Director, Digital Planning

Role Summary

The Digital Planning Director is a key leader within the Corporate & Enterprise Services Organization, responsible for shaping the Digital project portfolio and core budget annually, managing strategic vendor performance and value realization, and serving as the Office of the CIO for WM Digital. This role partners directly with the Business and Digital Leadership to ensure that Digital investments are strategically aligned, economically sound, and executed with rigor, while translating investment roadmaps into clear, actionable plans and executive-level narratives. This role plays a key role in ensuring WM is investing in the right things, in the right way, with clear value and disciplined execution.

In addition to investment management, the Planning Director works across Finance and Digital leadership to plan, optimize, and steward the Digital core budget on a monthly basis. Lastly, the role also fosters a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement within the IT department and across the organization. This includes coordinating Digital-wide events, communications, and sponsored CIO initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

• Grow and manage the Planning team (5-7 resources – both employee and 3rd party/services).
• Direct reports include Planning Sr. Manager and Vendor Management Program Manager.
• Digital Project Portfolio Planning:
• Partner with business and digital teams to coordinate, define, and evolve the multi-year roadmap.
• Develop and deliver clear, compelling narratives for Digital and Business executives on actionable investment portfolio including sequencing, trade-offs, and dependencies.
• Support discussion and transparent decision-making and trade-offs at cross enterprise leadership levels.
• Continuously mature to disciplined portfolio governance model, including: Investment intake and prioritization, Stage gates and funding approvals, Ongoing portfolio reviews and rebalancing.
• Drive process rigor and standardization across digital planning, funding, and execution aligned with enterprise level investment processes.
• Partner with key project managers across the organization to drive visibility and tracking progress on project delivery.
• Partner with Finance to support planning & budgeting cycles (annual, quarterly, long-range).
• Partner with Finance to institutionalize project economics frameworks across the portfolio. Track and report on value realization vs. plan, spend giveback, identifying gaps and driving corrective actions.
• Financial Strategy & Performance Management:
• Partner with Finance to help drive financial insights for digital leadership on total investments (projects + core) including - current variance budget, forward-looking forecast.
• Identify and lead cost optimization and productivity initiatives tied to strategic priorities.
• Partner with Finance to drive financial discipline and accountability across the Digital organization.
• Vendor Governance, Cost Optimization & Value Management:
• Support development of a holistic view of Digital vendor landscape, including spend, contracts, roles, and performance.
• Partner with Finance and Supply Chain to enable cost optimization across vendor engagements.
• Drive visibility and proactively enable optimization opportunities across technology spend including AI.
• Implement performance governance to ensure vendors deliver expected value and outcomes.
• Partner with digital leadership and value streams to implement scalable processes for vendor engagement across the lifecycle.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Administration or related field. Master's degree preferred.
• 10+ years in strategy, consulting, portfolio management, or corporate planning (technology or digital preferred).
• Proven track record managing large-scale investment portfolios and financial planning processes.
• Experience collaborating with Supply Chain and Finance to deliver organizational outcomes.
• Experience working with third party professional services & technology vendors.
• Experience building or evolving governance and operating models.
• Experience in interpreting and building narratives with financial data.

Skills

• Strong strategic thinking and structured problem-solving.
• Expertise in project economics, investment analysis and spend.
• Exceptional executive communication and storytelling skills.
• High ownership mindset with ability to operate in ambiguity and fast-paced environments.

Physical Requirements

Listed below are key points regarding physical demands, physical and occupational risks, and the work environment of the job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the job.

Office: This job primarily operates in a professional office environment and routinely requires the use of standard office equipment such as computers, phones, copy machines, etc.

Benefits

At WM, each eligible employee receives a competitive total compensation package that includes medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and short-term disability. In addition, we offer a stock purchase plan, company matching on a 401(k), and more. Employees also receive paid vacation, holidays, and personal days. Please note that benefits may vary by site.