Education Product Manager - VTal Technology Solutions LLC

The State of Iowa is seeking a Product Manager responsible for coordinating various information technology initiatives for the Iowa Department of Education. The successful candidate must have prior project management experience and have demonstrated knowledge and experience managing technology teams, vendors, stakeholders, data systems, application deployments, or similar services. The IT Product Manager will lead meetings, solve problems, facilitate and coordinate communication between the parties, manage the product backlog, document project status, and ensure that the team members have the support needed to perform their work towards a successful project outcome. This is an opportunity to work in a mission-driven environment supporting Iowa's statewide educational data collection and reporting systems. Experience working in a matrix organization and product management/ownership is a plus.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Identify and schedule project deliverables, milestones, and required activities and tasks.
• Provide guidance to project team members throughout the project life cycle and confer with project staff to outline work plan.
• Work with agency leadership, subject matter experts and program consultants to analyze and document business requirements and communicate details to technical staff.
• Work with technical staff to define data and system design, and coordinate the design, development and testing of technical systems and services.
• Maintain project management documentation including risk and mitigation activities, keeping aware of the status of the project and the need to employ mitigation measures for compliance with project objectives and timelines.
• Verify all system documentation is complete and testing is successful before approvals for live implementation are made.
• Direct and coordinate activities of project personnel and vendor representatives to ensure project goals are accomplished and are in line with business objectives.
• Monitor project activities to ensure quality and integrity of deliverables. Perform change control.

REQUIREMENTS

• Five or more years of progressively responsible IT project management experience
• Experience with major defined project management methodologies, e.g., waterfall, agile, hybrid.
• Experience in a product ownership role
• Demonstrated experience working with diverse teams and managing a variety of IT projects, including technology infrastructure, data systems, application deployments, or similar services.
• Knowledge of project management methodology and experience or familiarity with major program management approaches (for example, PMI, agile, etc.)
• Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills
• Experience managing large and complex projects
• Certification in project management (e.g., PMP)

Desirable Qualifications

• Experience working in State government, academic institution, or similar organization