Division Manager for the City Portfolio-Products-Projects Office (C3PO), Information Technology Department (20357919)

Please note that applications are currently not accepted through CalOpps or any other third-party job board application system. To apply, please complete an application via the City of San Jose’s website at www.sanjoseca.gov/citycareers. 

The City of San José Information Technology Department (ITD) seeks an exceptional senior manager to lead the City Portfolio-Products-Projects Office (C3PO) as Division Manager. 

The Portfolio-Products-Projects Office is a six year-old division in the City. Deconstructing traditional project management, San Jose’s C3PO is responsible for (1) executing technology and innovation initiatives with success; (2) ensuring strong business value from City products and platforms over time; and (3) building organizational capacities for the City to consistently transform and improve. 

The C3PO Division Manager will inspire team members and nurture a culture that is truly collaborative and customer-centric towards these ends. The position is critical to the City achieving ambitious goals to innovate, accelerate delivery of solutions, support deep collaboration and deliver remarkable value to the San Jose organization and community. 

The leader of the C3PO will work directly with the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Assistant Chief Information Officer (ACIO) to build the team through a significant hiring phase. They will assemble the office’s practices and resources, all while supporting delivery of identified priorities. In its first five years, the C3PO already drastically improved technology execution success rates, earning the trust of partner departments. The Division is situated to grow its team and Citywide impacts. Thus, the selected Division Manager will demonstrate the vision and leadership necessary to build the C3PO into the model team and organizational resource described. 

San Jose’s technology leaders truly act in a player-coach mode—a person who can shape technical work and architectures with their team, build contributors up to execute that direction, work directly with the technologies and partners, and manage organizational demands to deliver solutions and services. 
When the C3PO Team does well, they help San Jose’s families thrive and our businesses grow.

Responsibilities:

The C3PO Division Manager works closely with the IT Department Executive Team and oversees approximately 10 to 15 contributors, an average annual project portfolio of 75+ initiatives, and 40+ primary systems for focused lifecycle management. The C3PO works across 20 major departments citywide to:

• Ensure successful project execution;
• Deliver continuously high business value from the City’s products and platforms through expert lifecycle management; and 
• Enable organizational capabilities and cultures that makes transformation through technology increasingly routine. 

Specific examples of work priorities over the next 18 months include: My San Jose, Business Process Automation, Integrated Permitting System and Development Services Upgrade and Transformation, Vehicle Blight service request management, 3-1-1 contact redesign, Business Tax system, emergency management technology refresh, IoT platforms and controls, infrastructure initiatives, and other efforts at the forefront nationally. Work is measured on the basis of hitting targets for cost, schedule, scope/quality, and realization of value at the customer level.

Collaboration, responsiveness, employee development, and effective relationship management with teams across the City are critical success factors for the C3PO Division Manager. To be a successful leader, they must demonstrate the ability to foster a team that is engaged, embraces innovation and change, earns the trust of customers and partners, and that exemplifies exceptional customer service in delivering solutions that both San Jose residents and City staffs appreciate. 

The City practices agile and waterfall methodologies, reporting through an executive scrum of scrums to align appropriate methods to initiatives. Work is managed through an overarching IT Strategic Plan, Annual IT Work Plan, and a system of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) that keep priorities aligned.

The primary duties of this position may include but not limited to:

• Delivering business value through expert portfolio management, product management, and project management.
• Performing and teaching portfolio, product, and project management practices across City departments through the C3PO.
• Developing necessary strategic plans, budgets, architectures, and roadmaps to plan, execute, and resource initiatives that support the service requirements of City departments.
• Hiring, coaching, mentoring and developing performance manage Products-Projects Managers and prioritizing effectively through active methods—e.g., scrums, work-staff planning, OKRs. 
• Partnering with customer, technical, and vendor leadership to achieve objectives and resolve challenges.
• Monitoring and regularly communicating key performance metrics and statuses.
• Overseeing the development, communication, and training of standardized processes, best practices and maintain integrated tools for product-project planning, execution, business analysis and deliverable/artifact tracking.
• Applying governance processes to maintain stakeholder support, detecting and addressing projects in jeopardy, and inhibiting large project failures.
• Planning for competing demands of technical and staff resources in project and product lifecycle activities.

Please note that the Division Manager for the City Portfolio-Products-Projects Office (C3PO) position is currently eligible for a hybrid telework schedule - working remote and onsite schedule is subjected to change.

This recruitment may be used to fill multiple positions in this, or other divisions or departments. If you are interested in employment in this classification, you should apply to ensure you are considered for additional opportunities that may utilize the applicants from this recruitment. 

Competencies

The ideal candidate will possess the following competencies, as demonstrated in past and current employment history. Desirable competencies for this position include:

Job Expertise – Demonstrates knowledge of and experience with applicable professional/technical principles and practices, Citywide and departmental procedures/policies and federal and state rules and regulations. 

• Expertise in building/managing a strategic project management, product management, and portfolio management division or team.
• Demonstrates depth in project/product/portfolio management practices and tools, spanning some mix of agile, waterfall, spiral, and other methodologies; DevOps; DataOps; SecureOps; and/or Enterprise Architecture frameworks is highly desirable.
• Strong personnel management skills, including hiring, development, coaching, performance management, and discipline is highly desirable.
• Experience with business analysis, systems development lifecycles, and application development principles and process.
• Expertise with public sector procurements, vendor management, and contract management.
• Demonstrates the ability to: 
  • Lead the Portfolio-Products-Projects Office in a vision to rationalize and maintain a clear portfolio of initiatives that are aligned to the San Jose’s Smart City Vision, City Manager Priorities and the IT Strategic Plan. 
  • Articulate ideas to both technical and non-technical audiences at all levels of the organization.

Leadership – Leads by example; demonstrates high ethical standards; remains visible and approachable and interacts with others on a regular basis; promotes a cooperative work environment, allowing others to learn from mistakes; provides motivational supports and direction. 

Conflict Management – Uses appropriate interpersonal styles and methods to reduce tension or conflict between two or more people, by presenting the facts, analysis, and conclusions or solutions that show command of content and perspectives and interests of the audience.

Project Management – Ensures support for projects and implements agency goals and strategic objectives.

Planning – Acts to align own unit's goals with the strategic direction of the organization; defines tasks and milestones to achieve objectives, while ensuring the optimal use of resources to meet those objectives.

Communication Skills – Effectively conveys information and expresses thoughts and facts clearly, orally and in writing; demonstrates effective use of listening skills; displays openness to other people’s ideas and thoughts.

Selection Process

The selection process will consist of an evaluation of the applicant's training and experience based on the application and responses to the Job Specific Questions. Only the candidates whose backgrounds best match the position will be invited to proceed in the selection process. Additional phases of the selection process will consist of one or more interviews, one of which may include a practical/writing exercise. 

You will be prompted to answer the following job-specific questions during the online application process.  Please note that there is a 4,000-character limit, including spaces, for each text response.

1. Please select the following product-project management tasks you have performed in managing an Information Technology strategic project (select ALL that apply)?
   • Building/managing a strategic project management, product management, and portfolio management division or team.
   • Creation of strategic plans, budgets, architectures, and roadmaps to plan, execute, and resource initiatives that support the service requirements of departments.
   • Demonstrated depth in project/product/portfolio management practices and tools, spanning some mix of agile, waterfall, spiral, and other methodologies; DevOps; DataOps; SecureOps; and/or Enterprise Architecture frameworks.
   • Strong personnel management skills, including hiring, development, coaching, performance management, and discipline. 
   • Experience with business analysis, systems development lifecycles, and application development principles and process.
   • Expertise with public sector procurements, vendor management, and contract management.
   • I do not have product-project management experience.
2. Briefly describe your experience at a managerial or supervisory level leading and managing complex system-wide projects in an organization spanning multiple business functions. Refer to the jobs listed in your application/resume and list job titles, dates, and number of direct reports for each position. If you do not have this experience, type 'None' in the space provided.

You must answer all job-specific questions in order to be considered for this vacancy or your application will be deemed incomplete and withheld from further consideration. In addition, please attach your resume as part of the application process. If you have questions about the duties of these positions, the selection or hiring processes, please contact Tram Nguyen at tramt.nguyen@sanjoseca.gov.