Job Detail

IT Senior Project Manager - Crop Protection Research & Development - (18000747) 

Description

 

About Syngenta

Syngenta is a global leader in agriculture; rooted in science and dedicated to bringing plant potential to life. Each of our 28,000 employees in more than 90 countries work together to solve one of humanity’s most pressing challenges: growing more food with fewer resources. No matter what your position, you will have a vital role in safely feeding the world and taking care of our planet. Join us and help shape the future of agriculture. 

About this position:

We invite you to help us shape the future of agriculture. At Syngenta, we believe every employee has a role to play in safely feeding the world and taking care of our planet. To support that challenge, the Crop Protection R&D IT team is currently seeking an Information Technology Senior Project Manager in Basel. As an IT Senior Project Manager you will:

• Lead one of several IT projects contributing to the overall success of a larger international change program or strategy in the areas of R&D, Technology & Engineering or Business Sustainability.


• Plan, manage and implement complex international scientific IT projects in a very challenging R&D, T&E or Business Sustainability environment to achieve business objectives by ensuring delivery on time, at high quality, within the parameters of the budget and by meeting complex needs. 


• Demonstrate and promote professional project management according to industry best practice to successfully deliver projects as a reliable leader. Orchestrate any project management methodology (waterfall, agile or hybrid) at high level of maturity. Communicate with senior stakeholders with a deep understanding of R&D, T&E or Business Sustainability.


• Act as a counterpart for the scientists and business sustainability professionals to jointly develop the strategies for the project and work on challenging business process alignments and changes in an inspirational way.


• Promote a digital and agile ways of working in service of the CP business unit strategy

Accountabilities

• Lead interdisciplinary project teams with multi-dimensional sub-team structures of Syngenta experts and external partners and suppliers. Understand and drive solution delivery as a combination of business impact, process or operational optimization, cultural aspects and IT tools. 


• Be an expert in stakeholder management and collaborate professionally. Facilitate independently large workshops with heterogeneous and difficult audience. Drive effectively towards fully owned decisions. Ensure that all stakeholders maintain their commitments with these agreed decisions and act as ambassadors. 


• Ensure under very tight and difficult constraints that projects deliver in time, in scope and in budget according to formally documented commitments and approvals according to Syngenta practices.


• Partner with R&D, T&E and Business Sustainability to define and build business cases, total cost of operations simulations, KPI’s and funding proposals of IT projects 


• Ensure the appropriate project governance framework and support model are in place for transition into drive sustainable IT steady state operations and continuous benefit extraction. 


• Demonstrate a solid understanding of R&D in life sciences. Communicate with R&D T&E or Business Sustainability specialists competently about problems and approaches to be resolved through the IT project.


• Maintain close links within IT on platform roadmaps and integration into the overarching enterprise architecture. Manage complex interdependencies with other projects in a skillful and competent way.


• Professionally manage delivery by internal and external suppliers and demonstrate a high level of commercial acumen. Coordinate between multiple suppliers in an effective way which reduces overhead and enables fast and highly reliable delivery. 

 

Qualifications

 
Experience required

• At least 5-8 years working experience with R&D in the life sciences sector, preferably in the Agricultural Crop Protection industry


• At least 8-12 years practical experience in successfully delivering IT projects within a complex change programs or independently in challenging environments with heterogeneous stakeholder communities and teams without direct line management authority.


• At least 8-12 years working experience running waterfall, agile and hybrid IT delivery projects independently or within a program environment with many interdependencies


• Effectively facilitating consensus building between challenging and sometimes very senior stakeholders 


• Can creatively motivate teams and keep them focused on delivery and benefit realization


• Make effective use of steering teams and handle escalations appropriately to gain maximum value with minimal effort by escalation bodies. 


• Think always a step ahead so that impact of potential scenarios which might affect project is already considered before things happen. Have original plans built in a way that risks hitting the project do not affect major milestones whilst still maintaining a sense of urgency.


• Critical knowledge and education required


• Ideally a graduate degree in chemistry, life science or engineering and a post-graduate degree information technology 


• Certification or equivalence in Waterfall and Agile IT delivery methodologies (e.g. PMI, Scrum)


• Certification or equivalence in Change Management methodologies (e.g. Lean, Six Sigma)


• Certification in steady state operational models (e.g. ITIL, DevOps, SaFE) is an advantage


• A good grasp of the culture and working practices of R&D in Crop Protection or comparable.


• Ability to work positively with the full range of individuals and groups. 


• Ability to lead an IT delivery team and work effectively within a matrix structure 


• Fluency in English, additional languages beneficial

  

Primary Location

: CHE-Basel-Basel 

Job

: IS & BA Gnrl Mgt & Other