Upbound Group

JOB PURPOSE:  Under the direction of the Senior Director, Portfolio Management and Implementation, the Strategic Initiatives Manager is responsible for leading multiple strategic projects with corporate wide impact, which may be comprised of several work-streams across Rent-A-Center departments or business units. The Strategic Initiatives Manager will work closely with designated groups, senior corporate leadership, core business sponsors and initiative team members to manage all phases of assigned tasks.  

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Spearhead multiple, concurrent and varied strategic initiatives from design to implementation by driving the planning and delivery for all projects within a program, including compiling and managing the master program schedule and all requirements. Develop full-scale project plans, define project tasks and resource requirements; assemble and build out implementation team and coordinate implementations from both the business and IT perspective.
• Support initiatives by identifying and managing project dependencies and critical path, ensuring that new initiatives launch successfully.
• Identify risks and issues early in order to help generate a balanced solution that is in the best interest of all teams involved and keep initiatives on schedule without compromising quality.
• Work closely with faced-paced and highly skilled technology engineering and business operations teams to support rollout of the technology.
• Work on projects to deliver reporting of key business metrics for various stakeholder.
• Effectively communicate project expectations and updates to team members and stakeholders in a timely and clear fashion.
• Continually keep a focus on project constraints and needs. Maintain preparedness to justify needs including a forward focus on upcoming resource requirements.
• Work closely with the Project Leads and Budgeting and Finance team to ensure financial objectives and expectations, as well as Key Performance Indicators are aligned with each project’s capabilities. Compile and report status, including escalated risks and issues to the Strategic Initiatives team through weekly updates and meetings.
• Establish, build and maintain solid business partner relationships within Rent-A-Center.

JOB REQUIREMENTS:

• Detail-oriented with strong interpersonal/communication skills.
• Experience with managing competing priorities and leading multiple projects concurrently.
• Ability to demonstrate flexibility in a project environment with aggressive deadlines in each phase that requires multi-tasking and making important decisions.
• Capable of working independently with limited direction, as well as part of a cross-functional team. Must be innovative, self-motivated, and able to manage their work resourcefully.
• Ability to work effectively influence and create alignment across multiple functional areas to drive change in accordance with corporate objectives.
• Strong knowledge of Product, Project and Program Management methodologies preferred.
• Strong business acumen with advanced knowledge of Retail principles.
• Possess expert analytical and problem-solving skills. A skilled negotiator who can craft a win/win solution for complex issues.
• Minimum of 5 years leading IT projects ($2M or above, with 10+ team members) and experience with Agile and Waterfall projects.
• Minimum of 5 years related Product Management, Program or Project Management experience required.
• Bachelor’s degree and master’s degree or equivalent experience preferred.
• Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) highly desired.
• Experienced and skilled user of office productivity tools such as Project, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Jira, and Visio.
• MUST be able to work IN OFFICE (Monday through Friday)

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