The Department of Quality and Patient Safety (QPS) supports Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s mission to reduce the burden of cancer at Dana-Farber and beyond by educating, inspiring, measuring, improving, and innovating to advance quality across the cancer care continuum. Under the direction of the Administrative Director for Quality and Patient Safety Operations, the Lead Project Manager for Strategic Quality and Safety Initiatives will provide team oversight and expert project management to a portfolio of cross-functional priorities that support the department’s growth, expand its operating capabilities, and further its mission across the six pillars of quality.

Located in Boston and the surrounding communities, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a leader in life changing breakthroughs in cancer research and patient care. We are united in our mission of conquering cancer, HIV/AIDS, and related diseases. We strive to create an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment where we provide compassionate and comprehensive care to patients of all backgrounds, and design programs to promote public health particularly among high-risk and underserved populations. We conduct groundbreaking research that advances treatment, we educate tomorrow's physician/researchers, and we work with amazing partners, including other Harvard Medical School-affiliated hospitals. 

This position's work location is fully remote with occasional time on-campus in Boston, MA. The selected candidate may only work remotely from a New England state (ME, VT, NH, MA, CT, RI).  

Team Start-up and Leadership

• Collaborate with the Administrative Director and department leadership to formulate the vision, structure, and operating model for the Strategic Quality and Safety Initiatives team, which will function as a departmental project management office (PMO).
• Define the project management methodologies and standards applied and espoused by the team.
• Recruit, train, supervise, and coach incoming hires and provide day-to-day operational direction to the team.
• Partner with the Administrative Director to design and implement a centralized request management framework that standardizes the intake and prioritization of QPS projects and guides resource distribution decisions for balance and maximal priority-payoff.
• Monitor the team’s project portfolio and perform quality checks, ensuring projects and their associated deliverables are completed to spec and within time, scope, and budget constraints.
• Guide the annual QPS goal setting and monitoring processes.
• Design and routinely produce a QPS Project Dashboard to track the health, risks, and achievements of projects managed throughout the department.
• Establish and maintain productive relationships with the leaders and staff within each QPS division and with key stakeholders in other departments.

Direct Project Support

• Partner with sponsors and subject matter experts within and outside QPS to design and implement a variety of quality and operational improvement initiatives, facilitating a systematic approach to the initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and closure of prioritized projects.
• Serve as the go-to project management resource for initiatives directed by the Chief Quality Officer, Vice President, and Administrative Director.
• Support the project management needs within QPS for major Institutional endeavors (e.g., Dana-Farber Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Collaboration, Project NExT enterprise resource planning system migration).
• Manage multiple projects concurrently, which will involve:
  • Mobilizing and leading project teams that require significant multi-departmental engagement and/or intradepartmental collaboration.
  • Developing project plans, assigning responsibilities, and monitoring progress across the team.
  • Understanding and proactively managing stakeholder expectations.
  • Organizing, facilitating, and documenting project meetings, then overseeing follow up activity.
  • Preparing project artifacts, deliverables, meeting materials, and other content.
  • Anticipating, identifying, escalating, and resolving risks to a project’s status, milestones, and/or timeline.
  • Delivering effective progress briefings, in-depth project reviews, closure presentations, and postmortem analyses to engage leadership/key stakeholders throughout a project’s lifecycle.

Project Management Practice Champion

• Form and chair the QPS Project Advisory Board.
• Maintain and continually enhance the QPS Project Management Toolkit and Community of Practice.
• Serve as the department’s in-house expert for Smartsheet and other collaboration, productivity management, and survey tools.
• Keep up to date on advances in the science of project management, absorbing and communicating emerging best practices.
• Advise and mentor junior/aspiring project managers outside the Strategic Quality and Safety Initiatives team.
• Establish and contribute to the QPS Artifact Repository, a one-stop-shop for accessing project documentation (e.g., charters, timelines, issue/decision logs) and amplifying lessons learned.
• Develop and implement strategies to expand project management capabilities within the department.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• The Lead Project Manager will directly supervise the Strategic Quality and Safety Initiatives team, which will scale up to include several direct reports in the future. They will also indirectly supervise project teams.

PATIENT CONTACT:

• No regular contact anticipated.

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Health Management/Policy, Industrial Engineering, or other related field required; Master’s degree preferred.
• Professional certification in project management (e.g., PMP, CAPM, PMO-CP) required.
• 5 years of experience leading complex projects to success, ideally within an academic medical setting and with a focus on quality and patient safety.
• 2 years of supervisory experience required.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES REQUIRED:

• Advanced knowledge of project management methodologies and tools.
• A successful track record guiding high-stakes projects to their intended outcomes and facilitating cross-functional teams.
• Proven ability to manage multiple projects and responsibilities simultaneously, confront uncertainty, resolve conflict and risk, and adapt to change.
• Comfort leading projects end-to-end, ensuring timely delivery of high-quality deliverables throughout a project’s lifecycle and evaluating its outcomes against predefined goals.
• Critical thinking and the analytical mindset to apply structure and ingenuity to solve complex challenges.
• Strong leadership and team-building skills, influencing both with and without authority.
• Strong supervisory skills to mentor, support, and develop staff.
• Commitment to fostering an inclusive and diverse work environment.
• Exceptional time management, prioritization, and organizational skills.
• A self-directed workstyle, taking initiative while thriving in a setting that requires collaboration, teamwork, and matrixed oversight.
• Ability to respond effectively to time-sensitive issues and make independent decisions in a fast-paced, dynamic, and deadline-driven environment.
• Excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills and public speaking abilities.
• Ability to forge productive relationships with providers, staff, and leaders at all levels of the organization.
• Proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite and Smartsheet; expertise using data analysis, visualization, and/or survey tools and experience with electronic health records (preferably Epic) a plus.
• An understanding of the quality management landscape and familiarity with process/performance improvement methodologies helpful but not required.

At Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, we work every day to create an innovative, caring, and inclusive environment where every patient, family, and staff member feels they belong. As relentless as we are in our mission to reduce the burden of cancer for all, we are equally committed to diversifying our faculty and staff. Cancer knows no boundaries and when it comes to hiring the most dedicated and diverse professionals, neither do we. If working in this kind of organization inspires you, we encourage you to apply. 

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is an equal opportunity employer and affirms the right of every qualified applicant to receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, national origin, sexual orientation, genetic information, disability, age, ancestry, military service, protected veteran status, or other characteristics protected by law.   

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