Program Manager

Who We Are

Solera is a global leader in data and software services that strives to transform every touchpoint of the vehicle lifecycle into a connected digital experience. We provide products and services to protect life's most important assets: our homes and digital identities. Today, Solera processes over 300 million digital transactions annually for approximately 235,000 partners and customers in more than 90 countries. Our 6,500 team members foster an uncommon, innovative culture and are dedicated to successfully bringing the future to bear today through cognitive answers, insights, algorithms, and automation. For more information, please visit solera.com.

The Role of a Program Manager

We are looking for a Program Manager to drive companywide high-visibility and high-priority software development and IT Projects. This critical hire must have exceptional communication and organization skills, be highly collaborative, and possess a deep understanding of independent and interdependent IT organizational structures, tools, and teams. With an emphasis on discovery and soft skills, this individual will work with leadership and teams across the globe to create meaningful and positive change. Pragmatic, innovative, data-driven, detail-oriented, and self-motivated are skills crucial to the success of this role, as well as the ability to leverage and implement Project management tools, processes, and KPIs to increase visibility, create stability, and ensure success. The ideal candidate will be accountable for key Projects and will coordinate the logistics and resources, conduct planning and working sessions, and build lasting relationships to meet Project objectives.

What You'll Do

As a Program Manager, you will work directly with Product, Development, and IT leadership to kick off, oversee, and manage key Projects. You will collaboratively define the scope of work, identify appropriate resources, set goals, develop schedules, and track and report progress while ensuring that the overall approach is refined and can be leveraged by junior Project and Program Managers. Along with managing key Projects, you will:

• Drive implementation of multiple, complex project management initiatives, working closely with cross-functional teams and resources to achieve milestones within established timeframes.
• Communicate with project stakeholders, executive and senior management, and provide reporting insights on issues through root cause analyses.
• Set and continually manage Project expectations with team members and other stakeholders.
• Coach, mentor, motivate, and supervise Project team members and contractors, and influence them to take positive action and take accountability for their assigned work.

What You'll Bring

• Bachelor's degree (B.A.) or equivalent work experience.
• 5 - 8 years of experience in Project or program management.
• 3 + years of experience creating and driving large-scale technology and data-driven Project management transformation plans.
• Advanced knowledge of business applications such as Microsoft Word, and high effectiveness in Microsoft (Excel, Project, Teams, etc.).

How To Succeed

• Effective Communication: Communicate proactively, effectively, and efficiently while presenting ideas clearly and persuasively to all organization levels. Excellent verbal and written communication (English).
• Exceptional Delivery: Demonstrated expertise in Release Management as a high-value deliverer, including release scope alignment, release prioritization, engagement of stakeholders, planning, prioritizing work, identifying critical milestones, and driving projects utilizing documented process.
• Process Improvement: Increase delivery success by iteratively improving existing or developing new artifacts and processes across programs and the PMO. Apply the proper balance of creating value versus diminishing returns to increase efficiency, repeatability, alignment, control, documentation, reporting, and the capture of details critical to team success.
• Risk Management: Work with stakeholders to identify potential problems, create mitigation plans, and minimize risk to project timelines.
• Facilitating Solutions: Discern objective information to address issues, including documenting the impact and utilization of the PMO escalation process; collaboratively problem-solve and adapt to achieve objective.
• Be Reliable: Trust will be your number one asset; follow through on what you are expected to do as part of your role; do what you say you are going to do and be aware of expected communication/project/timeline.
• Detail Oriented: At every level, the details do matter; unequivocally skilled in accounting for and confirming critical details; competent in identifying critical follow-up and drill-down questions even when you are not expected to be the technical subject matter expert.
• Training Competency: Mentoring peers as determined by growth and delegation, skilled at logically documenting processes and artifacts for ease of use by others, comfortable and professional in providing feedback and course re-direction to peers.

How To Excel

• Creating Accountability: Utilize the PMO framework and Solera processes, apply strategies to maintain alignment, and hold yourself and your teams accountable by driving action plans and ensuring measurable visibility.
• Adding Value: Bring value to stakeholders within projects, programs, and PMO by facilitating alignment and contributing to process improvement with measurable, lasting contributions to organization performance.
• Building Relationships: Enhance others by facilitating a positive culture and developing relationships across organizational levels, including assisting, encouraging, enrolling, and collaborating with others.
• Leading with Humility: Be accountable, dependable, transparent, confident, and trustworthy, balanced with inherently valuing the experience, perspective, intelligence, ideas, diversity, and intelligence of others.
• Apply Emotional Intelligence: This role will include dealing with stressful situations and challenging obstacles. Success will require self-regulation while leading the team in maintaining focus on the end objective. Demonstrate ability to find solutions within PMO framework and Solera processes and adapt as needed, providing unique solutions.
• Speed of Work: Capacity to work and improve at a fast pace, contextualize and prioritize communications from simultaneous streams (high volume of MSFT Team chats, meetings, email, phone calls), ability to document and create team alignment in-real-time at the pace of working sessions.
• Context and Priority Switching: Solera is a fast-paced culture where the PMO is critical to the successful delivery of challenging efforts; capable of quickly switching context throughout the day and often within the hour while continuing to align with PMO framework; at times, will be required to pivot priorities with limited notice immediately.
• Coachable: Humility to allow for professional growth and self-enhancement through constructive feedback and collaborative learning.
• High Initiative: Actively seeks opportunities for new challenges and professional growth; demonstrates motivation and a passion for work by proactively driving progress, including meeting and pulling in delivery dates.

Key skills/competency

• Program Management
• Project Management
• Software Development Lifecycle
• IT Project Management
• Stakeholder Management
• Communication Skills
• Risk Management
• Process Improvement
• Data-Driven
• Release Management