Associate Project Manager

Job Title: Associate Project Manager

Job Location: Bangalore

ABOUT UNILEVER:

Be part of the world’s most successful, purpose-led business. Work with brands that are well-loved around the world, that improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. We promote innovation, big and small, to make our business win and grow; and we believe in business as a force for good. Unleash your curiosity, challenge ideas and disrupt processes; use your energy to make this happen. Our brilliant business leaders and colleagues provide mentorship and inspiration, so you can be at your best. Every day, nine out of ten Indian households use our products to feel good, look good and get more out of life – giving us a unique opportunity to build a brighter future.

Every individual here can bring their purpose to life through their work. Join us and you’ll be surrounded by inspiring leaders and supportive peers. Among them, you’ll channel your purpose, bring fresh ideas to the table, and simply be you. As you work to make a real impact on the business and the world, we’ll work to help you become a better you.

ABOUT UNIOPS:

Unilever Operations (UniOps) is the global technology and operations engine of Unilever offering business services, technology, and enterprise solutions. UniOps serves over 190 locations and through a network of specialized service lines and partners delivers insights and innovations, user experiences and end-to-end seamless delivery making Unilever Purpose Led and Future Fit.

Main Job Purpose:

    Innovation PMO is part of Global Marketing services and its main objectives are aligned   

    with Unilever 2030 GAP strategy.

 Innovation PMO’s mission statement is “We are the go to team for facilitating excellent project delivery in innovation.  Our people, processes, tools and systems provide the expertise to challenge timelines in order to accelerate plans or combat delays, putting the appropriate risk profile in place.  Our support enables decision making to happen at the right time, with the right information, always ensuring we are aligned with Unilever’s vision and objectives”.

Innovation PMO is a specialist department responsible for providing professional project management to complex innovation projects to ensure quality and improve reliability of on time delivery.  As part of a service function, our PMs are always looking to add value to innovation projects, assessing the best approach and ways of working to suit and enhance the cross functional teams they support.  This role is varied and challenging and will need someone who can adapt and flex their approach to set themselves and their project teams up for success. 

As an Innovation Project Manager, you will be responsible for the planning, governance and facilitation of global innovation projects (you will be supporting 4-5 complex projects on a rolling basis). You are expected to drive ways of working with cross functional specialists to achieve better, faster and more efficient innovation project delivery, utilising digital tools where possible. You will use and demonstrate your existing NPD and Unilever process knowledge to ensure that these projects land OTIF.

Key Accountabilities:

(Please describe the responsibilities and end results that would be expected.)

• Innovation Project PMO Support Kick Off & Overall Direction – Ensure project objective and the ‘how’ to deliver is clear and understood by the entire project team.  Facilitate in the definition of project goals, objectives, scope, milestones and deliverables. Define project tasks and resource requirements with a marketer and the rest of a x-functional team. 

• Scope & Change Control – Ensure completeness and alignment of full scope with project teams, and manage / reduce unnecessary scope creep via change control measures.

• Project Governance & Meetings - Establish WOW’s for the project team including meeting cadence, documentation, communication, roles and responsibilities.  Coach the cross functional project team on best practice project management.  For allocated projects, collate agendas, facilitate meetings, distribute minutes and track actions.  Ensure to drive discussions, ask impartial questions, anticipate and highlight potential impacts.

• Stakeholder Engagement & Decision Making - Identify and ensure appropriate engagement with stakeholders who have an interest or influence over the project.  Ensure engagement with regional and local representatives at key stages of the project.  Support decision making forums through preparation of materials and overall messages for decision moments for Investor Boards (IB), or for key stages in the project to engage with stakeholders. Co-present with a marketer at the IB.

• Network Creation & Management – Support the project team with scenario planning based on the outlined objectives of the project, identifying acceleration opportunities and applying SPEEDO principles where possible.  Accountable for creating and baselining the project network, ensuring it is regularly reviewed with the project team and highlighting areas for focus throughout.  Manage the network through using UPM tools and systems, ensuring the delivery of projects to specified timelines.  Critical path analysis will be a regular requirement as well as identifying and suggesting areas to accelerate.

• Risks, Issue & Interdependency Management - Ensure project risks are assessed, managed and mitigated with the appropriate level of stakeholder engagement.  Lead cross-functional risk workshops and ensure ongoing management of mitigation the plan. Support project teams with issue management and resolution, understanding appropriate escalation channels.  Actively manage interdependencies through highlighting them to the project team and ensuring links are established with other projects to gain clarity on any potential impacts.

• Reporting & Tracking - Track project deliverables using appropriate tools and reporting processes.  Ensure Unilever standard project management systems are used to plan, monitor and review project execution with the relevant KPI’s.  Capture and communicate lessons learned on innovation projects

• Supporting Team Lead:

• Identify improvement areas and discuss with Team Lead for further development and implementation

• Analyse team survey feedback (quarterly), discuss with Team Lead, define action plan for team members to close any gaps

• Track main internal and external metrics and KPIs

• Help prepare regular stakeholder reports and presentations

• Be a representative and advocate of the Innovation PMO team

Professional Skills:

• Must have a strong knowledge and understanding of innovation and NPD (min 7 years of experience

• Proven experience in managing innovation projects to achieve successful project outcomes

• Proven knowledge and experience of stage gate and project delivery within fast paced business Project Management: External certification (e.g. IPMA, APM, PMI, Prince2)

• Advanced MSP user

• Strong relationship building and interpersonal skills, experience in coaching/mentoring teams and individuals (directly or indirectly)

• Effective communicator at all levels, with the ability to impact and influence.

• Good presentation skills are required, plus the ability to conduct effective meetings and presentations with large teams.

• Able to demonstrate good capability in problem solving, decision making and making sound judgement in time pressured situations

• Holding project teams accountable for delivering against plan, being assertive but not aggressive.

• Experience in managing and mitigating risks and issues

• Ability to think strategically beyond the role to support the development of the Innovation PMO team

• Effectively lead and influence change management

• Professional and positive approach – a can-do attitude with a willingness to go the extra mile when required.  Dynamic, self-motivated and self sufficient

• Ability to cope with pressure and ability to flex and adapt ways of working to suit the needs of others

Experience Required:

• A solid understanding of innovation / NPD Processes is essential

• At least 7 years of Innovation Project Management experience

• Has been part of supply chain, manufacturing, R&D, with proven experience in supporting innovation projects

Travel:

As per job requirements (no international travel)