Job ID: MNSITE-1865-PC (90090814)
Labor/DOL/UI Project Coordinator with Oversight, Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Project auditing experience
Location: St Paul MN (DEED)
Duration: 12 months
Business Oversight Support Specialist
This role will provide additional insight and transparency into the projects they are assigned to.
Resources will provide expertise in the areas of project oversight and project management to ensure the portfolio is managed in a repeatable, structured and comprehensive manner to reduce risk.
Responsibilities:
• Be embedded in day to day project activities
• Serve as the liaison between the UI business, the project team, and vendors
• Review deliverables to ensure expected content and comprehensiveness
• Provide oversight and feedback through predetermined framework
• Provide oversight of projects to ensure project work, business SMEs, MNIT technical teams and vendor teams are meeting all Strategic Projects standards, escalating issues to program manager
• Provide guidance and assistance to project managers as needed
• Ensure requirements are traceable
• Assist with documentation and other assignments
• Business specialist will not answer for the UI program but will escalate to the program leadership
Minimum Qualifications
• 3 years project management or project coordinator experience
Desired Skills
• Experience with public sector work
• Project auditing experience
Description
The State of Minnesota’s Unemployment Insurance Program (UI), under the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) will be updating the Unemployment Insurance system. The system contains hundreds of sub-components and is accessed by several user types including applicants and employers.
The current UI system was designed, developed, and deployed in two phases with the last one delivered in October 2007. The overall approach and design were innovative for their time and allowed the program to weather the Great Recession of 2008 while delivering much better customer service and much higher overall performance than nearly all other states. However, some of the technology is now nearing 15 years old and simply needs to be updated and replaced. System design elements and technical architecture constrain policy changes and make managing the system over the long term impractical.
Finally, managing and maintaining both business and technical aspects of the current system requires very specific skills and knowledge unique to Minnesota UI. The modernization process will enable the UI system to respond better to change, require less maintenance, and ultimately better serve the public.
The Unemployment Insurance system is a critical public facing system that processes over $800,000,000 a year in taxes and benefits. Modernizing the UI system will enable DEED to decrease the time applicants and employers spend completing tasks; better determine program eligibility by improving data collection methods; and reduce the cost of program administration. Additionally, the UI program anticipates projects included in the modernization will improve customer service, increase flexibility and reduce legacy complexity, and reduce current and future system debt.
The Unemployment Insurance program is also currently providing additional programs based on the CARES act to address COVID-19 pandemic and the economic impacts on the state of Minnesota. These oversight resources will support UI staff in the oversight of the projects, while being flexible to quickly changing priorities, and evolving needs of the program.
Strong project oversight of the work has been built into the way the projects were defined, the procurement, and contracts. The oversight structure is already built and defined. This vendor will be expected to work within this structure. Changes to this structure, tools, and methods will be very limited and will be based on input from the external risk review and audit, not the vendor. The vendor will not be able to implement new structures or policies and must work within the existing structure.