Project Manager

Job Description
Work with our awesome team

RKS has been at the forefront of Innovation in the United States for the last 42 years. We are considered one of the top firms globally for product design, engineering, and development service, as well as digital design and engineering, and experience design. Our work brings innovation that enhances everyday lives, from sporting goods to dental devices, to wearables to household appliances, and global and local NGOs.

Our mission is simple: To elevate the human experience, and to improve the quality of life for humans worldwide.

The key to our success is our collaborative and creative environment. Our diverse team is lead by some of the most celebrated and senior professionals in our industry. We work on all projects as a tight-knit team, drawing on each other's strengths, capabilities, and good humor. Our office is a state-of-the art solar-powered design studio.

We are looking for a dynamic and engaging project coordinator. In this role you manage multi-disciplinary projects of varying sizes, establish rapport with both our team and our clients, and create a track record of successful delivery. This position plays a multi-faceted role: first and foremost, you are responsible for all aspects of the project life cycle: diagnosing client needs, managing program teams, and leveraging the knowledge and creativity of colleagues to generate robust solutions to client business challenges.

You will use a variety of project management tools to inspire, coordinate, and manage the daily activities of your project teams. You will participate in weekly planning meetings to support resource leveling. You will guide the integration of work by our execution team - cultivating collaboration, balancing trade-offs, and helping ensure that we create meaningful solutions to product design challenges.

This is a hybrid position, for our Thousand Oaks office.

You can find more about RKS: rksdesign.com

In this role, you will:

Build Trust

• Build trust with clients, managing their expectations with confidence and professionalism
• Build trust with RKS senior leadership, assisting them with project tracking and proactively identifying changes to project scope before they happen

Communicate Proactively

• Proactively and clearly communicates status, risks, and issues internally and with clients
• Identify potential change of scope issues as they arise and communicate them to the team, account management, and the client
• Regularly review project budget status and request resources to complete project work as necessary
• Oversee and support the planning/preparation of presentation materials, in cooperation with Technical Lead and other team members

Organize Program Documentation

• Maintain program documentation related to deliverables, schedule, and budget
• Maintain responsibility for project data setup accuracy and organization for internal project management database and server

Coordinate Program Budgets and Deliverables

• Manage schedules of internal and external support.
• Document all decisions, meeting minutes, and action items tracking
• Work with Technical Leads to define product requirements and track adherence to requirements
• Work with Technical Leads to ensure deliverables are met per client expectations and proposals
• Report on program budgets of varying sizes to ensure efficient use of team members' time
• Assist in the creation of proposals and budgets for industrial design, engineering, and software projects

Management

• Manage schedules of internal and external support
• Keeping track of employee performance to be used for performance review
• Redirect efforts on an ongoing basis as necessary as required to create project timelines, budgets, and deliverables

Requirements

Key Requirements

• Strong organizational, written, and verbal communication skills, coupled with responsiveness and follow-through on details
• Experience with implementing project management tools, methodologies, and best practices
• Ability to develop strong relationships and enable cohesiveness across diverse individual skills and styles Training or experience with more than one of these disciplines in consumer, commercial, or medical projects: strategy, research, human factors, industrial and interaction design, mechanical and electrical engineering, and/or software/firmware development
• Well-versed and knowledgeable about Zoho/Salesforce, MS Excel, MS Project, and internal project management systems
• Familiarity with and/or interest in consulting environments and how they work
• Work Authorization: Located and authorized to work in the United States. We are unable to offer visa sponsorship at this time

Preferred Requirements

• Preferred but not required: 2+ years in consulting, agency or industry-related experience managing teams of cross discipline resources with complex, multi-location programs
• BA preferred, but not a required
• MBA a plus, but not required
• Experience managing large front-end and back-end software (app, mobile and/or embedded software) development projects

Other Qualifications

• You love what we do! You have a true passion for project management and human-centered product design. You want to be deeply
• immersed in the product development process and are willing to educate yourself as needed to truly understand the nature of client work. You like to explore new territories and learn from others
• You cultivate and thrive in collaborative environments. You have interest and/or experience in inspiring, empowering, and guiding interdisciplinary teams of researchers, strategists, designers, and engineers
• You are familiar with how to plan and maintain client projects from start to finish. You are happy to adjust work plans ad budgets as needed, depending on project process
• You are committed to high standards of workmanship. You are self-motivated and can work independently with little oversight
• You are an excellent communicator with exemplary writing, presentation, and interpersonal skills - all needed for interaction with clients, participants, and internal teams
• You are comfortable with ambiguity and complexity, because sometimes that leads to the most unique, unexpected design solutions

Benefits

• Health Benefits
• Sick Time
• Vacation Time
• 401k Plan