About Us:

Think Small, Minnesota’s leader in early learning, is dedicated to advancing early childhood care and education. We have worked for 50 years to support the full potential for every child and have committed to championing policies and practices of equity that empower a just, inclusive and equitable care and education system for children in their crucial early years. The quality of a child's early experiences greatly influences his or her success later in life and that there is much that can be done to improve the quality of early childhood settings to optimize a child's development.



Position Overview:

The Staff Leader of Technical Project Management at Think Small will work at the intersection of Technology, Operations, Marketing, and project management. This position will manage the day-to-day experience for staff and customers across Think Small’s technical platforms, including overseeing technical project plans, operation tools (e.g., Teams, SharePoint), customer-facing tools (e.g. platform functionality and performance), and vendor relationships. In addition, this role will work with departments to identify inefficiencies, gaps, or incompatibilities in processes that can be solved with technology. This is a highly visible role where strong communication, relationship building, and leadership skills will be key components to success. This role will improve the technical experience for our employees to enable them to reach their potential and ensure our customers continue to love their interactions with Think Small – in-person or online. 

 

Essential Job Functions

  • Manage a detailed project schedule and work plan for large-scale technical projects as determined 
  • End to end responsibility for project management life cycle for technical projects including:
    • Project initiation, planning, budgeting, resource planning, scope management, dependency management, risk management and ongoing communication 
  • Lead communication efforts with internal stakeholders, ensuring timely updates on project health, strategy, and adjustments to key stakeholders 
  • Maintain comprehensive project documentation including spreadsheets, diagrams and process maps to document needs and progress 
  • Partner with stakeholders to ensure project objectives, success criteria, scope, requirements and requested by dates are defined and delivered upon
  • Research and evaluate hardware and software technology options in partnership with IT recommending solutions that best fit Think Small’s needs
  • Manage and maintain process/technology projects required to support our Operations/HR strategy and enhancing the staff experience at Think Small from onboarding to offboarding
  • Participate in continuous improvement efforts throughout the organization in enhancing performance and providing increased functionality through technology
  • Ensure success of customer-facing large-scale digital events through technical support when required
  • Create and maintain technical documentation related to tools managed by Data and IS team, including 3rd party vendor support process
  • Establish a governance process assessing project-specific technical vendors, including a standardized vendor scorecard, and vendor threats/risks
  • Build and manage strong relationships with technical 3rd party vendors, and support and track negotiations
  • Responsible for keeping track of support budget hours used for 3rd party vendors and alerting budget owner when we are at risk
  • KPI related to OfficeVibe questions surrounding technology access and use, 1password staff use reporting, and technical vendor management
  • Perform all job duties to department expectations and standards 
  • Collaboration with staff and external partners 
  • Timely, engaged participation in meetings and response to communications 
  • Competency in required technical programs and willingness to learn technologies, project management processes, software etc. as needed 
  • Stay current on valid certifications as required 
  • Ensure all technical solutions prioritize user accessibility  
  • Bring forward ideas and new ways of approaching problems with technology without being prompted 
  • Work effectively in a changing, rapidly growing environment 
  • Support ad-hoc requests as needed that relate to role expectations 
  • Ability to be on-call to support technical outages as assigned, not to exceed more than 130 working days 

Requirements:

  • 3+ years of relevant experience
  • Project management skills - must be able to own and drive multiple projects simultaneously and coordinate cross-functionality within the organization
  • Excellent leadership and communication skills
  • Exceptional attention to detail, accuracy; ability to deliver by deadlines
  • Extraordinary business insight with analytical and critical thinking skills
  • Ability to navigate multiple priorities and flex in ambiguous situations
  • Experience managing vendors

 

Benefits:

  • Hybrid work schedule with a mix of on-site and remote days. (Must live in Twin Cities area.)
  • Comprehensive benefits package includes medical, dental, short- and long-term disability, life, vision, pet, critical illness, and long-term care insurance.
  • Medical and dependent care flex spending accounts, Health Savings Account (HSA), legal and ID protection plans.
  • Pre-tax and ROTH 401k with employer match.
  • Generous paid time off: 23 days of sick/vacation time earned the first year, eight scheduled holidays, and five floating holidays.
  • Six weeks paid parental leave.

 

Salary Range: $55,000-62,000

Salary is dependent on qualifications

 

Join us in our mission to make a difference in the community and the lives of young children. If you have a passion and desire to drive organizational success, we encourage you to apply.

 

Think Small is an Equal Opportunity Employer.