Project Manager - Chicago, Illinois, , United States

The National Restaurant Association and National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation are proud to be part of a highly respected industry, providing hospitality, opportunity, and quality of life. And much like the industry we represent, we have a dynamic, diverse, and in ...

Job description

The National Restaurant Association and National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation are proud to be part of a highly respected industry, providing hospitality, opportunity, and quality of life. And much like the industry we represent, we have a dynamic, diverse, and inclusive culture, grounded in trust, hospitality, collaboration, and innovation. These are the core values that inspire our work, and what we are looking for in a Project Manager to help drive deliverables for our industry leading training and certification products.

The learning products offered by the National Restaurant Association, and its family of brands ServSafe, ServSuccess, National Registry of Food Safety Professionals, and American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute, has led the way in training and certifying millions of current and future hospitality workers. We provide best-in-class food safety, lodging, and leadership training to hoteliers, food service businesses, and academic institutions across the world. We equip our global audience with innovative, engaging training utilizing multiple platforms, from textbooks to online resources to mobile applications, with a focus on both compliance-driven and career-development suites.

As an integral member of our Project Management team, you will be responsible for leading low to medium complexity projects; typically supporting a product launch or cross-functional process, maintaining the project budget, schedule, and workflow through to delivery, and championing a high-level of communication and established processes among cross-functional teams. You will also be responsible for supporting dashboard maintenance and reporting and should be skilled with various methods for presenting data.

Ideal candidates bring a minimum of three years working in a role requiring a high level of organization and coordination, with a proven ability to effectively manage multiple projects and priorities. Previous experience within educational publishing is a plus. Position requires exceptional cross-functional teamwork and communication skills in working with both project teams and executive stakeholders. You will thrive in this role if you are energized by a fast-paced and fluid work environment, and bring an unflappable, can-do attitude.  

Working hours are primarily a day shift position, however, the Project Manager may need to work varied hours including weekends, as business needs dictate during peak time. 

Position must operate out of our Chicago office, with a required three days onsite, Monday – Wednesday, with flexibility to work remote on Thursday and Friday.

The work you will do as a Project Manager will be pivotal to our mission to continue to build a strong industry workforce. We look forward to hearing from you

Key Responsibilities

• Assist the Manager, Project Management and Director, Projects and Planning to accomplish departmental goals. 
• Support all internal team members and departments following the Association mission and values while promoting Association culture. 
• Establish and maintain solid relationships with members of Business Services as well as cross-functional team members as needed. 
• Effectively use multiple forms of communication to ensure visibility and transparency of project progress, including dashboard updates, regular status reports, and meeting notes.
• Manage multiple concurrent projects, including development of timelines, monitoring of budget, scope change approvals, and risk management.
• Facilitate project meetings, track action items, and drive stakeholder alignment.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders to define project objectives, requirements, and supporting tasks. 
• Proactively identify and mitigate risks and troubleshoot issues as they arise to minimize project impact.
• Track, manage, and report on project timelines and spend. 
• Facilitate and summarize project retrospectives and produce project close out reports.
• Operate independently and actively seek guidance and clarification as needed. 
• Analyze and interpret data to inform decision making. 
• Synthesize project details into a concise, meaningful summary adapted to the audience, ranging from core project team members to senior leadership. 
• Collaborate with vendors to align on project scheduled and ensure timely completion of work.

Qualifications, Skills & Competencies

• Bachelor's degree required, concentrated in business, communication, project management, or related field preferred. 
• Minimum 3 years of experience working in a role requiring a high level of organization and coordination. Educational publishing experience a plus.
• Familiarity with Education/Training/Certification industry is a plus.
• Strong organizational, problem-solving, priority-setting and time management skills.
• Experience using project management tools such as Teamwork, Monday or Microsoft Project.
• Strong interpersonal, conflict management, and diplomacy skills; ability to influence without authority.
• Comfort with ambiguity; ability to cope with a fast-paced work environment that changes quickly.
• Strong foresight in anticipating issues and pragmatism in using resources available in any given project. 
• Ability to show empathy in interpersonal relationships while keeping business goals at the forefront.
• Ability to provide, seek, and accept respectful, thoughtful feedback.
• A continuous improvement mindset and ability to contribute to process development and optimization.
• Proficiency across Microsoft Office including Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint. Ability to learn other computer software programs, enter and maintain accurate data/information.
• Minimal travel; anticipated 1-2 times per year.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

The National Restaurant Association, National Restaurant Association Solutions, LLC, and The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (together, "Company") is committed to equal employment opportunity, and it is Company's policy to take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

It is our policy to recruit, hire, train, and promote persons in all job titles, and ensure that all other personnel actions are administered, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status and disability, or other legally protected status, and we will ensure that all employment decisions are based only on valid job requirements.

This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws.

For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.