Advanced IT Portfolio/Project Manager

Salary Range: $128,026 - $151,112

Location: 2 Broadway, New York, NY 10004

Hours of Work: 9:00 am - 5:30 pm (7.5 hours/day) or as required. This position is eligible for teleworking, one day per week. New hires are eligible to apply 30 days after their effective date of hire.

About the role

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is North America's largest transportation network, serving 15.3 million people across a 5,000-square-mile area surrounding New York City, Long Island, southeastern New York State, and Connecticut. The MTA network includes the nation’s largest bus fleet and more subway and commuter rail cars than all other U.S. transit systems combined.

This role works closely with operations, technical leads, cyber team, developers, designers, and testers to shape product features and roadmaps. It conducts market and customer research, gathers business and technical requirements, and monitors product performance to deliver customer-centric products that drive business growth. For product-related projects, this role may serve as a right-hand to a product manager, acting as a liaison between the product department and other business agencies. For high-impact and complex IT products and/or services, this role orchestrates overall planning, defines business justification, requirements, minimum viable product, and proposed delivery sequence for new functionality. It is responsible for leading business cases for large projects, determining KPIs, and managing IT product and service implementation roadmaps with full traceability and value realization reporting.

Responsibilities

• Orchestrate the overall planning process for initial development and phased lifecycle transitions of high-impact/complexity IT products and/or services.
• Determine KPIs and deliver measurable impact every month.
• Lead the development of business cases for large projects, including tangible costs, benefits, and performance measures.
• Lead by influence amongst cross-functional teams in a matrix organization.
• Understand customer and business unit needs and identify market opportunities to help define the platform’s vision and strategy.
• Produce metrics reflecting the capacity and constraints of resources, funding, and the ability to change to inform demands from customers and the department.
• Create and lead high-level business cases for presentation and review.
• Assess and communicate the business impact of different solutions, including risks and benefits.
• Facilitate the prioritization and scoping of requirements.
• Lead project development from conception through implementation for high-impact/complexity IT projects using agreed frameworks, methodologies, and tools.
• Serve as project leader for large-sized IT products/projects.
• Act as a right-hand to a product manager for product-related projects.
• Support product managers in developing a comprehensive understanding of company-wide strategic goals, focusing on how technology can improve the company’s strategic position.
• Interact regularly with key business unit users to demonstrate the value of IT and promote business goals, ensuring users fully utilize system capabilities.
• Analyze business operations to identify process improvement opportunities and model current and desired scenarios for stakeholder review.
• Monitor the development of service/product descriptions and maintenance of service/product catalogs.
• Lead the execution of resourcing activities in collaboration with delivery team managers.
• Analyze market trends and customer behavior to drive feature development and product improvements.
• Co-create customer journey maps and product innovation roadmaps with Product Managers.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, developers, and designers to implement product enhancements based on business requirements.
• Actively participate in agile ceremonies.
• Develop effective reports and documents to communicate findings and analysis to the product team and business stakeholders.
• Work closely with design and engineering teams to deliver solutions with demonstrable and measurable impact, determining the best technical implementation methods.
• Serve as an advocate for product management best practices to maximize the value of existing technology and methodologies.
• Partner with engineering, design, data, lifecycle, and member support teams to build software collaboratively and inclusively.
• Abide by MTA attendance expectations and requirements by attending regularly and reliably.
• Provide technical advice to project teams and mentor less experienced staff to foster talent development.
• Perform other duties as assigned.
• Comply with all policies and standards.
• Work hours outside regular work hours as applicable.
• Observe work performed by contractors and review/approve invoices if the work meets contractual standards.
• Address performance issues with contractors when possible and escalate issues as needed.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Arts/Sciences (BA/BS) and a minimum of 8 years of relevant experience required. An equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
• At least one certification in the current platform/domain/technical skill, such as:
  • Certified Product Manager
  • PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
  • Certified Agile Project Manager (IAPM)
  • ICAgile Certified Professional - Agile Project Management (ICP-APM)
  • SAFe 5 Agilist (SA)
  • SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager
  • Project Management Professional (PMP)
  • Certified Change Management Professional (CCMP)
  • Business Relationship Management Professional (BRMP)
  • Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP)

Skills

• Advanced experience with developer productivity tools like Jira, Confluence, etc.
• Advanced understanding of technical concepts.
• Advanced in process-focused execution, having successfully driven technical programs for enterprise.
• Adept in working with enterprise customers and/or business unit users.
• Advanced in working with project management tools and workflows.
• Advanced in customer journey management.
• Adept with product delivery.
• Familiarity with tools for data analysis and programming languages (e.g., Python or R) for data handling and analysis.
• Familiarity with business analysis or project management.
• Familiarity with product lifecycle management concepts.
• Familiarity with current and emerging technologies.
• Familiarity with agile methodology.
• Familiarity with product management.
• Familiarity with MTA/Agency policies and procedures.
• Working knowledge of IT service development concepts.
• Advanced active listening, attention to detail, customer service, prioritization, and problem-solving skills.
• Advanced in working independently and strategically.
• Adept expertise in identifying and analyzing risks and developing effective mitigation strategies.
• Advanced technical knowledge and diverse skill set to understand various technologies, systems, and potential risks.
• Adept critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Expert in interpersonal and verbal/written communication skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with both technical and non-technical peers.
• Advanced experience managing multiple projects simultaneously and prioritizing tasks based on urgency and impact.
• Advanced hands-on experience with related tools.
• Advanced experience working under pressure and meeting deadlines individually and collaboratively.
• Logical thinking, problem assessment, and results-oriented approach.
• Advanced in identifying complex business and technology risks and associated vulnerabilities.
• Advanced in communicating effectively, both orally and in writing, to interact with team members, customers, management, and support personnel (technical and non-technical).
• Advanced in establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with employees at all levels within the organization and with internal/external customers.

Competencies

• Collaborates: Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives.
• Cultivates Innovation: Creating new and better ways for the organization to be successful.
• Customer Focus: Building strong customer relationships and delivering customer-centric solutions.
• Communicates Effectively: Developing and delivering multi-mode communications that convey a clear understanding of the unique needs of different audiences.
• Tech Savvy: Anticipating and adopting innovations in business-building digital and technology applications.
• Technical Skills: Specialized knowledge and expertise on tools, programs, domains, platforms, and products used for specific tasks.
• Values Diversity: Recognizing the value that different perspectives and cultures bring to an organization.