SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER

SN Digital (SND) is the technology division of Springer Nature. We are responsible for maintaining and delivering millions of articles used by researchers, scientists and students around the globe. In the Researcher Engagement domain, you will work with the team to ensure that researchers have access to a free personalised service with Springer Nature from the moment they log in. Using this they can publish quickly, discover relevant content, make connections, and accelerate their careers.     About us   SN Digital (SND) is a technology division of Springer Nature. We are responsible for maintaining and delivering millions of articles used by researchers, scientists and students around the globe.   There are about 290 of us in London, Berlin, Lisbon, Pune, New York, Madrid, Dordrecht and Heidelberg. We work in collaborative, multi-disciplinary delivery teams, developing digital products and services that answer user problems and support business goals.    The work is interesting and meaningful.  Our culture is collaborative and friendly.  We encourage and support growth, both personal and professional.    This is a terrific opportunity for friendly, inquisitive people who want to get involved in our work, who love to learn, who will embrace and develop our culture, and help make SND a place where people and ideas can thrive.    We are intentionally looking to create teams that are diverse and inclusive. Diversity is the mix of culture, background, experience and personality that we all bring; inclusion is getting the mix to work better together. We want every member of our teams to contribute to our common goals while respecting each other's skills, knowledge and needs.      Visit sndigital.springernature.com to learn more about who we are and what we do.    About the job  Our initiatives deliver value to our global business through collaboration between cross-discipline teams. These teams consist of in-house staff and trusted development partners from a variety of global organizations. P roject Managers work with stakeholders across the business to ensure technical deliveries are understood, planned, tracked, and delivered on time, within budget, and to the highest standards, including code best practices, accessibility, design, and quality assurance.  We develop software incrementally, iteratively, and continuously to meet the growing demand for digital learning and online content sharing across schools, institutes, and homes globally, enhancing online education.  This role is p ivotal in managing initiatives across multiple multi-disciplinary teams . You will be responsible for tracking and reporting initiative progress to senior stakeholders and will lead efforts to harness the collective talents of the teams to ensure the delivery of the right products and functionalities.  You will join a collaborative cross-functional delivery environment with diverse backgrounds and experience levels. Team members work together to deliver solutions that meet the needs of our business. We strive to foster a culture that encourages innovative ideas while aligning with the technologies that best support the vision defined by Springer Nature.     About you  You have significant industry experience in a leadership role, managing complex initiatives that span multiple teams, ensuring alignment, collaboration, and successful delivery.  You have prior experience working on agile initiatives or a strong, demonstrable understanding of agile software development processes, including coordinating efforts across multi-disciplinary teams.  You are skilled at facilitating technical discussions across teams, identifying risks and dependencies, and ensuring effective communication and resolution across all stakeholders.  You’ve successfully managed several projects or release cycles, specifically in a delivery capacity involving both co-located and distributed teams.  You have a proven track record of delivering initiatives across teams, with measurable outcomes, and a strong ability to apply lessons learned to improve future delivery.  You can clearly articulate impactful improvements you’ve driven across multiple teams, highlighting your ability to influence and optimize team collaboration and processes.  Y ou are passionate about mentoring and supporting individuals and teams, building capabilities, and fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.  You have extensive experience working with diverse stakeholders, ensuring the right level of information is communicated to keep initiatives on track and aligned with business goals.    What you will be doing   Day to day responsibilities   Managing multiple technical projects across teams within a business portfolio, ensuring coordination and alignment between them. Creating project plans, tracking milestones, managing risks, providing clear updates on progress, and overseeing successful releases.  Driving collaboration and establishing effective processes between Product, UX, and Engineering teams to plan work on a quarterly basis using objectives and key results (OKRs), ensuring synchronization and alignment across all teams in a lean and agile manner.  Acting as a cross-team project leader, mentor, and facilitator, scheduling and supporting stand-ups, iteration reviews, retrospectives, and planning activities, while coordinating across teams to mitigate risks and ensure smooth progress.  Reporting on RAIDs to the Domain Leadership team, with a focus on identifying and addressing blockers to delivery and challenges impacting the health and performance of multiple teams.  Fostering a spirit of collaboration and teamwork across all involved teams, developing a high-performing, empowered group with a clear shared purpose and coordinated schedule of tasks.  Providing management guidance and support across all aspects of the project lifecycle—spanning product definition, technical decisions, user experience, and customer experience—while ensuring consistency and alignment across teams.  Collaborating with internal teams and third-party suppliers to ensure all parties understand project goals and work cohesively to deliver within quality, cost, and schedule parameters.  Ensuring all communications, both within the project and to external stakeholders, are clear, precise, and consistently aligned across teams.    Within 3 Months you will:   Become familiar with the products being developed, understanding how they are connected across multiple teams to deliver on overarching business goals.  Get familiar with, and help evolve, the agile processes and ceremonies, ensuring they support effective collaboration and alignment across teams.  Build strong relationships with various stakeholders, understanding their roles, seniority, and general requirements, and how these span multiple teams and initiatives.  Get to know all members of the teams you work with, understanding their roles and contributions within and across teams to foster collaboration and alignment.  Engross yourself in the Project Management community, leveraging shared knowledge and practices to improve cross-team coordination and deliver   By 3-6 months you will:  Acting as the facilitator across teams by, but not limited to, scheduling and supporting ceremonies, workshops, and inceptions to ensure alignment and collaboration across multiple teams.  Driving continuous improvement by helping teams and stakeholders learn, share, and enhance how projects are managed and delivered across the organization.  Leading cross-functional teams to ensure cohesive, coordinated, and continuous delivery across our portfolio of projects and products, fostering collaboration between teams and disciplines.  Actively contributing to domain-wide initiatives and playing a key role in the Project Management discipline to ensure best practices are applied consistently across teams.  Understanding the non-functional requirements and technical debt across teams, ensuring they are addressed holistically to support long-term success and maintain alignment with organizational priorities.  By 6-12 months you will:  Collaborate with the Product Managers, Business Analysits , User experience colleagues, and Tech Leads to create clear, user-focused goals, ensuring alignment not only within the team but also across other teams contributing to shared initiatives.  Foster team spirit and collaboration, while driving alignment and cooperation between multiple teams to build a high-performing, empowered group with a unified purpose.  Provide guidance and input across all aspects of the product lifecycle—spanning definition, decision-making, user experience, and maintenance—ensuring consistency and coordination across teams.  Facilitate blameless post-mortems that involve all relevant teams, enabling shared learning and growth across the organization.  Sustain a culture of continuous improvement by championing process and technical excellence across teams, ensuring working software is delivered frequently , engineering quality is upheld, customer issues are addressed, and communication is effective both within and between teams.  Mentor team s on agile and lean principles while supporting junior members in the discipline, fostering alignment and collaboration in a remote, cross-team setup.    Core skills  Extensive Project Management experience within the software engineering industry, with a proven ability to manage and deliver initiatives across multiple teams.  Advanced experience with OKRs and roadmapping , ensuring alignment of objectives and key results across diverse teams to support cohesive planning and execution.  Expertise in lean and vertical slicing of user stories to enable continuous delivery of user value.  Proven leadership skills , with progressive experience in guiding and aligning teams to deliver successful outcomes across multiple streams of work.  Strong technical knowledge , sufficient to engage effectively in discussions and decisions.  Exceptional communication skills , with the ability to adapt style based on the audience, including conveying clear and concise updates to senior stakeholders and facilitating cross-team alignment.  Deep understanding of agile methodologies , with the expertise to assess and apply the most suitable framework for multiple teams operating in different contexts.  Skilled in tracking project progress and reporting actionable, concise information to stakeholders at all levels, ensuring visibility and alignment.  Ability to organize and facilitate ceremonies, workshops, and inceptions , fostering collaboration and engagement.   Experience  Proven industry experience in managing multiple concurrent technology software development projects to successful completion, with hands-on expertise and a demonstrated ability to align efforts across multiple teams.  Responsible for delivering products or services to a high standard, ensuring cross-team coordination when necessary to achieve project goals.  You will be numerate and technically literate with a range of IT skills and an interest in improving our production processes.  Strong leader experienced in developing team relationships. You value the contributions our teams make to the success of Springer Nature and are eager to collaborate across teams in a forward-thinking IT department.  At least 7 years of project management experience, including at least 2 years as a senior Project Manager. You have a proven track record of delivering Agile Software Development projects and extensive experience managing multiple projects to achieve milestones, ensuring alignment and communication across teams where required .  Strong leadership skills, able to set clear team direction and support delivery schedules. You excel at managing risks, issues, dependencies, and mitigations, with effective communication at all levels, including C-level stakeholders.  Demonstrable experience in building teams and business relationships, as well as motivating and mentoring teams. You are a strong influencer who works well with matrix teams and business stakeholders, leveraging skills across departments to ensure successful delivery and harmonious collaboration.  Highly organized, detailed, and methodical, with a task-oriented approach. You can adapt and adjust to meet milestone needs that align with OKRs and KPIs. You are a confident goal-setter with a proven ability to multitask while delivering results. You maximize team potential, identify deficiencies, and create recommendations or mitigations to optimize performance.  Proficiency with Jira and Confluence, as well as familiarity with the O365 suite, is highly desirable.   About SpringerNature - springernature.com   Springer Nature employs more than 10,000 people in over 50 markets and is home to some of the best-known names in research, educational and professional publishing.    Working at the heart of a changing industry, we are always looking for great people who care about delivering quality to our customers and the communities we work alongside . In return, we provide opportunities to learn from some of the best in the business, with a culture that encourages curiosity and empowers people to find solutions and act on their instincts.   We value the diversity of our teams and work to build an inclusive culture, where people are treated fairly and can bring their differences to work and thrive. We empower our colleagues and value their diverse perspectives as we strive to attract, nurture and develop the very best talent.   Springer Nature was awarded Diversity Team of the Year at the 2022 British Diversity Awards. Find out more about our DEI work here . If you have any access needs related to disability, neurodivergence or a chronic condition, please contact us so we can make all necessary accommodation.   #LI-SS2