IT Project Coordinator

Portland State University (PSU) is a thriving campus of 27,000 students in downtown Portland, easily accessible by bike and public transit and surrounded by many restaurants, food carts, parks, and local businesses. PSU is committed to offering opportunity to students from a variety of backgrounds, and prides itself on providing access for low-income and nontraditional students. Our motto to “let knowledge serve the city” reflects our dedication to finding innovative, sustainable solutions to local and global problems. Our location in the heart of one of America’s most dynamic cities gives our students unmatched access to career connections and an internationally acclaimed culture scene. 

PSU’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) empowers students, faculty, and staff through technology, and has been ranked on the Computerworld Best Places to Work in IT in the nation for three years running. Our number one value is our employees: we support a culture of inclusion, actively encourage a healthy work-life balance, and strive to support our employees professionally and personally. PSU offers an impressive tuition discount and we encourage our staff to take advantage of this, be it for pursuing a degree or personal interest. We are a department of dynamic, engaged, collaborative, and communicative people, and seek to attract more of the same. Read more about why we’re a great place to work at https://www.pdx.edu/oit/employment 

This position is housed within Enterprise Solutions (ES) which supports the university’s enterprise administrative systems, such as Banner, DataMASTER, Talisma, and OnBase. Services include: custom application development, project management, business intelligence, reports, data integration, and data management. 

As an OIT Project Coordinator, you are accountable for the success of projects under your supervision with the guidance of the Project Management Office. You will plan, execute, and deliver your projects on time and within scope in accordance with business priorities. Throughout the lifecycle of each project, you’ll lead meetings, track project tasks, communicate project status, and manage project teams. Typical projects may include network expansions, system upgrades or major enhancements, new system implementations, system integrations, and software migrations.

A day in your life as Project Coordinator:

In the morning, review your meetings for the day to ensure no key attendees have declined due to illness or last minute conflicts. Reschedule these meetings if needed. Ensure every meeting you will be leading that day has attached meeting notes with an agenda that has an appropriate amount of content for the time allotted. Throughout the day, you likely will lead 4-5 meetings, each for a different project. Each project team, scope, and timeline will differ. When leading meetings, you are expected to facilitate the discussion while taking notes that are projected on a screen for the entire project team to see and contribute to in Google Drive. You will record the general discussion, any major decisions, and the agreed upon next steps. In your time between meetings, you will create project documentation (ex. meeting agendas, project charters, timelines, communication plans, etc.), follow-up with project team members on outstanding tasks, remove blockers by getting information or resources that project team members need to continue their work, schedule additional meetings, and respond to emails. Other days may involve facilitating or assisting in Business Process Analysis (BPA) sessions, providing project coordination guidance to other OIT resources, or administering Jira. At the end of the day, you will look at your days ahead to ensure you are prepared for what they may bring!

Summary of Position Duties:

• Project Implementation (40%): You’ll be coordinating projects and their activities, which can include: lead meetings, prepare reports and documentation, identify issues, facilitate communication, incorporate changes into the project plans, and generally keep your assigned projects on track and supported so they can be successful.

• Project Planning and Business Process Analysis (30%): You’ll develop project charters and participate in or lead Business Process Analysis (BPA) sessions.

• Project Management Office Duties (20%): As part of the PMO, you’ll coordinate lessons learned sessions, record best practices, assist OIT staff with project guidance, maintain the PMO website, and be involved with Jira software administration and project portfolio monitoring.

• Other Duties as Assigned (10%): Always new things to learn and do!

Skills and Requirements

At minimum, you will have the following experience and qualifications:

- Proven experience facilitating multiple projects at one time

- Excellent facilitation, collaboration, and presentation skills

- Strong communication skills including both oral and written

- Demonstrated proficiency with a business organizational software suite such as Google Apps 

- Must be comfortable using technology to manage meetings and organize information

- Successful completion of background check

Additionally, as a successful candidate, you will have some or many of the following preferred qualifications:

- Higher education experience

- Google Apps, Jira, or Confluence experience

- Business Process Analysis experience

- Must be comfortable with ambiguity, frequent change, or unpredictability

- Bachelor’s degree

- Demonstrate OIT’s Key Attributes for Success:

- - - Coaching: you appropriately give, accept, and incorporate feedback from or to others. 

- - - Communication: you exchange information and ideas well, verbally and in writing; communication is an essential tool for productivity and strong working relationships in OIT.

- - - Emotional Intelligence: you possess the capacity to be aware of, manage, and express your emotions; you handle interpersonal relationships with empathy and safety, enabling diverse types of people to work together.

- - - Proactive: you recognize and initiate opportunities to take action to prevent potential problems or mitigate risks.

- - - Team Player: you identify with the larger organizational team and your role within it; you share resources, respond to requests, and support our organizational strategy.

Key Cultural Competencies

- Creates an environment that acknowledges, encourages and celebrates differences.

- Functions and communicates effectively and respectfully within the context of varying beliefs, behaviors, orientations, identities and cultural backgrounds.

- Seeks opportunities to gain experience working and collaborating in diverse, multicultural, and inclusive settings with a willingness to change for continual improvement. 

- Adheres to all PSU policies including the policies on Prohibited Discrimination & Harassment and the Professional Standards of Conduct.

The starting annual salary rate for this position will be between $22.12 and $25.96/hr with an excellent benefits package including 95% employer paid premiums (employees and eligible dependents) and significantly reduced tuition rates for employee and eligible dependents at any of the Oregon Public Universities. After completing six full months employees are eligible to choose between our two employer paid pension programs in addition to two voluntary retirement programs. Wellness options include access to the PSU rec center at a reduced rate and free wellness programs. For a comprehensive view of all PSU benefits, visit the PSU Total Compensation Calculator page (https://www.pdx.edu/hr/psu-total-compensation-calculator).