Program Manager - Testing

Covestic is a leader in supplying technology and management consulting services to service provider and enterprise companies. Covestic continually partners with clients to achieve business and organizational goals through efficient and innovative solutions.

Covestic is looking for a Program Manager to coordinate multiple projects (20+) moving through the integration testing phase within a large telecommunications company. The company is introducing a number of new services which much be fully tested before being released to production. As Program Manager, you will be responsible for ensuring that testing does not become a stumbling block in the path of service delivery. To be successful, you will need to develop an approach and schedule for moving the services through the test process giving consideration to test facility, resource and infrastructure availability. An ongoing process for managing to plan and handling changes will also be required.

The primary responsibilities of the Program Manager include:
- Reviewing new services Project Plans and Documentation to anticipate testing needs. Gathering additional information and clarification as needed.
- Reviewing platform infrastructure release plans to identify availability/dependency issues that may impact services testing.
- Building an approach and schedule to optimize services testing throughput and minimize support requirements.
- Communicating the services testing plan and maintaining stakeholder visibility to changes in the plan as required.
- Facilitating issue resolution between Services Project Management, Testing, Test Lab Facilities and Platform Infrastructure groups.
REQUIREMENTS
- 7+ years Project Management experience with at least 2 years in a Program Management role. PMO experience a plus.
- 2+ years in a relevant testing role. Working knowledge of Test Planning, Environment Setup and Execution processes.
- Telecommunications infrastructure familiarity (e.g., handsets, network, back/front end applications)
- Strong organization and coordination skills. Ability to drive an optimized plan out of multiple competing variables.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Facilitation, negotiation and consensus-building a must.
- Ability to mentor a team of project managers and test leads on best practices. Demonstrated record of building high performing teams.
- In-depth understanding of project delivery processes and best practices. Working knowledge of Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). PMP Certification preferred.
- Proficient with MS Office Tools (e.g., Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio). Strong MS Project and Excel skills preferred. SharePoint familiarity a plus.