Executive Director, Project Portfolio - PMO

Core Job Summary

The Executive Director, Project Portfolio - PMO - Central (A) provides oversight and direction for major university initiatives coordinated through the Enterprise Project Management Office (ePMO). The role helps to maintain a broad, forward view of the full project portfolio and ensures that projects are proactively managed, resourced appropriately, and executed efficiently across the institution, with a strong bias toward anticipating needs rather than reacting to issues.

Core Job Functions

• Oversees enterprise-scale President and C-suite initiatives and ensures alignment with goals and priorities.
• Collaborates with the Strategy & Transformation office and other departments to align timing, scope, and dependencies across initiatives.
• Leads the planning, prioritization, and execution of university-wide projects through a proactive, outcome-oriented management approach.
• Led the planning, prioritization, and execution of university-wide projects through a proactive, outcome-oriented management approach.
• Leads and oversees the project intake and chartering processes, ensures that proposed initiatives are appropriately submitted, reviewed, and prioritized, and defines objectives, roles, and success metrics before project launch.
• Maintains a broad, forward view of the full project portfolio, and anticipates conflicts, overlapping milestones, and coordination needs across departments.
• Develops and maintains a comprehensive view of timelines, milestones, and dependencies to support coordination and decision-making.
• Identifies and fills resource or process gaps before they affect project outcomes.
• Drives portfolio visibility through advanced timeline management, integrated boards, and dashboards that support leadership insight.
• Maintains a broad, forward view of the full project portfolio, and anticipates conflicts, overlapping milestones, enterprise capacity bottlenecks (people, funding, and technology), and coordination needs across departments in partnership with the Strategy & Transformation team.
• Uses tools such as Smartsheet or equivalent platforms to manage dashboards, task boards, and overall portfolio visibility.
• Makes sure intersections between projects are anticipated to coordinate resolution among teams.
• Establishes accountability across all workstreams through clear project charters, RAID logs, and milestone ownership.
• Oversees disciplined management of workstream plans, and ensures accurate tracking of scope, timeline, and deliverables.
• Promotes a proactive, forward-driven management style focused on foresight and continuity rather than reaction.
• Establishes and maintains a structured reporting cadence, including daily updates to operational partners, biweekly summaries to leadership, and board-level reporting for major initiatives.
• Provides daily updates and coordination support for operational leaders to maintain alignment and momentum.
• Provides biweekly portfolio updates, and summarizes accomplishments, next steps, risks, and resourcing needs for university leadership.
• Prepares and supports presentations for executive and board reviews, and summarizes progress on high-profile initiatives.
• Continuously refines project management practices, governance procedures, and reporting effectiveness for the ePMO.
• Mentors project managers to strengthen planning, ownership, and communication skills across the ePMO.
• Models accountability, clarity, and disciplined follow-through, and ensures all projects deliver quality outcomes on schedule.
• Establishes and continuously assesses the effectiveness of the internal controls within the unit and compliance with University policies and procedures.
• Ensures employees are trained on controls within the function and on University policy and procedures.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in relevant field
• Experience: Minimum 7 Years Of Relevant Experience
• Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes: Strategic Alignment: Skilled in aligning departmental goals with enterprise-wide strategy and develops comprehensive strategic plans.
  Fiscal Management: Ensures fiscal responsibility, and optimization of financial performance.
  Resource Management: Ability to allocate resources and drive innovation and growth.
  Adaptability: Proven ability to adjust to changes and leads/inspires transformational change.
  Team Leadership: Ability to build and lead high-performing teams, manage complex projects, and ensure successful project delivery.
  Technology & Analytics: Understanding of technology, data analytics, and performance measurement to drive strategic decisions and identify opportunities.
  Communication: Ability to influence others, articulate strategic vision, and ensure clear and persuasive communication.