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Director of Enterprise Portfolio Project Management
The American Physical Society is a nonprofit membership organization working to advance physics by fostering a vibrant, inclusive, and global community dedicated to science and society. APS represents more than 50,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories, and industry in the United States and around the world.
Position Summary: Reporting to the Chief Finance and Operations Officer (CFOO), the Director of Enterprise Portfolio Project Management oversees the organization's project portfolio, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives and maximizing operational efficiency. This role is responsible for implementing and maintaining portfolio management strategies, processes, and tools, facilitating effective stakeholder engagement, and ensuring optimal resource allocation across projects. This role is responsible for facilitating organizational change, driving strategic alignment and operational efficiency within a complex project environment and overseeing and managing the organization s portfolio of projects. The day to day focus will be to ensure cross-organizational alignment with strategic objectives and efficient resource utilization against strategic outcomes and measures and to coordinate project prioritization and evaluation to adhere to strategic, budgetary, and quality standards.
This role requires a proactive approach to risk management and champions a culture of continuous improvement and innovation within the portfolio management framework. The Director of Enterprise Portfolio Project Management focuses primarily on portfolio management, strategic alignment, resource optimization, and organizational efficiency. Key responsibilities include leading change management initiatives to support the adoption of new processes and track progress for organizational goals by conducting regular portfolio performance assessments via key performance indicators.
APS has a remote first concept that promotes equal treatment and equal access within the United States, independent of physical work location, with a majority of staff working primarily from home. APS values diversity and welcomes candidates from a variety of backgrounds. APS offers a dynamic work environment with an outstanding total compensation package, including salary, outstanding benefits, and excellent paid time off.
Key Responsibilities:
Strategic Portfolio Management:
Develop and maintain the project portfolio strategy and processes aligned with organizational objectives.
Coordinate and implement portfolio management tools, processes, and frameworks to enhance decision-making effectiveness and efficiency.
Conduct ongoing reviews and audits of existing projects.
Facilitate and coordinate the project portfolio group to ensure clarity of purpose and effective operation.
Introduce portfolio management to the organization and support stakeholders in adopting processes, including coordination with Goal Leads and the portfolio managers
Support a communication strategy to keep stakeholders informed.
Evaluate, prioritize, and select projects based on strategic criteria, resource availability, risk assessment, and change impact.
Coordinate with project leads to ensure adherence to timelines, budgets, and quality standards.
Conduct change impact assessments at the portfolio level.
Provide change management expertise and support across the portfolio to guide projects through organizational change.
Foster buy-in and adoption of new processes and systems, ensuring stakeholder alignment with strategic changes.
Develop strategies to increase resilience and adaptability of impacted teams/groups.
Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) to track portfolio health, identify trends, and implement corrective actions.
Innovation, Evaluation and Continuous Improvement:
Foster a culture of agility, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement within portfolio management processes.
Stay abreast of industry trends, best practices, and emerging tools related to project portfolio management.
Conduct regular portfolio reviews and communicate updates to key stakeholders, advising on project viability and progress.
Identify and mitigate portfolio-level risks and dependencies to minimize disruptions.
Support department-level resource allocation and capacity planning to optimize utilization.
Leadership:
Collaborate on the selection, implementation, training and roll-out of portfolio and project management tools.
Support training and facilitation to drive transformation and ensure long-term adoption.
Lead project quality assessments and post-mortem analyses to support continuous improvement.
Work with SLT to refine and track KPIs and project metrics across the portfolio.
Establish and maintain program management governance frameworks, methodologies, standards, and best practices.
Mentor if necessary team members, fostering a high-performance work culture.
Scope & Relationships:
Individual contributor
Internal relationships with SLT, CMT and Goal Leads
Team size, 2+ direct reports plus numerous cross-organizational relationships
Qualifications: Education:
Bachelor s degree, preferably with a focus relevant to the defined responsibilities of the role. Directly applicable experience may be accepted in lieu of a degree.
Preferred Certifications:
PMP certification and/or other industry and project management certification
Project Management Consultant (PMC )
PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP)
PgMP (Program Management Professional)
Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
Salesforce.com (SFDC)
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
Experience:
Minimum of 8 years of experience in portfolio management, program management, and/or project management.
Minimum of 5 years of experience in change management and/or leading large-scale transformations to achieve strategic business goals.
Preferred experiences include a combination of the following:
Portfolio management and/or leadership roles.
Business planning experience.
Leadership experience in change management and change communications
Experience in process/continuous improvement, such as Shingo, Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, or Six Sigma Black Belt.
Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement and management skills with ability to influence stakeholders (at all levels) and present information in a concise way that enables effective decision making.
Proficiency in project management methodologies and tools (e.g., Agile, Waterfall, Asana, AirTable, Microsoft Project, etc.).
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
Demonstrated success in managing complex portfolios of projects to meet strategic business goals.
Experience leading strategic and operational cross-organizational change initiatives.
Experience working with and influencing cross-functional teams and executive stakeholders.
Proficiency in project management methodologies and tools (e.g., Agile, Waterfall, Asana, AirTable, Google Workspace, Microsoft Project).
Strong analytical skills to interpret data and make data-driven recommendations.
Financial acumen for budget management and resource allocation.
Ability to prioritize competing demands and oversee multiple projects simultaneously.
Team building, coaching, and change management skills to drive adoption of new portfolio management processes.
Adaptability and flexibility to navigate changing priorities and environments.
Exceptional presentation and communication skills.
Strong organizational skills with attention to detail.
Experience in company-wide change management initiatives.
Knowledge of project management and agile methodologies/concepts.
Strong conflict resolution skills.
Ability to build and sustain collaborative working relationships at all levels.
Ability to adapt to changing priorities.
Ability to work well with interdepartmental teams as well as independently.
Travel:
This position requires up to 10% travel to attend events and meetings, including travel to APS offices in Long Island, NY; Washington DC; and College Park, MD, as well as other off-site locations for periodic meetings and training sessions. Additional travel may be required as assigned by the supervisor.
Salary:
The salary range for this position takes into account various factors influencing compensation decisions, such as skill sets, experience, training, and other business and organizational requirements. The salary listed within the specified ranges considers relevant experience. Our compensation philosophy at APS aims to maintain salaries at the midpoint of the market. As a result, we typically hire within the target starting range. Exceptional, rare cases may merit reviews above target starting range for specialized or niche skills aligned with strategic operational goals.