About the Role:

This is a hybrid role, in function and in location.

Functionally, it is a hybrid role between a traditional PM and a ScrumMaster (though we use a kanban flow process; not formal Scrum). Bring your Gantt chart and PowerPoint skills, to be sure, but also bring your blitz planning, work breakdown, effort-based estimation, retro facilitation, and agile coaching skills to the table.

Speaking of the table, it’s an actual table, with people co-located in our downtown Milwaukee office. Some of us work remotely up to 2 days/week; you can expect hybrid in terms of location, and we are building mostly an in-person culture.

This Senior IT Project Manager (PM) role is within IT Operations—not a traditional software delivery organization. You can help with the agile transformation of our Cloud Platform Engineering team. This is an embedded PM role designed to round out a well-formed team in alignment with key agile principles. The PM will work closely with cross-functional team members and delivery stakeholders to ensure operational excellence, agile maturity, and stakeholder engagement.

The Impact You'll Make:

Team Leadership and Agile Coaching

• Support and evolve the agile transformation journey of the Azure platform engineering team.
• Influence without authority and earn the respect & trust of peers to effectively lead the team.
• Demonstrate knowledge of agile team dynamics and common agile rituals
• Facilitate continuous improvement by inspecting and adapting agile practices to suit the IT Operations environment.
• Promote continuous improvement and team growth.

Work Intake, Planning, and Organizing

• Define and refine lightweight processes for intake, triage, analysis, and planning of work requests from delivery teams, internal improvements, and routine maintenance requests.
• Partner with key stakeholders to understand backlogs and create realistic roadmaps.
• Lead initiation and planning of initiatives with varying complexity and ambiguity.
• Build trust and collaboration across cross-functional teams and stakeholders.

Stakeholder Management

• Serve as a key liaison between the cloud platform engineering team and its customers (software delivery teams).
• Facilitate monthly Azure Steering Committee meetings with IT senior leadership.
• Communicate effectively across all levels of the organization, ensuring transparency and alignment.
• Provide timely updates and facilitate meetings with clear agendas and outcomes.
• Help develop systems to promote the Azure platform in a meaningful way to our delivery team customers.

Navigating Complexity

• Navigate organizational dynamics to escalate issues and drive decisions.
• Identify and mitigate risks and issues to ensure successful delivery.
• Foster relationships across key IT Operations teams
• Leverage cross-team relationships to resolve dependencies and remove roadblocks

What you'll Bring to Baird:

• Participate in the Project Manager Community of Practice (PMCoP).
• Develop domain knowledge relevant to Azure platform delivery and IT Operations.
• Pursue professional development and share learnings with peers.

• Deep understanding of agile principles and a passion for bringing them to life.
• Strong organizational, time management, and problem-solving skills.
• Passion for systems thinking and team dynamics.
• Confidence tempered with humility.
• Experience organizing work and analyzing data from Azure DevOps Boards is a plus.
• Prior IT Operations or Enterprise experience is a plus

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Baird is committed to diversity and provides employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, citizenship, national origin, age, disability, military service, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, or any other status protected by law.