IT Project / Program Manager

Ciena Corporation is a global leader in high-speed connectivity with a people-first approach that emphasizes a flexible work environment. They are seeking a Program/Project Manager responsible for managing strategic projects focused on Accounting and Financial Planning, requiring collaboration with technical and business teams to deliver effective solutions.

Responsibilities:

• Oversee the ongoing review of projects(s) status; closely monitor project resources tasks, risks, and milestones, make course corrections when necessary, using defined change control procedures, recommend and implement solutions as appropriate
• Partner with Business Functional Leads to prioritize requirements, and estimate effort and resources required to satisfy both - Project Execution and Tracking
• Able to collaborate with other project managers and serve as a technical lead to support the delivery of technical functions and tasks across all work products. This includes, but is not limited to, configuration activities, integrations, technical builds, driving testing cycles, and ensuring alignment of the build to requirements
• Responsible for overseeing the daily project activities of a team of individual contributors across multiple sites and global locations
• Provide input into vendor negotiations and manage vendor within defined contract parameters
• Manage projects using different methodologies as needed by the project (Agile, Waterfall, Hybrid, FastFail, etc)
• Ensures alignment to strategic priorities
• Coordinate with IT directors, Business Managers, Resource Managers and IT PMO Manager for resource assignments, creation of project deliverables, issue resolution and escalation

Requirements:

• 10+ years' experience as a Project Manager with a variety of finance related systems or solutions
• Experience with Finance Planning functions and processes
• Experience executing highly matrixed global projects with team members including Developers, Business Analysts, Business Owners and Service Owners
• Experience managing projects with both onshore and offshore teams as part of the engagement
• Ability to provide leadership to business analysts and collaborate with customers and develop strategies and solutions of high business value
• Strong interpersonal skills including mentoring, coaching, collaborating, and team building and ability to work independently with little hands-on supervision delivering across aggressive timelines
• Strong analytical, planning, and organizational skills with an ability to manage competing demands
• Proven ability to lead IT development projects and ensure objectives, goals, and commitments are met
• Solid understanding of and demonstrated experience in using appropriate tools: Agile Project Management tools such as Jira, Rally or equivalent. Microsoft Project, Visio, and all Microsoft Office Tools
• Creative approach to problem-solving with the ability to focus on details while maintaining the 'big picture' view
• Candidate should be flexible to working in US and India hours if needed
• Highly experienced individual interested in progressing their career with proven history of successful project management and technical leadership roles with accounting and Finance applications or business processes
• Professional Scrum Master (PSM), Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Practitioner or Project Management Professional (PMP) certification preferred