IT Project Manager

What you will do

You will coordinate the overall modernisation project for a Belgian cooperative organisation that provides administrative and social security services to autonomous workers. The organisation has defined its 2030 strategy and is now modernising its application landscape, domain by domain, to improve service quality, operational efficiency and system sustainability.

Your role is to orchestrate the implementation and adoption of the target architecture, working closely with business teams, analysts, developers and the architect. You will ensure shared understanding, coherent prioritisation and controlled execution across all stakeholders.

You will report to the senior project management team within the Strategy and Development directorate, and work closely with the IT director who leads the project.

Project coordination

• Participate in defining the project charter and phasing, with each phase closed by a real production release
• Participate in defining the project organisation: budget, resources, governance
• Build and maintain the roadmap, updating it with each scope decision
• Coordinate activities and dependencies, including with other ongoing initiatives
• Identify risks and propose action plans
• Prepare and facilitate the steering committee and governance meetings
• Report to management

Coordination with IT teams

• Work daily with developers, tech leads, business analysts and the architect
• Understand technical constraints and their impact on planning
• Facilitate trade-offs between technical issues and business needs
• Ensure good collaboration between different IT teams

Business framing and facilitation, in tandem with the business analyst

• Organise and facilitate workshops with business stakeholders
• Ensure clarification of business needs and objectives
• Facilitate decision-making and prioritisation
• Contribute to formalising target processes and journeys
• Ensure that proposed solutions address business challenges

Change management

• Foster stakeholder buy-in, both business and IT side
• Contribute to communication and change management actions
• Support adoption of the domain-driven approach, which is new for the organisation
• Ensure overall coherence between different initiatives

First expected deliverables

• The implementation plan and resource estimates
• Setting up the rhythm and materials for the project's various meetings (kickoff, synchro, steering committee, etc.)
• Framing the first modernisation phase on the selected domain

Experience

• At least 5 years' experience managing application projects or digital transformation, including at least one application modernisation project led end-to-end
• Demonstrated experience in IT environments with internal or external development teams
• Experience of direct collaboration with architects, tech leads and product teams
• Significant experience facilitating workshops with business stakeholders

IT understanding

We do not expect a technical expert, but someone able to:

• Understand the main principles of application architecture
• Understand issues related to technical debt and modernisation
• Communicate effectively with developers and the architect
• Challenge estimates, risks and dependencies
• Knowledge of Microsoft technologies is an asset

Business orientation

• Strong listening skills and excellent facilitation ability
• Ability to synthesise and transform sometimes vague discussions into clear, actionable requirements
• Sense of prioritisation and value creation

Leadership

• Ability to bring together varied profiles
• Clear and structured communication
• Diplomacy and pragmatism
• Ability to move things forward in a complex, cross-functional context

Languages

• Fluent French is essential
• Good level of English is also required
• Dutch is a plus

What will make the difference

• Sufficient credibility with technical teams
• Ability to facilitate business workshops autonomously
• Experience of application modernisation projects, not just maintenance or infrastructure
• Ability to work in an environment where requirements are built progressively
• Balance between pragmatism, structure and results orientation

The setting

This assignment runs for 14 months, starting as soon as possible. The work is hybrid, with three to four days per week on site in Brussels, including Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reinforced presence is expected during the first two months to build relationships with business and IT teams.

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