Job Details

Johns Hopkins, founded in 1876, is America's first research university and home to nine world-class academic divisions working together as one university.

The Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University (the Center) seeks a I-team Project Manager, Memphis, TN to join a new Innovation Team (“i-team”) in Memphis.

Innovation Teams unlock creativity from within city governments and the communities they serve. These teams take partners and stakeholders through an evidence-based process to tackle the big problems in their cities no one has yet been able to solve, generate more ambitious responses, and test and adapt interventions until they produce impact. They also work closely with the Mayor, the City's leadership team, and City departments to change the culture of city government.

Reporting to the i-team Director, the Project Manager will lead the development and execution of the i-team’s project plan and ensure successful delivery of programs that are shaped through the i-team’s design-based innovation process.

The ideal candidate will have strong project management experience as well as interest in learning and using innovation methods and mindsets to deliver transformative impact for communities. The Project Manager is an employee of Johns Hopkins University and based in the City Hall of Memphis to support the i-team’s work with government colleagues, with community, and across other stakeholders.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

• Lead the planning and creation of the scope, goals, deliverables, required resources, work plan, and timing for i-team activities and initiatives.
• Supervise development of targets and regular measurement of progress.
• Ensure timely communications within the i-team, and with stakeholders within and outside of government.
• Lead regular team progress and coordination meetings.
• Communicate progress and elevate issues for guidance to the i-team Director.
• Adjust schedules and targets as situations may require ensuring project goals are met.
• Implement best practices and process improvements to manage scope, project activities, project schedule, budget, issues, and risks.
• Develop and coordinate processes for effectively managing i-team resources.
• Participate fully in each aspect of the Path to Public Innovation, including the civic design components of the team’s work, such as qualitative research.
• Support analogous research and literature reviews during the Path to Public Innovation research phase.
• Support the development and management of partnerships and collaborations with stakeholders inside and outside of city government.
• Regularly assess project execution and make effective decisions when presented with multiple options for how to progress.
• Assign tasks to internal teams and assist project teams with removing project roadblocks by using informal authority, delegation, and agile values.

Special Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities

• Strong ability to communicate complex concepts to different audiences and stakeholders.
• Attentiveness to details, deadline-oriented, acute vision, and the ability to give and receive constructive criticism.
• Excellent written and oral communication.
• Exceptional time management and organizational skills.
• The ability to work in team settings effectively.
• Experience working for or in collaboration with local government.
• Strong sense of service to residents of Memphis.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree.
• Five years of related experience.
• Additional education may substitute for required experience, and additional related experience may substitute for required education beyond a high school diploma/graduation equivalent, to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience or familiarity with government innovation efforts, including a strong conceptual and practical understanding of innovation tools and the role of human centered design, data, and policy in the public sector.
• Experience with human-centered design and other key innovation practices.