Project Manager - Application

The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL) is the nation's largest publicly held personal lines insurer. Widely known through the "You're In Good Hands With Allstate?" slogan, Allstate helps individuals in approximately 17 million households protect what they have today and better prepare for tomorrow through approximately 14,100 exclusive agencies and financial professionals in the U.S. and Canada. Customers can access Allstate products and services such as auto insurance and homeowners insurance through Allstate agencies, or in select states at allstate.com and 1-800 Allstate?.



The position is located in Northbrook, IL.

The purpose of the department is IT development and support for the Allstate Financial Company.

The scope of this job is Project Manager with the Application Development and Support team. Ideal candidate will have solid industry experience (project management, project planning and project delivery). The Project Manager - manages overall project delivery including scope, timeliness, resources, budget, risks, and issues, relationships and communications.

The individual will be responsible for:

1. Develop project or pursuit approach, scope, time line, budget/project estimation and working with RDM (Resource Development Manager) on overall staffing on projects. Drives project delivery and support. Controls project budget, expenses and scope. Manages risks, issues, and problem resolution. Manages project relationships (business, vendors, AFT). Uses functional, business and technical knowledge to deliver the best solutions. Develops and manages project communications.
2. Determines project approach, conducts scoping and makes recommendations, develops and resolves budget, develops most effective work plan with timeline and resources. Ensures that the appropriate processes are in place. Independently plans medium to large scale projects of greater complexity, typically across teams and/or areas. Supports project process as appropriate to ensure familiarity with business needs prior to project implementation. Resolves conflicts and competing demands and modifies tasks, sequencing and resourcing as appropriate to maintain progress. Assigns resources to project activities, makes staffing decisions, defines project team member roles and expectations, encourages team performance. Utilizes all resources including vendors/contractors efficiently and monitors and shifts resources as needed. Negotiates staffing of resources to ensure project objectives are met.
3. Coaches and develops team members in support of the achievement of project objectives. Works with RDM to identify opportunities to increase the skills and knowledge of the team to support successful project delivery. Set goals and objectives for a given project with project team members. Provides feedback to the project team members. Provides feedback to the managers of project team members on project performance for inclusion of overall performance management process. Develops and manages budget for all internal resources, capital and other project costs. Reviews and manages changes to the requirements through a formally defined scope change process, including coordination with the client.
4. Anticipates, manages and resolves difficult risks and issues that are internal and external to the project following the appropriate structured methodology. Oversees development of risk mitigation strategy and reviews with client(s). Documents and tracks resolution of project issues. Resolves and escalates issues as appropriate. Builds a relationship of trust and effectively communications across team, departments, business partners and users. Identifies related or interfacing projects and initiatives and ensures integration of project to support joint business needs. Utilizes relevant knowledge to identify and recommend the best solutions for clients/users. Identifies, directs, and deliver project communication messages using a variety of vehicles based on audience and the content. Maintains status and metrics information in relevant project management tools.
5. Manages pursuit scoping efforts. Defines and communicates implementation plan. Coordinates project implementation and change management activities. Ensures use of appropriate SDLC methodology, tools and QA process during the project lifecycle. Supports process improvement. Support corporate strategy. Forms teams and directs work of gathering business requirements, scoping, formulating solution alternatives and creating project estimates. Conducts project release readiness review to verify deployment. Oversees project migration and deployment activities and follows up post-release to capture metrics, ensure successful deployment and resolve/communicates issues. Participate in post project reviews and communicate findings to team and business partners. A Project Management Professional designation or other formal project management certification is desired.