Our Consultant Spotlight series is an opportunity to meet our team at HRchitect. Every month we shine a spotlight on a consultant for you to learn more about. Get to know more about Jacob Coburn in this month’s Consultant Spotlight.
Jacob Coburn, Project Manager, brings over 20 years of experience working within IT and over 16 years working as a Business Analyst and Project Manager to the HRchitect team. Jacob is a Certified UKG Implementation Partner Consultant and a Certified UKG Pro and UKG Dimensions Project Manager. In his role, he manages people and processes on both the client-side and HRchitect consulting team side to ensure successful implementations of UKG Pro and UKG Dimensions. Jacob has an excellent understanding of requirements gathering and documentation and is well-versed in Project Management concepts and tools. Along with his Project Management and Business Analysis experience, he has a strong reporting background, including SQL coding, Cognos BI and Excel.
Hometown: Sanbornville, New Hampshire, but I currently reside in Rhode Island
Alma mater: I attended Rhode Island College and received a Bachelor of Science, in Computer Information Systems.
Tell us something interesting about yourself: I served four years in the US Navy on a nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Hartford. I served in the North Atlantic and traveled under the ice at the North Pole.
All-time favorite restaurant: La Floresta in Arcos, Portugal. The food is simple and fresh. The scenery is great.
What are you looking forward to this summer: I have some weekend trips planned with my family including a family wedding. I am also looking forward to a Dave Matthew’s concert in July and a trip to Las Vegas in August with my wife and friends.
Favorite television series: Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Seinfeld
What do you do when you’re not working? I have three children and two dogs which keep me very busy. My children are involved in cross-country running and recreational and league soccer, so I’m typically at a cross-country meet and at the soccer fields or traveling for soccer tournaments.
How did you find out about HRchitect, and what made you join the company? ? I worked at Johnson and Wales University as an HRIS Manager and an IT Business Analyst for over 9 years. One of my former colleagues and now current colleague, Jocelyn Daggett, joined HRchitect as an HCM Consultant. HRchitect was looking for a Project Manager with UKG experience, which is my skillset, and she thought it would be a great fit. I submitted my resume and received a direct call from the EVP of Implementation Services. After several personable calls with the leadership team, I joined the HRchitect team. That was in 2021.
How has your background impacted your experience as a Project Manager? My solid IT background combined with my HR experience has allowed me to help my clients on the technical side of these projects, such as integration, and implementation fundamentals. With that unique perspective, I can offer my clients creative solutions during the implementation process.
In your own words, what do you do at HRchitect? My role at HRchitect as a Project Manager entails coordinating the entire project team’s efforts. From the client’s aspect to our solution and time consultants, our integration specialists, all the talent modules, etc., I manage the coordination of all those efforts to meet the end goal and the desired outcome for the client. I am currently managing 10 projects, so that keeps me very busy.
What’s a typical workday like for you? I am up at 5:50 am to get my kids ready for school and let our dogs out. My children are at three different schools with different starting times, so we have a busy morning routine. I then check my email as I have several clients located in different time zones and in other countries such as Luxembourg, India, and the Philippines, so it is imperative to address any emails that might have come in while I was offline. Depending on the day, I am on calls most of the day with clients, interacting with my team on Slack, and going through email. I take a break at lunch and then I get back to work and wrap up my day. Then after work, I head out with my kids for their sporting activities.
Tell me about a project you’ve worked on that you’re particularly proud of. Gen II Fund Services is a project that comes to mind that I am very proud of. Our team received numerous compliments from the project sponsor for our team’s work. My team’s service level to our client was top-notch. That really made me proud.
What’s been one of your favorite destinations to travel? My favorite place to travel so far has been Portugal. My wife’s family is from there and my wife’s grandmother still lives there. Our family has visited three times since 2017. It has been wonderful to visit relatives and for my children to be exposed to other cultures and learn about their heritage.
As part of a team that works 100% virtually, what technology or collaboration tools do you use to make your work life easier? Our team uses Slack extensively. It is a great collaboration tool for quick Q&A, issue resolution, and of course social banter. I also actively use Zoom and Smartsheet.
What motivates you to wake up and go to work every day? Besides juggling to get my three children out of the house every morning for school, my job as a Project Manager and my team motivates me.
Which employee perk that HRchitect offers do you enjoy the most? Why? I thoroughly enjoy the Unlimited PTO.
Learn more about Jacob on LinkedIn