Senior Director, Institutional Initiatives Portfolio Management

Position Summary

The Senior Director, Institutional Initiatives Portfolio Management serves as the University PMO's lead implementation partner for strategic initiatives sponsored by the President's Office, Provost's Office, and other senior university leaders. While executive leadership establishes the institution's strategic priorities and desired outcomes, this role is responsible for translating those priorities into actionable implementation strategies that drive successful execution across the university.

About the Role

Serving as a key connector across the institution, the Senior Director builds strong partnerships with Information Technology, Finance, Human Resources, academic schools, administrative units, and other functional leaders to develop practical, sustainable solutions that advance the strategic priorities of the President and Provost. The role works closely with PMO peers responsible for Change Management and Process Improvement to assess organizational readiness, stakeholder impacts, business process implications, adoption strategies, and opportunities for operational enhancement, ensuring implementation plans address both project delivery and the broader organizational changes required to achieve lasting success.

Responsibilities

• Translate strategic vision and desired outcomes into actionable implementation plans.
• Evaluate implementation alternatives, organizational impacts, resource requirements, risks, benefits, trade-offs, and long-term sustainability.
• Conduct research on leading practices, benchmarks, and industry approaches.
• Engage stakeholders across the university to facilitate cross-functional discussions and develop comprehensive implementation recommendations.
• Ensure technology options are thoroughly evaluated, implementation approaches align with institutional technology standards, and technical and business workstreams remain fully coordinated throughout the project lifecycle.
• Provide executive oversight for the portfolio of strategic initiatives approved by the President's and Provost's Offices.
• Lead a team of experienced project managers while partnering with PMO colleagues and university stakeholders to establish governance structures, implementation plans, priorities, timelines, resource strategies, and success metrics.
• Proactively manage risks, resolve complex issues, facilitate executive decisions, coordinate stakeholders, monitor progress, and ensure senior leadership maintains visibility into project status, dependencies, challenges, and expected outcomes.

Qualifications

• Required Education: Bachelor's Degree
• Preferred Education: Master's Degree
• Required Experience: 10+ years of demonstrated experience leading a project management team or working in a consulting/PMO organization. Working in a complex matrix environment with stakeholders at various levels. Understanding of project management deliverables such as executive level presentations, status reporting, and managing project plans.
• Preferred Experience: 2+ years Experience working in higher education. and 7+ years Experience working in a consulting organization such as McKinsey, Deloitte, Accenture

Skills, Knowledge and Abilities

• Demonstrated skills in understanding core project management methodologies.
• Excellent analytical and problem solving skills.
• Excellent interpersonal, written and verbal skills.
• Excellent presentation skills.
• Ability to work with diverse teams to achieve objectives.
• Ability to build consensus among diverse constituencies.
• Ability to work effectively with technical and functional teams to achieve desired outcomes.
• Ability to communicate with stakeholders at all levels and ability to tailor the communication style accordingly.
• Develops information technology project solutions by formulating objectives; planning project life-cycle deliverables and resource availability and application; preparing installation and modification specifications; leading the exploration, evaluation, and design of technical solutions.
• Ability to communicate effectively with individuals at all levels.
• Excellent strategic planning and problem solving skills.
• Ability to function effectively in a fast-paced, high pressure environment and progress on multiple projects simultaneously.

Additional Information

In compliance with NYC's Pay Transparency Act, the annual base salary range for this position is USD $220,000.00 to USD $260,000.00. New York University considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, as well as, market and organizational considerations when extending an offer. This pay range represents base pay only and excludes any additional items such as incentives, bonuses, clinical compensation, or other items. NYU aims to be among the greenest urban campuses in the country and carbon neutral by 2040. Learn more at nyu.edu/nyugreen. NYU is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to a policy of equal treatment and opportunity in every aspect of its recruitment and hiring process without regard to age, alienage, caregiver status, childbirth, citizenship status, color, creed, disability, domestic violence victim status, ethnicity, familial status, gender and/or gender identity or expression, marital status, military status, national origin, parental status, partnership status, predisposing genetic characteristics, pregnancy, race, religion, reproductive health decision making, sex, sexual orientation, unemployment status, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis. All interested persons are encouraged to apply at all levels.