IT Program Manager

Position Title: IT Program Manager
Location: Toronto, ON (Hybrid)
Estimated Duration: 4 months

Story Behind the Need
Business group: Project Delivery & Support is a centralized project management office that supports various technology teams across the bank, oversees the delivery of large-scale IT projects for a variety of teams. Responsible for ensuring the projects have the proper team to complete effectively.

Project/Program: The IT Program Manager will lead a high-priority remediation initiative in response to findings from a recent Risk Audit. Working closely with Vice Presidents and other senior stakeholders, the Program Manager will be responsible for addressing and resolving multiple areas of concern identified in the audit. This role requires strong coordination and communication skills to ensure alignment across departments and timely resolution of all issues.

Candidate Value Proposition:
The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work on a very high visibility project for one of the top 5 Canadian Banks.

Typical Day in Role:
Manage and ensure the successful delivery of complex projects/programs involving multiple teams from different groups across the bank, as well as external vendors when required
Demonstrate strong leadership skills to develop and maintain high functioning project teams
Influences business project decisions with direct impact on financials or operating results
Ability to independently run executive Steerco meetings with Group Heads, EVPs, and SVPs
Takes a strategic focus aligned to business priorities
Champions a customer focused culture to deepen client relationships and leverage broader Bank relationships, systems and knowledge Recommends technical strategy within a technical domain, may investigate and evaluate new technologies
Impacts the technical direction and resource allocation for products, services or platforms supported
Leads the solution of risks and issues that have a broad impact on the project team – accountability typically spans across multiple products, a line of businesses or with significant enterprise system impact
Defines and maintains the roadmap and project budget

Candidate Requirements/Must Have Skills:
10+ years of project management experience in large corporations, with at least 5 of those in program management
Experience working with a Regulatory project in either an FI or Insurance
Experienced with writing Closure Packages
5+ years’ experience communication with Executive leadership

Nice-To-Have Skills:
Financial institution experience (Insurance or Top 5 banking)
Prior client Experience an asset

Soft Skills Required:
Technical curiosity. Curious to understand the technical aspects and drivers/challenges of the project.
Excellent stakeholder management skills and messaging skills (SVP, EVP+ audiences) –must have
Agile and adaptable personality
Proactive approach to identifying issues and risks within the project. – must have
Ability to accept feedback and adapt to project needs and changes
Excellent communication skills and messaging skillset – must have
Ability to think “outside the box” for solutions and issue/problem mitigation and solutioning
Ability to manage multiple workstreams and technical development teams
Financial acumen
Strong project governance skillset
Excellent project planning, scheduling, co-ordinating, risk and issue management skillset. Ability to identify critical path items and dependencies.

Education:
Bachelor's degree in a related field required (Technical fields preferred, although experience is more important)
PMP required but experience valued over education

Best VS. Average Candidate:
The ideal candidate would have prior experience working on a regulatory project within a Top 5 bank or with an Insurance firm. Ideally this PM would have hands on experience working to resolve project items and prepare Closure Packages. Experience working with executives and the ability to work in ambiguity are highly valuable for this role.