indicators (KPIs) through project dashboards and basic analytics, including burnup/burndown, quality metrics and velocity tracking.

• Oversee and provide project updates to R&D leaders covering progress, risks, dependencies and issues.

• Manage project conflicts, challenges and dynamic business requirements to keep operations running at optimal performance.

• Able to conduct post-mortem/retrospective, root cause and preventive action analysis to help teams continuously improve practices to ensure maximum productivity.

• Proactively identify and eliminate impediments and facilitate maximum productivity.

• Drive effective teamwork, communication, collaboration and commitment across multiple groups with competing priorities.

• Create and manage Product Delivery Plans (PDP) for all AWN projects. SDLC from GreenLight/Ideation/Concept through General Availablity including Ongoing Shipment & Support.

• Clearly communicating project status to upper management and ensure that data is presented in a consistent and easy to understand manner leading to actionable conclusions.

• Control: we have the right level of governance, inspection, metrics to ensure what we are delivering is a high-quality best in class product, fit for purpose, fit for market and will beat competition

• Expertise with respect to progress tracking/reporting, communications management, resource management, issues management, risk management, change management, vendor management and business alignment.

• Manages large cross-functional initiatives and projects that span up to 10 development teams with multiple milestones and deliverables. Ability to build strong relationships with R&D Directors, Executive management and a strong partnership with Product Program Management.

We value a culture of sharing, so every team has the opportunity to share their work with the entire department during our monthly R&D Demos. Once a year we hold a department-wide Hackathon, teaming up across all R&D teams over four days to collaborate and build cool ideas outside the normal project scope. While innovation is the focus, some of these ideas do make it into our products.

About You

• Knowledge and understanding with respect to transitioning organizations from legacy waterfall software development processes to more modern Agile approaches (e.g., Scrum@Scale, SAFe)

• Proud of value-add contributions, and Leadership, as successful team member

• Can build strong relationships with R&D Directors and Executive management and a strong partnership with Product Program Management.

• Leverage experience to identify potential project risks and proactively mitigate them.

• Proactively communicate status, risks and successes to all stakeholders where appropriate.

• Manage large cross-functional initiatives and projects that span up to 10 development teams with multiple milestones and deliverables.

• Keen focus on continuous improvements for R&D processes.

• Lead project teams to deliver high-value features in partnership with product management.

• Drive effective teamwork, communication, collaboration and commitment across multiple groups with competing priorities.

In addition, you have proven leadership experience from previous projects, regardless of title held. You have the ability to drive programming tasks and large engineering projects with Independence and expertise. You will be responsible for guiding and mentoring other staff members and will regularly lead technical projects. You have a high level understanding over software development best practices and building reusable design patterns.

You have a history of delivering successful projects, as well as some lessons learned from failures. Even if you haven’t worked with all of our specific technologies, you bring a diverse knowledge base that you use to help the team solve complex technical problems. You’ll receive all the security training you need during our onboarding process and through additional training on the job.

Interview Process

• Phone Screen: A member of the recruiting team will be in touch for an initial conversation around your work history and an overview of Arctic Wolf

• Manager Assessment: You will meet with the hiring manager for the role. We will review your previous work experience and discuss what project management at Arctic Wolf looks like. We will ask questions related to your ability to perform the role.

• Interviews with the team: You’ll meet with several of our team members over the course of three interviews conducted remotely over Zoom. This is an opportunity to learn more about the specific role and team you will work with. Come prepared to talk more about past projects and your career goals.

We know your time is important, so we try to streamline the process as much as possible while respecting your current life commitments.

Security Requirements

• Conducts duties and responsibilities in accordance with AW’s Information Security policies, standards, processes, and controls to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of AW business information assets.

• Must pass a criminal background check and an employment verification as a condition of employment.

The following is criteria that will be divided amongst the interview panel to make certain candidates are well vetted in ALL essential must have criteria.