Appen is hiring a PMO

About Appen

Appen is a leader in AI enablement for critical tasks such as model improvement, supervision, and evaluation. To do this we leverage our global crowd of over one million skilled contractors, speaking over 180 languages and dialects, representing 130 countries. In addition, we utilize the industry's most advanced AI-assisted data annotation platform to collect and label various types of data like images, text, speech, audio, and video.

Our data is crucial for building and continuously improving the world's most innovative artificial intelligence systems and Appen is already trusted by the world's largest technology companies. Now with the explosion of interest in generative AI, Appen is helping leaders in automotive, financial services, retail, healthcare, and governments the confidence to deploy world-class AI products.

At Appen, we are purpose driven. Our fundamental role in AI is to ensure all models are helpful, honest, and harmless, so we firmly believe in unlocking the power of AI to build a better world. We have a learn-it-all culture that values perspective, growth, and innovation. We are customer-obsessed, action-oriented, and celebrate winning together.

At Appen, we are committed to creating an inclusive and diverse workplace. We are an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

PMO is a leadership position accountable for the successful delivery of a portfolio of work to a client (s) or a set of internal initiatives. He/she owns a set of client projects and programs and portfolios and is responsible for successful delivery of a portfolio of work to a client(s), delivering contract obligations of the highest quality in the most efficient time. He/she partners relevant people Managers in mentoring people to meet client needs. He/she represents the portfolio interests liaising with other Departments. He/she partners and developing processes, frameworks and practices to maximise delivery efficiencies.

Responsibilities

• Project Management - Ensure successful delivery of a portfolio of work to a client(s).
• Provide and sign off on quotations of time, cost and recommended methodology to the Sales teams as part of the bid process
• Lead scoping of work and finalisation of specifications and requirements in partnership with Specialists for execution by Project Managers
• Manage and lead teams to project requirements. Ensure portfolio of projects are delivered on schedule, on budget and to quality requirements, utilizing best practice. Meet and exceed project budgets.
• Effective management of risks and issues. Pro-actively manage and escalate issues to mitigate against quality, budget and timeline slippage.
• Represent client project(s) portfolio interests to various Deparments to ensure that project priorities are aligned with the priorities of the portfolio
• Work with Sales, Specialists and other Departments to analyse novel project requirements and ensure readiness to deliver.
• Monitor and control margins, carry out P&L variance analysis, implement improvement strategies and participate in pricing strategies.
• Drive project management and delivery excellence and streamline efforts while introducing ideas for innovation and improvement into systems and processes:
• Work with Sales teams and PMO to define effective model of engagement between Sales and Client Services, including involvement in quoting stage, project hand-over and post-project feedback loop.
• Drive strategic needs of the portfolio. Own processes relevant to the portfolio; lead/participate in process documentation. Supports development of framework to support client.
• Continuously drive process improvement and innovation with measurable results.
• Monitor projects for compliance and provide regular feedback (individually and collectively)
• Provide inputs towards the improvement of Appen’s internal suite of tools.
• Provide excellent customer service across portfolio:
• Respond to and appropriately prioritize client requests and project delivery requirements as they arise. Address client requests and feedback with appropriate urgency and escalation
• Maintain and improve client satisfaction across portfolio. Manage reporting needs to client
• Complete periodic needs analysis and proactively listen for clients’ pain points and dissatisfaction. Drive appropriate resolutions.
• Ownership of the client relationship for assigned projects in partnerhsip with Sales and Delivery, where relevant.
• Stakeholder Management
• Communicate and report regularly to senior management on project status, highlighting risks, dependencies and mitigating actions being taken
• Serve as an escalation point and effectively escalate actions as required.
• Interact with a wide range of personalities; this includes building relationships with third party vendors externally and providing leadership internally across functional lines and business units.
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• A relevant university degree with strong academic performance
• Over 5 years experience in a project management role in a technology-oriented or services organization.
• 5 years experience in a client facing role.
• Experience managing teams and mentoring others.

• Good analytical skill and problem solving ability. Accountable and results-driven.
• Demonstrated experience creating productive, cooperative relationships and conflict resolution skills. 
• Strong communications skills, both written and oral.  Displays a high level of professionalism by setting appropriate examples in meetings and interactions with peers and team members.
• Commercial orientation and sound commercial judgement. Able to lead process improvement and innovation
• Track record of building and developing effective teams that deliver to customer requirements. Effectively coaches, mentors and trains peers and team members.
• Outstanding client service skills. Solid stakeholder management with demonstrated ability to influence people and facilitate outcomes

Appen is the global leader in data for the AI Lifecycle with more than 25 years’ experience in data sourcing, annotation, and model evaluation. Through our expertise, platform, and global crowd, we enable organizations to launch the world’s most innovative artificial intelligence products with speed and at scale. Appen maintains the industry’s most advanced AI-assisted data annotation platform and boasts a global crowd of more than 1 million contributors worldwide, speaking more than 235 languages. Our products and services make Appen a trusted partner to leaders in technology, automotive, finance, retail, healthcare, and government. Appen has customers and offices globally.