Project Manager – IT Lab Environment

World Wide Technology is looking for a Project Manager. This role is part of WWT’s Strategic Resourcing services and is a contract role. The candidate will be supporting a WWT customer and will be employed by one of WWT’s preferred partners. The partner will provide full compensation and benefit information prior to employment with the partner.

Job Title: Project Manager – IT Lab Environment

Location: Hybrid- 2 days a week in Rosemead, CA

Rate: $65 - $70/hr

Role Overview:

The Project Manager will oversee the planning, execution, and completion of IT lab-based projects, ensuring alignment with business requirements and adherence to client's IT and Grid Resilience PMO standards. This role involves managing a portfolio of lab demonstration projects, ensuring they meet milestones and budgetary constraints while efficiently handling scope changes. The PM will focus on pre-deployment testing and proof-of-concept (POC) development in a lab environment. Strong leadership, time management, and communication skills are essential to successfully manage multiple concurrent projects and coordinate cross-functional teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Project Planning and Execution Direct planning, scope definition, scheduling, and budgeting for IT lab environment projects.
• Oversee a portfolio of lab demonstration projects, ensuring timely milestone completion and adherence to budgets.
• Manage scope changes while ensuring project goals are achieved.
• Perform analysis, estimation, design, evaluation, and implementation of medium- to high-complexity projects.
• Build and oversee proof-of-concept (POC) testing in the lab to validate project feasibility.
• Risk and Issue Management Proactively identify and manage project risks, issues, and dependencies.
• Implement RAID (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies) processes per Grid Resilience PMO guidelines.
• Monitor and address scope changes, ensuring they are effectively communicated and resolved.
• Team Leadership and Stakeholder Communication Build and lead cross-functional teams, including IT Leads for Cyber, Grid, and Enterprise Architecture.
• Establish clear and effective communication channels with stakeholders, vendors, and project teams.
• Facilitate team and stakeholder meetings, providing regular updates on deliverables, milestones, and risks.
• Process and Standards Adherence Ensure compliance with SCE standards for Release Management, Change Management, Root Cause Analysis, and Financial Reporting.
• Support lab-specific requirements such as testing readiness, security assessments, and environment setup.
• Vendor and Contract Management Coordinate with vendors to ensure delivery of quality goods and services.
• Manage contracts, project metrics, and supplier performance to meet project objectives.
• Continuous Improvement Identify opportunities for process enhancements and recommend strategies for improvement.
• Maintain and share IT plans for potential new projects and emerging needs.

Qualifications:

• Essential Requirements7 years of project management experience leading IT projects with multi-functional teams (8-12 members).
• 3 years managing large, complex projects involving software or cloud deployment using both Agile and Waterfall methodologies.
• 3 years of experience leading project quality initiatives, including metrics and quality assurance.
• 2 years managing vendor contracts, project metrics, and supplier performance.

Preferred Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in business, Computing Information Systems, Engineering, or a related technical field.

• 5 years of IT experience in the electric utility industry.
• 2 years of experience in IT portfolio management or customer relationship management.
• Proficiency in Agile tools (e.g., Jira, Octane, GitHub) and Microsoft Office tools (e.g., MS Project, Visio).
• Familiarity with Product Line and Value Streams methodologies.
• Prior experience in IT lab environments preferred but not mandatory.

Key Deliverables and Milestones

Ensure timely completion of IT lab-based project milestones, including:

• IT requirements definition and Solution Design Council (SDC) approval.
• Vendor risk assessments, security design assessments, and testing readiness.
• Cyber testing, final risk management reports, and decommissioning activities.

Additional Notes

Role focuses on managing IT lab environments; candidates with prior lab PM experience are strongly preferred.

• Potential travel to Westminster and Pomona lab sites. Remote work is acceptable but must operate in PST hours.
• California-based candidates are highly preferred.
• A deep understanding of cyber and grid systems is not required, though familiarity is a plus.