Project Leader - Firm Planning & Strategic Execution - Edward D. Jones

Join a financial services firm where your contributions are valued.  Edward Jones is a Fortune 500¹ company where people come first. With over 8 million clients and 19,000 financial advisors across the U.S. and Canada, we’re proud to be privately-owned, placing the focus on our clients rather than shareholder returns.

Behind everything we do is our purpose: We partner for positive impact to improve the lives of our clients and colleagues, and together, better our communities and society. We are an innovative, flexible, and inclusive organization that attracts, develops, and inspires performance excellence and a sense of belonging. 

People are at the center of our partnership. Edward Jones associates are seen, heard, respected, and supported. This is what we believe makes us the best place to start or build your career. 

View our Purpose, Inclusion and Citizenship Report.

¹Fortune 500, published June 2023, data as of December 2022. Compensation provided for using, not obtaining, the rating.Overview:
Do you enjoy leading projects? Do you want to lead projects that are impactful to firm planning and strategy execution? Do you have experience in product or project management? The Project Leader in Firm Planning and Strategic Execution provides a trusted advisor working with leaders and teams, to execute independent initiatives or epics within a Portfolio of work or individual project.  This includes advising on working methodology, and driving accountability/transparency, and team effectiveness to deliver the most value to clients, colleagues, and communities, most quickly.  

What You'll Do:

• Lead medium to large projects simultaneously, with a medium to high degree of risk, visibility and urgency within a functional area or at times spanning multiple areas, divisions or outside vendors. Lead project coordinators and/or project team members in completion of medium to large scope projects.
• Provide leadership, development and mentoring to team through modeling of best practices and providing timely feedback.
• Responsible for allocating, onboarding, assigning and oversight of project resources.
• Ability to rapidly learn about a new area in order to lead a project effectively.
• Drive and recommend improvements in project management and industry \"best in class\" practices within the firm.
• Drive business efforts. This role is the key business contact on the project.
• Identify major and detailed project tasks, critical path, contentions and resources to manage the tasks across multiple sub-projects.
• Ensure project schedule, scope and quality objectives are met by monitoring, using metrics and controls to measure progress, taking corrective action and escalating issues when necessary. Assess trade-offs to scope using cost / benefit analysis and make recommendations to senior leaders.
• Work with other leaders and senior leadership to obtain the necessary resources to achieve project objectives. Drive the resolution of resource issues/risks.
• Plan, identify, analyze and resolve project issues and risks. Determine and execute prevention and mitigation strategies, as appropriate.
• Schedule and facilitate meetings, communicate progress and develop solutions to meet project goals. This may be related to a large project with multiple sub-projects.
• Provide timely communication of relevant data to senior leadership for decision making. Establish and maintain effective communications and relationships across multiple areas, divisions, outside vendors and project leaders/teams who are working on sub-projects within a project.
• Lead vendor selection in a project with a large number of vendors. Manage vendor relationship throughout the life of the project.

Edward Jones' compensation and benefits package includes medical and prescription drug, dental, vision, voluntary benefits (such as accident, hospital indemnity, and critical illness), short- and long-term disability, basic life, and basic AD&D coverage. Short- and long-term disability, basic life, and basic AD&D coverage are provided at no cost to associates. Edward Jones offers a 401k retirement plan, and tax-advantaged accounts: health savings account, and flexible spending account. Edward Jones observes ten paid holidays and provides 15 days of vacation for new associates beginning on January 1 of each year, as well as sick time, personal days, and a paid day for volunteerism.  Associates may be eligible for bonuses and profit sharing. All associates are eligible for the firm's Employee Assistance Program. For more information on the Benefits available to Edward Jones associates, please visit our benefits page.What Experience You'll Need:

• Bachelor's degree is required or equivalent work experience.
• 3-5 years of project management or product management experience leading division level complex projects/products is required, with the ability of creating, monitoring, and interpreting product / project performance metrics through the entire development lifecycles.
• Possess a working knowledge of project and product management life cycles. Has the ability to utilize and decipher which method to use and when to use Agile or Waterfall Methodologies.
• 3 – 5 years of industry or position-related experience. 
• Excellent presentation, interpersonal and communication skills; effectively communicates with project team, other project leaders, multiple areas, divisions and outside vendors.  Incorporates effective listening and collaboration skills.
• Ability to independently identify, prioritize, monitor, communicate, and/or resolve elements that can impact the entire project lifecycle.
• Strong problem-solving skills – know when to escalate, ability to identify alternatives, assist in analysis and resolution of issues and provide recommendations.
• Experience with PPM tools such as Clarity, Jira, and/or Aha is required.

What Could Set You Apart:

• MBA or graduate degree preferred.
• Project Management certification (PMP, SAFe and/or Company Specific Certifications) preferred within 2 years.
• Previous leadership experience preferred. 

Please note: Candidates that live within a commutable distance from our Tempe, AZ and St. Louis, MO home office locations are expected to work in the office three days per week, with preference for Tuesday through Thursday.