Project Manager – CIC, Cloud Innovation Center

DESCRIPTION

Job summary
If you are passionate about improving lives and looking for an opportunity to try and solve some of public sector’s most pressing challenges through the innovative application of cloud technologies, then please read on!

The CIC team is looking for technology savvy leaders with backgrounds and experiences in business operations, project management, and communications outreach to public sector customers, including government, non-profit and educational organizations. This role is based out of the Cal Poly Digital Transformation Hub (DxHub), powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The DxHub applies Amazon’s human-centered, ‘Working Backwards’ innovation methodology to tackle challenges facing government, education, and non-profit organizations. The DxHub team leads public sector organizations through innovation and solution workshops structured to generate big ideas and impactful solutions. Through product development sprints and customer validation testing, the team creates a ‘lean prototype’ that brings the solution to life. Students assist the team throughout the innovation process.

An Innovation Challenge is any problem or opportunity that end customers deem significant in their community/domain and that relies at least partially on information technologies. Tangible problems such as optimizing utilization of police body camera data, tracking water quality, or sharing city transportation data are examples of potential challenges. The Innovation Challenge can be thought of as a rapid product development lifecycle opportunity that identifies technology alternatives and may result in a prototype. Each Innovation Challenge is in itself a time-bound project that must be planned, marketed, and managed to completion.

The CIC Project Manager plays a critical role in managing the operations of the CIC by guiding workshop and prototype development, tracking the business case for each individual Innovation Challenge, monitoring Innovation Challenge status (multiple concurrent challenges), reporting metrics on the re-use of Innovation Challenge output, and hosting events. The CIC Project Manager works as a member of a three-person team. The other two members are a Digital Innovation Lead, leading the Amazon innovation process, and the CIC Solutions Architect.

As CIC Project Manager you will work with representatives of customers and partners involved in challenges as well as with other people within Amazon Web Services to ensure challenges are properly communicated, resourced, facilities are appropriately utilized, and short and long term schedules and goals are achieved. Experience with project management and agile methodologies is highly desired as the collaboration required will be extensive and diverse. An ability to adapt quickly to varied customers and work cooperatively with varied subject matter experts is essential.

In addition, the CIC Project Manager captures lessons learned and informs the larger AWS organization on best practices in organizing future challenges. He or she will have the opportunity to interface with other CICs in other geographies and include international AWS account teams, customers, and partners. This naturally will require a ‘think global, act local’ perspective in the approach taken to defining, contextualizing, prioritizing, and delivering results.

Position is located in San Luis Obispo, California. Ability to travel locally (within CA) at least once every month for periods of one week or less at a time. Travel requirement out of state will be infrequent although required.

To learn more about the DxHub, visit: https://dxhub.calpoly.edu/.

Key job responsibilities

• Project & Resource Management: help to maximize the impact of challenges and customer engagements.
• Work closely with Digital Innovation Lead and Solutions Architect to assess needs across all engagements, based on each challenge’s requirements.
• Maintain skills matrix and related reporting for other parts of the AWS organization.
• Customer planning: Work closely with external challenge sponsors on workshop and prototype planning, communications and scheduling.
• Lead business planning to energize and engage the community.
• Business planning: Implement quarterly and annual cadence and working meetings to drive internal business planning. Coordinate the preparation, agenda, and follow up actions to complete forward looking business plans.
• Monthly Metrics: Establish baseline metrics/reports to support the development of new Innovation Challenges or other CIC associated business opportunities. Create assets, on both what worked well and what failed, to be shared out with existing challenge community and also other CICs globally. Ensure complete and accurate challenge/project reporting.
• Identify: Work with the Digital Innovation Lead to coordinate strategic partner institutional assets and AWS internal assets to align them to specific challenges that will have maximum impact.

About the team
Inclusive Team Culture
Here at AWS, we embrace our differences. We are committed to furthering our culture of inclusion. We have ten employee-led affinity groups, reaching 40,000 employees in over 190 chapters globally. We have innovative benefit offerings, and we host annual and ongoing learning experiences, including our Conversations on Race and Ethnicity (CORE) and AmazeCon (gender diversity) conferences. Amazon’s culture of inclusion is reinforced within our 16 Leadership Principles, which remind team members to seek diverse perspectives, learn and be curious, and earn trust.

Work/Life Balance
Our team also puts a high value on work-life balance. Striking a healthy balance between your personal and professional life is crucial to your happiness and success here, which is why we aren’t focused on how many hours you spend at work or online. Instead, we’re happy to offer a flexible schedule so you can have a more productive and well-balanced lifeboth in and outside of work.

Mentorship and Career Growth
Our team is dedicated to supporting new members. We have a broad mix of experience levels and tenures, and we’re building an environment that celebrates knowledge sharing and mentorship. We care about your career growth and strive to assign projects based on what will help each team member develop into a better-rounded professional and enable them to take on more complex tasks in the future.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• 5+ years of professional experience required, a significant portion of which should demonstrate success in project management, business operations, and communications.
• 3+ years of experience driving projects to completion working with aggressive timelines.
• 3+ years of experience with Agile/Scrum project management techniques.
• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent
• 2+ years of technology, digital media, and/or product management.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 2+ years of experience working in a horizontal or matrixed business.
• Certifications in project management (PMP) or Scrum (CSM, CPO) desired, not required.
• Development of brand and communication strategies.
• Background in project management, definition, and performance management.
• Demonstrated experience proactively recognizing a challenge or problem and working with a variety of teams and data sources to diagnose the problem and recommend solutions.
• Demonstrated ability to develop business reports that help an organization operate smoothly, with views that will meet the needs of other business partners (Finance, Sales, Operations, etc.).
• Capacity planning and budgetary experience.
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills.
• Meets or exceeds Amazon’s leadership principles requirements for this role.
• Meets or exceeds Amazon’s functional/technical depth and complexity.

Amazon is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, age, or other legally protected status. For individuals with disabilities who would like to request an accommodation, please visit https://www.amazon.jobs/en/disability/us.