Project Manager - United Concordia Dental

Company :United Concordia DentalJob Description :
JOB SUMMARY
**Due to Department of Defense (DOD) contract requirements, the incumbent who fills this position must be a US citizen, and must also pass a background check**
ROLE PURPOSE Lead complex initiatives from definition through transition by creating delivery clarity, coordinating cross-functional execution, maintaining reliable evidence, and enabling timely sponsor decisions.
The Project Manager is accountable for the disciplined planning, coordination, execution, monitoring, and closure of complex initiatives. The role converts approved business objectives into an actionable delivery structure and leads cross-functional teams toward agreed scope, schedule, cost, quality, readiness, and outcome commitments.
The Project Manager partners with the project sponsor, business owner, Program Manager, Business Analysts, technology partners, operational leaders, vendors, and subject-matter experts. The role establishes and maintains the integrated project plan, facilitates productive working and governance forums, manages risks, issues, assumptions, dependencies, decisions, and changes, and provides transparent evidence of delivery health.
Within the PMO operating model, the Project Manager owns initiative-level execution. The Program Manager provides the broader portfolio context, governance connection, dependency visibility, coaching, and escalation support. The Project Manager is expected to lead proactively, surface difficult information early, frame recommended actions, and maintain momentum without substituting administration for leadership.
ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Project Definition, Planning, and Initiation
Establish a clear, realistic, and controlled foundation for delivery.
Partner with the sponsor and business owner to clarify the business need, intended outcomes, success measures, scope boundaries, assumptions, constraints, and acceptance expectations.
Develop and maintain fit-for-purpose project charters, integrated plans, schedules, milestone maps, resource needs, and delivery assumptions.
Confirm roles, responsibilities, decision rights, governance forums, escalation paths, and working agreements.
Identify internal and external dependencies and incorporate them into planning, sequencing, and commitments.
Align the delivery approach and level of control to initiative complexity, risk, regulatory exposure, and business need.
Execution and Integrated Delivery Management
Lead day-to-day delivery with structure, urgency, and accountability.
Coordinate cross-functional execution across business, technology, operations, clinical, regulatory, finance, data, vendors, and other delivery partners as applicable.
Facilitate working sessions and project meetings with clear purpose, agendas, decisions, owners, due dates, and follow-through.
Track progress against approved scope, schedule, cost, quality, readiness, and delivery commitments.
Maintain delivery momentum by resolving routine barriers, reinforcing accountability, and escalating constraints that cannot be resolved within the project team.
Validate that deliverables meet documented requirements and acceptance criteria before milestones or phase transitions are considered complete.
Coordinate implementation, stabilization, transition-to-operations, and project closure activities.
RAID, Dependencies, and Decision Management
Create early visibility and active ownership of conditions that could affect outcomes.
Identify, document, assess, and actively manage project risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies in a current RAID log.
Define owners, mitigation or resolution actions, target dates, contingency plans, and escalation thresholds.
Manage interdependencies with other initiatives, teams, vendors, platforms, and operational commitments.
Maintain a traceable decision log and ensure decisions are translated into updated plans, commitments, and communications.
Escalate material risks, issues, dependencies, and decision needs early, with clear context, impact, options, and a recommended course of action.
Distinguish facts, assumptions, emerging concerns, and confirmed impacts in project reporting and discussions.
Scope, Schedule, Financial, and Change Control
Protect the integrity of approved commitments while enabling informed adaptation.
Establish and maintain approved baselines for scope, schedule, milestones, cost, and quality as applicable.
Assess proposed changes for impact to outcomes, benefits, resources, dependencies, readiness, timing, cost, and risk.
Ensure material changes follow the appropriate review and approval path before commitments are revised.
Communicate approved changes and update project evidence, forecasts, and stakeholder expectations promptly.
Monitor project financial health and partner with accountable leaders to address variances, funding concerns, or vendor impacts.
Governance, Reporting, and Portfolio Evidence
Provide accurate, decision-useful information at the project, domain, and portfolio levels.
Produce concise and timely status reporting that reflects actual delivery health, accomplishments, upcoming milestones, risks, issues, dependencies, decisions, changes, and support needed.
Prepare sponsors and governance bodies for decisions by framing implications, options, recommendations, and requested action.
Provide the Program Manager with current delivery evidence, dependencies, decisions, capacity concerns, and portfolio implications.
Participate in domain or portfolio governance when project impact, escalation, or a leadership decision requires it.
Maintain project artifacts as current working controls rather than static documents created only for compliance.
Adhere to applicable project lifecycle, governance, audit, documentation, and records-management requirements.
Stakeholder and Sponsor Leadership
Build shared understanding, timely decisions, and sustained accountability.
Develop and maintain a stakeholder and communication approach appropriate to the initiative.
Build productive relationships with sponsors, business owners, team members, delivery partners, and vendors.
Clarify stakeholder responsibilities, decision expectations, readiness obligations, and acceptance criteria.
Communicate clearly, concisely, and at the appropriate level for executives, governance groups, and delivery teams.
Use active listening, confirm shared understanding, surface difficult information constructively, and close the loop following decisions or changes.
Influence outcomes and resolve conflict professionally without relying on positional authority.
Change Readiness, Adoption, and Benefits Support
Connect technical or project completion to operational readiness and intended value.
Identify stakeholder, process, technology, policy, operational, clinical, contractual, and support impacts as applicable.
Integrate readiness, communications, training, adoption, acceptance, stabilization, and transition activities into the project plan.
Confirm accountable owners for operational readiness, sustained adoption, and post-delivery outcome measurement.
Track readiness criteria separately from task completion and escalate unresolved ownership, adoption risk, or acceptance gaps before implementation.
Connect project deliverables and acceptance criteria to intended outcomes and preserve evidence of changes that may affect the benefit case.
Ensure the transition from project delivery to business outcome ownership is explicit at closure.
Team Leadership and Continuous Improvement
Create an organized, collaborative, and accountable delivery environment.
Set clear expectations for team members and reinforce ownership of commitments, deliverables, decisions, and follow-up actions.
Promote collaboration, inclusion, transparency, and professional conduct across matrixed teams.
Adapt leadership and delivery practices to project complexity, team needs, and changing conditions.
Apply structured problem-solving and facilitate timely resolution of conflict or ambiguity.
Capture lessons learned and contribute reusable practices, templates, and improvements to PMO delivery standards.
Use approved collaboration and portfolio tools to maintain transparent, accessible, and reliable project information.
Perform other duties as assigned or requested.
EDUCATION
Minimum
High School Diploma/GED
Preferred
Bachelor’s degree in business, technology, healthcare administration, operations, project management, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
Advanced education or professional development in project management, business, technology, healthcare administration, change management, or a related discipline.
EXPERIENCE
Minimum
**Due to Department of Defense (DOD) contract requirements, the incumbent who fills this position must be a US citizen, and must also pass a background check**
1 - 3 years experience in a project manager role and/or in a project leadership role