In this position, you will be reporting directly to the Head of Project Management. It is critical for you to be able to understand and track project status, identify and track team commitments, identify resource needs and risks, and coordinate project schedules. You will often be managing both internal and external (client) tasks and working with an external (client) project manager, so a key responsibility is working cross-team to identify possible issues before they occur and working with the teams to mitigate them.

The ideal candidate will have a good understanding of and experience with working through a project lifecycle. This person will be extremely detail-oriented, with an impeccable knack for follow-through and completion. Technically minded and able to adapt to differing project management methodologies on the fly as situations evolve. The ideal candidate will be able to collect, organize, and manage large volumes of information – documents, lists, tasks, etc. – and facilitate efficient information flow throughout the entire project team using tools like Sharepoint where appropriate.  This person also will be an excellent communicator with a high level of EQ; not afraid to ask difficult questions and be willing to learn about our business and our products. A background in supporting large scale projects, IT, software application delivery, the financial services, or the insurance industry is a plus.

Who We’re Looking For

Key Characteristics:

1. Leadership – managing diverse project teams across multiple practices and clients; influencing and motivating the team towards a common goal.
2. Strong project management skills – project planning, capacity management, delivery management and risk and issues management. Expected to be proficient in project management tools such as Project, Excel, Smartsheet etc.
3. Excellent visualization skills; experience with Visio, PowerPoint, Excel.
4. Project management experience with large scale projects; systems implementations a plus.
5. Committed to the development of all team members and continuous development of capability within the department.
6. Exposure to or awareness of all phases of software development projects including analysis, systems design, development and testing approaches.
7. Experience in bringing together complex delivery with multiple strands and multiple locations.
8. Very strong interpersonal skills. Understands how to collaborate with different stakeholders, when to push, when to hold back. Comfortable in dealing with different organization levels.
9. Persistence and the ability to work with people who are very deep into technical speciality, and do not really understand how to estimate and plan. Needs to be able to ask the right questions and know when to slow down or stop.
10. Able to extract the essence from the technical details that are required to build a project plan and schedule to assure delivery.
11. Able to manage multiple projects and handle competing priorities.
12. Highly organized and able to collect, organize, and manage large amounts of project information.
13. Flexible and able to quickly re-prioritize while protecting project momentum.
14. Ability to anticipate and mitigate issues before they become business risks.
15. Empathetic – hard empathy – can relate to issues while remaining focused on delivery objectives.
16. Unafraid of constructive conflict and challenge.
17. Understands the law of diminishing returns.
18. Has a “whatever is needed to be successful” attitude. Motivated to work hard and be compensated accordingly.

Qualifications:

Required:

• A bachelor’s degree in Project Management, or another technical program of study relevant for the role
• A minimum of 7 years of experience in a Project Management role; the targeted experience range for this role is 7 to 10 years
• Experience working in the insurance industry
• Highly proficient in Excel, PowerPoint and Visio
• Highly proficient in project management tools such as Project, Excel, Smartsheet etc.
• The ability and willingness to travel approximately 10% of the time for client and internal meetings

Desired:

• PMP or equivalent project management certification preferred
• Experience managing multiple projects at any one time, with prioritisation of workload
• Experience working on projects with multiple work-streams and multiple delivery phases
• The ability to manage through partnership and influence, rather than relying entirely on authority.

Work Location:

Candidates hired into this role will be required to work in-person in the Milliman office in Chicago, IL on a weekly basis, but flexible work arrangements will be considered.

Key role responsibilities:

Project Management – 50%

• Build and maintain master project plans. Manage plans to successful completion through rigorous review and enforcement of interim tasks and deliverables.
• Provide support to professional services teams to ensure that appropriate planning, documentation and controls are applied to all project deliverables.
• Liaise between other teams across Financial Risk Management, Chicago Life and Life Technology Solutions to ensure that timelines and dependencies are managed.
• Coordinate project retrospectives to refine delivery approaches and build capabilities for the teams.

Project Governance – 25%

• Develop and maintain project dashboards or status reports for proper control of progress, milestones, risk and delivery management, and for reporting to Steering or other product or business groups.

Information Management – 25%

• Build project documentation governance and storage protocols and take an active role in enforcing that governance.
• Monitor and ensure that required governance and other documentation is current and relevant.
• Build structure and protocols for gathering, organizing, and accessing project information. Take an active role in ensuring efficient information flow.

 What we offer

• A fun, flexible and collaborative working environment
• A rapidly expanding team comprised of outstanding professionals, with a passion for excellence
• A competitive salary, an excellent benefits package and various subsidies

Milliman Benefits

At Milliman, we focus on creating an environment that recognizes – and meets – the personal and professional needs of the individual. We offer a competitive benefits package which includes:

• Medical, dental and vision coverage for employees and their dependents, including domestic partners
• A 401(k) plan with matching program, and profit sharing contribution
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• A discretionary bonus program
• Paid Time Off (PTO) starts accruing on the first day of work and can be used for any reason; full-time employees will accrue 15 days of PTO per year, and employees working less than a full-time schedule will accrue PTO at a prorated amount based on hours worked
• Family building benefits, including adoption and fertility assistance and paid parental leave up to 12 weeks for employees who have worked for Milliman for at least 12 months and have worked at least 1,250 hours in the preceding 12-month period
• A minimum of 8 paid holidays
• Milliman covers 100% of the premiums for life insurance, AD&D, and both short-term and long-term disability coverage
• Flexible spending accounts allow employees to set aside pre-tax dollars to pay for dependent care, transportation, and applicable medical needs

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.