Consultant - Technical Product Manager 

Location:

Bellevue, WA

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Ascend ConsultingTM is looking for innovative and experienced Technical Product Managers to work with our clients’ Technology Teams.

Overview: The Technical Product Manager is responsible for successfully managing delivery of prioritized product units from concept through assessment, requirements, build, and launch phases. Must be competent with customer focus, change / innovation, strategic thinking, relationship building / influence, IT solutions delivery, results focus, and inspirational leadership.

This position is accountable for the following outcomes:

• All technical components of the product are delivered successfully, on time, and meet scope and budget requirements (i.e. meet or exceed its technical success criteria).

• Client product meets or exceeds expected business outcomes and results as defined in detail once the prioritized product concept is handed off to the Team. In most cases this will mean one or more specific business measures (revenue, incremental revenue, net income, reduced cost per unit, increased customer satisfaction, etc.)

• As a result of your contributions, the client finds improvements to make in their team, process, methodology, execution (their business), internal department or client org relationships, and individual or team performance.

• Strong, positive, long-term relationships develop and strengthen among client project team, client personnel, and your teammates at Ascend Consulting™. The majority of colleagues would answer “I would gladly work with that person again” if asked.

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Role & Responsibilities

Our specific consulting roles vary by client. Typical roles & responsibilities include the following:

• Specifically define project / program success measures and expected outcomes and develop a structured approach to meet or exceed them. Communicate expected outcomes to project / program / Agile teams.

• Lead planning, execution, and delivery of projects across multiple teams (i.e. break down complex business requirements into manageable solutions; write functional specifications and / or backlog items; create system design; solve complex technical problems; interface with multiple teams; and deliver solutions in a successful, Agile, and timely manner).

• Lead large organizational meetings involving business and technical resources, including third party vendors.

• Determine project governance, decision-making structure, and communications plan. Establish reporting cadence as appropriate for team, stakeholder, and executive team. This should include consolidated executive summary status (likely weekly), project team status, and ad hoc status.

• Coordinate activities of various managers and technical personnel during all project phases, from initial development through implementation.

• Analyze end to end execution such that you are acutely aware of “critical path” activities and can quickly resolve or escalate problems as appropriate.

• Develop and maintain a detailed and accurate log of project risks, actions, issues, and decisions.

• Monitor project progress continuously and make detailed scheduled reports on measurable items, such as milestones and deliverables. This includes identifying any immediate or future potential roadblocks or issues and taking swift, effective action to clear, mitigate, or prevent roadblocks or issues.

• Communicate proactively with all involved personnel to provide encouragement, identify problems, create solutions, and implement efficiency improvements.

• Review solution documentation from all parties to ensure completeness of the solution and that it will meet project / program / product outcomes.

• Review proposed project changes, assess impacts, and meet with impacted parties to approve and implement changes.

• Influence operational and executive leadership within the product's business area to create and maintain alignment around the product business objectives, measurable benefits, success criteria, scope, and constraints impacting product delivery. Negotiate across multiple functions to resolve any conflicts and competing priorities. 

• Track, assess, and (if applicable) adjust resource allocations with project teams.

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Skills & Attributes:

• Self-starter.

• Comfortable digging into and learning technical aspects of the project (‘get your hands dirty’) to help ensure team maintains an end to end view of work being delivered and ensure expected outcomes always remain intact.

• Ability to define customer-focused scenarios, systems, and integrations; author detailed technical specifications and backlog items; and work with partner teams to ensure that functional scenarios are delivered end-to-end.

• Traditional project management and Agile project experience, and the ability to apply both appropriately to drive project success.

• Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to work with / influence team members (or even across departmental boundaries) to solve issues jointly.

• Strong analytical, planning, and organizational skills, with an ability to manage competing demands.

• Expertise in oral and written communications, and experience interacting with both business and IT resources at all levels including the executive level.

• Ability to collaborate, openly communicate, present, and negotiate effectively across disciplines, vendors, partners, and customers.

• Ability to drive work forward and achieve outcomes with (or in spite of) large amounts of ambiguity.

• High attention to detail.

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Qualifications - Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in software engineering, computer science, or related field; or equivalent work experience.

• 7+ years’ experience as a technical product manager, product owner, or project manager in a large company.

• 5+ years of Agile project management experience.

• Minimum 3 years’ management experience in the IT / technology field, including development work and interactions with customers.

• Ability to work permanently in the U.S. on a full-time basis.

• Must be in the Seattle area; with ability to work on client site 100% of time.

• Proven ability to lead technology teams in complex environments.

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Qualifications - Preferred:

• 4+ years’ experience in formal consulting company and engagements.

• Experience writing code in larger, enterprise systems environment.

• Certified in Agile, Scrum, and / or SAFe.

• Experience working with both business (internal customer) and technical delivery teams.

Consultant - Product Owner/Manager 

Location:

Bellevue, WA

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Ascend ConsultingTM is looking for an innovative and experienced Product Owner to join our consulting team and serve our clients’ Salesforce development needs.   

Overview: The Product Owner will join an Agile Scrum team in a scaled Agile environment as the customer proxy who works with their Agile team, Product Management, and other stakeholders—including other Product Owners—to define and prioritize stories in the team’s backlog. This role has significant relationships and responsibilities outside the Agile Scrum team, including working with Product Management (responsible for the overall product backlog) and preparing for Big Room / Program Increment (PI) Planning.

Role & Responsibilities:

• ​Primary responsibility: build, edit, and maintain the Agile team backlog at sprint / iteration level. In most cases this means refining a named feature into vertically stacked sprint-addressable user stories.

• Write, update, and maintain user stories for an Agile team backlog with input from internal customer representatives, System Architecture / Engineering, and other stakeholders, adhering to principles of the INVEST user story model.

• Review and reprioritize the backlog in preparation for Iteration (Sprint) Planning, including coordination of dependencies with other Product Owners.

• Collaborate with the team to detail stories with acceptance criteria and acceptance tests.

• Provide clarifications as necessary to help the team estimate user stories.

• Sequences user stories, with input from the team.

• Review and accept stories as done.

• Contribute to product backlog refinement and preparation for Big Room / Program Increment planning. Play a significant role in PI Planning events.

• Draft the team’s specific objectives for Big Room / Program Increment planning meetings.

• Where appropriate, drive the team’s part of the PI System Demo for program and Value Stream stakeholders.

• Work across teams to define and implement improvement stories that will increase the velocity and quality of the program.

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Qualifications - Required:

• Competency in customer focus, change & innovation, strategic thinking, relationship building and influence, talent management, results focus, and inspirational leadership.

• 5+ years’ experience in software / hardware, web, telecommunications, consumer electronics, or consumer packaged goods, with a focus on product management, product development, or marketing.

• 5+ years’ experience as a technical product management, product owner, or project manager in a large company.

• 5+ years of Agile project experience.

• Ability to assess and implement effective, focused, integrated product development plans.

• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to convey business and technical concepts to subject matter experts and non-technical professionals. Ability to present compelling business cases to stakeholders.

• Experience defining and executing go-to-market strategies.

• Understanding of financial drivers, experience managing return on investment objectives. Ability to create forecasts, financial models, and budgets.

• Ability to influence, lead, and coach cross-functional teams and champion new concepts and ideas.

• Broad understanding of program management concepts and tools, including technical, process innovation, product management, financial, and operations functions.

• Ability to work permanently in the U.S. on a full-time basis.

• Must be in the Seattle area with ability to work on client site 100% of time.

• Proven ability to lead technology teams in complex environments.

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Qualifications - Preferred:

• 4+ years’ experience in formal consulting engagements.

• Experience working with both business (internal customer) and technical delivery teams.

• Agile, Scrum, or SAFe Product Owner certification.

• Strong understanding of voice and data services and products.

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Consultant - Scrum Master Product Management

Location:

Bellevue, WA

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Ascend ConsultingTM is looking for innovative and experienced Scrum Masters to work with our clients’ technology teams.

Overview: Excellent candidates collaborate, continually improve, and work well in a rapidly growing, vibrant workplace. You will be a servant leader supporting a recent switch to Agile development, which our clients are adopting to better deliver their products and systems. You will use your expertise in Scrum to guide them as they adopt, implement, and sustain Agile processes, principles, and practices across the team.

As an Agile/Scrum expert, you will:

• Lead and manage complex enterprise-level projects consisting of multiple Agile teams.

• In a consultative role, help put in place the appropriate people, process, and tools, coaching team members as needed to optimize efficiency of the project team.

• Plan an appropriate Agile implementation by blending traditional project management principles and practices with an Agile development approach in the right proportions to fit large, complex, mission-critical, enterprise-level projects.

• Execute in partnership with multiple Scrum teams and product owners. During the Design, Build, Test, and Deploy phases of the project, lead Scrum team in execution. 

• Apply your knowledge of SDLC and SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) to promote Lean software and systems engineering.

As a Product Manager, your responsibilities include:

• Project Planning and Management:

  • Define project scope and schedule while focusing on regular and timely delivery of value.

  • Organize and lead project status and working meetings.

  • Prepare and distribute progress reports.

  • Manage risks and issues.

  • Correct deviations from plans.

  • Perform delivery planning for assigned projects.

  • Assess project health and direct any necessary corrective measures.

• Team Management:

  • Establish project roles and responsibilities and provides team members with clear direction.

  • Assist in team development while holding teams accountable for their commitments, removing roadblocks to their work.

  • Leverage organizational resources to improve capacity for project work.

  • Mentor and develop team members.

• Product Owner Support:

  • Support the Product Owner in managing customer expectations for project deliverables, managing stakeholder communications, and helping to implement an effective system of Agile project governance.

• Stakeholder and Executive Alignment:

  • Determine project governance and decision-making structure.

  • Assess project status and direct corrective measures to ensure project success including escalation and visibility to senior leadership when appropriate. 

  • Negotiate across multiple functions to resolve project conflicts and competing priorities.

• Project Communication and Reporting:

  • Establish reporting cadence as appropriate for teams, stakeholders, and executives.

  • Utilize tools like newsletters, dashboards, or reporting templates to suit the audience.

Qualifications - Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in software engineering, computer science, or related field; or equivalent work experience.

• 7+ years of experience as a technical project manager in a large company.

• 5+ years of Agile project management experience including 3 years as a Scrum Master.

• Minimum 3 years of management experience in the IT / technology field, including development work and interactions with customers.

• 7+ years expert knowledge of Application Lifecycle and Agile management tools such as:

  • Rally, JIRA, Prism, Kintana, Clarity

  • MS Office Tools: Project, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, Wiki, SharePoint

• Ability to work permanently in the U.S. on a full-time basis.

• Must be in the Seattle area, with ability to work on client site 100% of time.

• Proven ability to lead technology teams in complex environments.

Qualifications - Preferred:

• 4+ years of experience in formal consulting company and engagements.

• Experience writing code in larger enterprise systems environments.

• Certified in Agile and Scrum.

• Experience working with both business (internal customer) and technical delivery teams.

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