Senior Project Manager, ERP Transformation

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is one of the largest school districts in the United States, serving over 320,000 students in 600+ schools and employing approximately 40,000 people, most of them teachers.

CPS has set ambitious goals to ensure that every student, in every school and every neighborhood, has access to a world-class learning experience that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life.

In order to fulfill this mission, we make three commitments to our students, their families, and all Chicagoans : academic progress, financial stability, and integrity.

Six core values are embedded within these commitments student-centered, whole child, equity, academic excellence, community partnership, and continuous learning.

The Office of Finance maintains the fiscal integrity of Chicago Public Schools. It provides financial leadership to the Chicago Board of Education according to state and federal legislation, government regulations, Board policies, and sound financial practices.

The Talent Office supports and empowers employees through all stages of their Chicago Public Schools (CPS) careers, with the understanding that the department’s success enables employees to better serve the students of Chicago.

The mission of the Office of Procurement and Business Diversity is to work with schools, departments, vendors, and stakeholders to provide schools and students with the highest quality and value goods and services in support of the District’s core values and business diversity goals.

The Office of Information and Technology Services (ITS) works to build the capacity of schools to use information and technology, maintain network infrastructure, security standards, and support other departments to meet district goals.

ITS provides innovative technology solutions that improve students' education quality, reduce the administrative burden on educators, facilitate parent interaction, increase community engagement, and support CPS’ mission of transparency by focusing on the ease and equity of access to information.

Job Summary :

Reporting to the Executive Director of ERP Business Transformation, the Senior Project Manager, ERP Business Transformation is responsible for leading CPS business units and functional departments to develop business requirements and functional designs for the Oracle Fusion Cloud.

These requirements and functional designs may vary in scope and complexity, but are considered to be an integral part of replacing our current ERP platform with a modern, cloud-based solution that is essential to enhance the efficiency, agility, and cost-effectiveness of the District's administrative processes.

A cloud-based ERP solution will enable us to streamline data management, improve accessibility for all stakeholders, and provide real-time analytics for informed decision-making, ultimately empowering our District to better serve our students and community.

The Senior Project Manager, ERP Business Transformation for each area will provide leadership, consulting, project management, change management, analytical support, and implementation support for all assigned areas.

In addition, this role will address resistance and challenges that need to be resolved to deepen the adoption and ultimate transformation.

The Job Title will be held accountable for the following responsibilities :

• Act as a key liaison for one of the identified CPS business units and functional departments to develop business requirements and functional designs for Finance, Procurement or Talent.
• Communicate priorities, relevant project information, and decisions to appropriate staff regarding requests, projects, and initiatives.
• Support CPS business unit BPO and Subject Matter Experts in the development of the ERP business case, design and deployment.
• Support the business unit within the assigned functional areas to define business strategy, evaluate proposals, build and determine investments, plan new joint initiatives, and determine how they fit into business capability roadmaps and the CPS 5-Year strategic priorities from 2025 to 2029.
• Support the review, revisions and documentation of existing business processes and / or departmental procedures for optimal efficiency and maximization of CPS resources and to ensure compliance with all Federal, State and Local requirements;

Support the business unit in the development of new business processes to ensure the most effective and efficient operations for the department.

• Maintain and report on the status of ongoing and future projects; Serve as the liaison to internal CPS Units and external parties to ensure timely and successful completion of Program Bridge.
• Participate in meetings, workshops, design activities, testing, and deployment to understand and ensure business requirements are successfully implemented.
• Ensure the implementation of the program aligning the necessary resources, and maintain oversight of the program execution for identified Business units to ensure targets set are met.
• Supervisory responsibility for hiring and managing the Business Process Ownership team, including performance management, development, and time approval.
• Other duties and work streams as assigned

In order to be successful and achieve the above responsibilities, the Job Title must possess the following qualifications :

Education Required :

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university; Focus in Accounting, Finance, Information Systems, or related field preferred
• Master’s degree preferred

Experience Required :

• Minimum of six (6) years of professional project management and / or business process management experience in a large decentralized organization including :
• Minimum of three (3) years of project management, business process re-engineering, budgetary, contract management, and financial analysis experience
• Experience working in a Talent Management / Procurement / Finance strongly preferred

Other Requirements :

• Access to reliable transportation to travel locally to CPS locations
• Ability to travel domestically to conferences with ERP executive sponsors, and other required events

Additional experience that would be helpful for a candidate to have) is preferred.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities :

• Highly skilled in leading others through change
• Strong communication skills (verbal, written, presentations)
• Ability to communicate effectively to technical and non-technical audiences, and simplify complex topics into clear and concise communication
• Ability to lead, address concerns, and guide internal and external stakeholders through complex business decisions
• Strong business and technical acumen
• High level of business process expertise, integrity, honesty, credibility, and the courage to make difficult yet necessary decisions
• Ability to work in collaboration with the leadership to understand and adhere to CPS strategies, standards, and policies

Conditions of Employment

As a condition of employment with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), employees are required to :

Establish / Maintain Chicago Residency - Employees are required to live within the geographic boundaries of the City of Chicago within six months of their CPS hire date and maintain residency throughout their employment with the district.

The Chicago residency requirement does not apply to temporary / part-time positions, however, all CPS employees must be residents of Illinois.

Be Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19 - Unless approved for a medical or religious exemption, all employees are required to be up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccinations, including boosters, and to submit proof of vaccination to the district within 30 days of hire.

Up-to-date on vaccination is defined as being at least two weeks past all primary vaccine doses and any applicable boosters.