Senior Consultant (Portfolio)

About the Role

The Senior Portfolio Consultant will define, lead, and evolve the organization’s portfolio management capabilities across strategy, process, technology, and analytics. The primary objective is to operationalize the EST’s portfolio governance playbook—turning documented process intent into adopted, repeatable behavior among project, demand, and resource managers. This role owns the governance cadence, status reporting standards, and stakeholder change management required to drive adoption, and establishes mechanisms to track and measure value realized from technology implementations, process efficiency initiatives, and change enablement programs.

This role requires deep expertise in portfolio and program governance—ideally gained in complex, multi-stakeholder, or academic medical center environments—combined with strong analytical fluency to translate portfolio data into actionable insight. Prior ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) experience is not required, but the successful candidate must learn the platform quickly to coach stakeholders on process. The Senior Portfolio Consultant will lead the design and implementation of portfolio management processes leveraging ServiceNow SPM and Tableau-based analytics to enable data-driven decision-making across demand intake, prioritization, investment planning, and portfolio performance management.

The role works cross-functionally with business leaders, technology teams, and data stakeholders to establish scalable portfolio governance frameworks, modernize portfolio analytics, and strengthen transparency, forecasting accuracy, and strategic alignment. As the governance foundation matures, the Senior Portfolio Consultant will identify and champion opportunities to apply AI-enabled capabilities—such as intelligent demand triage and automated portfolio insight generation—within the portfolio lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Governance Adoption and Stakeholder Change Management
  • Own the portfolio governance cadence—intake, prioritization, status, and review forums—and the status reporting standards used across the EST.
  • Partner with department leads and project, demand, and resource managers to embed standardized portfolio management practices into daily operations, coaching for adoption and driving accountability without direct authority.
  • Design and execute the stakeholder change management approach for portfolio process rollouts, including communications, training touch points, and adoption measurement.
  • Serve as a trusted advisor to EST leadership on governance maturity, surfacing adoption risks and behavioral barriers early and recommending course corrections.
• Financial Performance Management
  • Oversee financial performance across all active projects and programs within the internal consulting portfolio.
  • Direct the tracking of budget vs. actual performance for each initiative; interpret variances and partner with project managers and program leads to agree and drive corrective actions.
  • Ensure the accuracy, timeliness, and decision-readiness of portfolio financial data maintained in ServiceNow SPM and associated tracking systems.
• Portfolio Cost and Resource Analytics
  • Direct analysis of portfolio-level spending trends, resource utilization, and forecasted demand to support strategic workforce and investment planning.
  • Collaborate with HR, Finance, and initiative leads to align FTE allocations, effort tracking, and financial forecasts with portfolio priorities.
  • Act on early indicators of resource constraints, capacity gaps, or underutilization across the portfolio, framing trade-off decisions for leadership.
• Benefits and Value Realization Management
  • Own the standardized benefits realization framework—metrics such as ROI, cost avoidance, operational efficiency, and expanded access—and evolve it as the portfolio matures.
  • Partner with initiative owners to define, validate, and hold ownership for expected and realized benefits across financial and non-financial dimensions.
  • Report realized value across the portfolio to leadership, ensuring alignment with UCSF’s strategic priorities of mission, quality, equity, and access.
• Executive Reporting and Decision Support
  • Own the executive portfolio reporting narrative: set reporting standards, review analyst-produced dashboards and packages, and present insights and recommendations to leadership.
  • Deliver monthly and quarterly portfolio reporting to executive audiences, summarizing financial performance, benefits realization, risk exposure, and strategic recommendations.
  • Provide actionable recommendations that support prioritization, deferral, acceleration, and investment-adjustment decisions.
• Governance Process Design and Facilitation
  • Design and facilitate the portfolio governance process—demand intake, triage, investment review, and portfolio review forums—using financial, capacity, and value analytics.
  • Serve as process owner and escalation point for portfolio financial and value reporting standards; maintain transparent documentation and audit trails supporting governance decisions.
  • Guide and advise less experienced consultants and analysts, including day-to-day direction of the Portfolio Consultant’s governance-support work.
• Portfolio Capability Evolution
  • Identify and pilot opportunities to apply AI-enabled capabilities within the portfolio lifecycle—including intelligent demand triage, automated portfolio health analysis, and AI-assisted insight generation—in partnership with IT and data governance stakeholders.
  • Recommend enhancements to portfolio processes, analytics, and tooling that improve transparency, forecasting accuracy, and strategic alignment.

About the Department

UCSF’s Enterprise Strategy and Transformation (EST) is an internal business advisory unit of skilled professionals who provide consulting services to UCSF Enterprise. The EST works with central leaders, the schools, and department staff to implement both campus-wide and unit-specific operational improvements. Services include strategic planning, business process improvement, systems implementations, and organizational restructuring. The EST leverages skills in project management, group facilitation, change management, and Lean transformation to guide the organization toward collaboratively identified, workable solutions.

Qualifications

• Required:
  • Bachelor's degree in related Organizational Change, Business Administration, or equivalent experience/training. Advanced degree preferred.
  • Advanced knowledge of project, program, and portfolio management within the management consulting field, including theories and models to assess, design, and implement strategic organizational interventions.
  • Advanced knowledge of the consulting process to effectively lead engagements from inception to conclusion.
  • Demonstrated advanced analytical, problem-solving, project planning, and implementation skills.
  • 12+ years of experience in project/program/portfolio financial management or strategic financial analysis.
  • Strong understanding of benefits realization and value measurement frameworks.
  • Ability to consult with managers and groups at all levels, focusing on priorities, strategies, and vision.
  • Ability to learn quickly, reason, synthesize, and draw unbiased conclusions.
  • Ability to coach, facilitate, and influence people at all levels of client teams, persuading through logic and positive motivations.
  • Strong consulting, relationship-building, and strategic thinking skills, with demonstrated ability to lead teams with minimal supervision.
  • Ability to apply change management in implementing programs and establish and manage project governance groups.
  • Ability to assess needs, design services/programs, and anticipate obstacles to plan for contingencies.
  • Strong verbal, written communication, and presentation skills.
• Preferred:
  • Experience in higher education, healthcare, or mission-driven environments.
  • Financial acumen, including budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, and ROI modeling.
  • Knowledge of the organizational environment of higher education and large research universities to understand client issues, motivations, and constraints.
  • Advanced knowledge of the Systems Development Life Cycle to assess, design, and implement new technology systems.
  • Experience using AI to elevate domain expertise, producing higher-quality insights and reusable patterns.