Senior Project Manager in Charlotte, NC at Sonic Automotive

Job Description

The Senior Project Manager is a member of the Enterprise Program Management Office (EPMO) at Sonic Automotive, Inc., a Fortune 500 company and one of the nation’s largest automotive and powersports retailers. In this role, you will deploy project management methodologies and implement governance processes and tools to enable consistent, high quality, execution of EPMO programs and projects across the company’s three business segments.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Lead planning, execution, monitoring, and successful delivery of complex, cross-functional projects.
• Manage all phases of the project lifecycle using EPMO governance standards, ensuring projects are delivered on time, within scope, and at expected quality levels.
• Demonstrate exceptional interpersonal, communication, facilitation, and presentation skills, with the ability to guide stakeholders throughout all organizational levels.
• Organize, facilitate, and lead project governance, planning, status, risk, and executive steering committee meetings.
• Develop and deliver concise, executive-level project communications, dashboards, and status reports that provide clear visibility into project health, milestones, risks, and dependencies.
• Partner closely with executive sponsors, business leaders, product owners, and cross-functional teams to define project objectives, scope, success metrics, and business outcomes.
• Establish and maintain comprehensive project plans, schedules, communication plans, and governance documentation throughout the project lifecycle.
• Proactively identify project risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies, developing mitigation and contingency plans while escalating critical concerns to leadership when appropriate.
• Facilitate team meetings and working sessions.
• Facilitate resolution of complex project challenges by driving collaboration and alignment among stakeholders.
• Build and sustain strong working relationships across business units, technology teams, vendors, and executive leadership to foster collaboration and successful project delivery.
• Lead cross-functional project teams without direct reporting authority, motivating team members through influence, accountability, and shared ownership of project outcomes.
• Effectively manage multiple, concurrent projects and competing priorities in a fast-paced enterprise environment while maintaining high standards of quality and execution.
• Monitor project performance using key performance indicators (KPIs), milestones, and communicate progress and recommend corrective actions as needed.
• Ensure adherence to the department’s project management methodologies, governance standards, compliance requirements, SDLC methodology, and quality management practices across assigned projects.
• Demonstrate the ability to independently manage highly visible, strategic initiatives with minimal supervision while maintaining executive confidence and stakeholder trust.
• Manage relationships with project vendors and third parties—tracking deliverables, milestones, dependencies, performance, and risks, and escalating contractual or service issues in close partnership with Procurement, Legal, and business stakeholders.
• Build and maintain project resource plans; spot capacity, capability, and resource constraints early, then work with functional leaders to resolve competing priorities and conflicts.
• Keep project deliverables tightly aligned with strategic objectives, business outcomes, and approved benefits; partner with sponsors and benefit owners to define, measure, track, and report benefits realization through the full project lifecycle and into post-implementation.
• Collaborate with business leaders and change-management teams to assess organizational impacts, business readiness, stakeholder adoption, training, communications, and transition needs so the outcomes stick.
• Leverage project management technology, analytics, and AI-enabled tools where appropriate to improve planning, risk identification, forecasting, reporting, decision support, and delivery efficiency.
• Coach, advise, and mentor project stakeholders on project management methodology and governance best practices.

• Bachelor’s degree and 10+ years of Project Management experience, including experience managing at the program level.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification is required.
• Demonstrate strong leadership and communication skills, including the ability to lead up, across, and down multiple business and technology organizations.
• Flexible with proven ability to adapt to shifting priorities, demands, and timelines through analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• Hands-on experience managing project resources, third-party vendors, and cross-functional capacity constraints in a matrixed environment.
• Proven track record with integrated change control, organizational readiness, and driving stakeholder adoption across enterprise environments.

• Experience with OKR/KPI frameworks and benefits realization.
• Exceptional executive presence and ability to influence without authority.
• Excellent verbal, written, collaboration, and team building skills.
• Problem solver with the initiative to think critically to identify improvement opportunities.
• Demonstrated ability to organize, coordinate, and execute details, while communicating the big picture to stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively manage multiple, concurrent projects.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in teams and as an individual contributor.
• Demonstrated systems-thinking capabilities and decisiveness in resolving business problems, making decisions, and identifying priorities.
• Create and maintain strong working relationships with stakeholders throughout the organization.
• Creative and collaborative problem-solving skills, systems-thinking capabilities, and ability to drive results in a matrixed environment.
• Experience in Agile and Waterfall methodologies
• Experience using Monday.com, Jira, and Confluence (preferred).

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

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