Senior Director, Project Portfolio Management

Job title: Senior Director, Project Portfolio Management in Orlando, FL at Universal Parks & Resorts
Company: Universal Parks & Resorts
Job description: Universal Orlando Resort believes in-person collaboration is key to our success. Many of our Team Members work in a hybrid capacity, contributing from the workplace a minimum of three days per week. There are also roles that require being on-site full time. Limited remote opportunities may be available within specific departments. You’ll learn more about this during the recruitment process.JOB SUMMARY:Responsible for leading, optimizing and managing the portfolio of strategic transformation programs and projects for Digital & Technology at Universal Destinations & Experiences. Accountable for leading and optimizing Portfolio Operations including: portfolio planning; financial stewardship; resource management; vendor management; value realization framework; and optimized governance model.MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:Portfolio Planning and Financial Management:

• Provides guidance, leadership and fosters collaboration with Digital & Technology teams, internal / external functions, and key stakeholders. Responsible for strategy definition of the value being developed and driven from portfolio initiatives throughout the entire project/program lifecycle including value and benefit realization across business teams.
• Engage stakeholders to develop value steam roadmaps, including definition, intake, impact, prioritization, and alignment to the transformation roadmap. Provides timely and accurate portfolio reporting and visibility, conducts recurring review meetings of the portfolio and transformation plan.
• Partner with leadership and finance to ensure annual budgets and project costs are well managed. This includes tracking project related costs, managing risks and submitting change requests timely when needed. Oversee monthly forecasts for accuracy and completeness. Establish transparent OpEx and CapEx reporting with leader reviews to manage risks and meet financial targets.
• Oversee the production of management information and reporting to leadership team to provide assurance on delivery, and to facilitate informed decision-making. Responsible for LRP and AOP planning across Digital & Technology in partnership with key stakeholders. This role supports the portfolio both internationally & domestically destinations.

PMO Maturity, Process & Tools:

• Execute and contribute to process improvements and best practices across PMO to support delivery excellence.
• Work broadly with both business and Digital & Technology to ensure that best practice management structure and processes are implemented and managed to drive scope management and on-time/on-budget development and deployment.
• Responsible for optimization of existing tools including Jira, PPM tools and additional reporting tools as needed. The optimization includes validating leading practices and having the continuous improvement mindset to ensure that our tools and processes evolve as Digital & Technology continues to scale to the needs of the organization.

Governance:

• Establish and implement appropriate governance frameworks, processes, and templated for the PMO using established best practice methodologies.
• Escalates and engages appropriate leadership / key stakeholders to resolve significant issues that will impact deadlines as needed (scope, time, budget).
• Continuously assesses adoption of the governance framework within the organization and adapts strategy to ensure that the framework is applied consistently across the organization.

Agile Transformation:

• Demonstrate, lead, and contribute to the transformation to agile for the team as a PMO executive and leader on the team. This includes providing points of view on implementation of lean portfolio, optimization of existing processes to adapt to the Agile mindset and embracing and empowering teams to have a continuous improvement mindset.
• Understands and actively participates in Environmental, Health & Safety responsibilities by following established UO policy, procedures, training and team member involvement activities.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

EDUCATION:

• Bachelor's degree is required.
• Undergraduate degree (preferred) in business, engineering, technology, analytics, or related fields;
• or an equivalent combination of education.

EXPERIENCE:

• 10 + years in progressive transformation or technology enablement.
• Experience in project team leadership and large-scale portfolio planning and implementation.
• Experience in executive communication, relationship building and decision making.
• Experience with web and mobile development technologies/services, e-commerce platforms, operational and analytics data platforms, enterprise integration.
• Preferred: Lean Portfolio certification, Project management/agile certification (PMI, SAFe Agilist or similar) and/or certification in use of specific methodologies such as Lean Six Sigma, Agile (CSM), etc;
• Or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Your talent, skills and experience will be rewarded with a competitive compensation package.Universal is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at Universal Orlando via-email, the Internet or in any form and/or method without a valid written Statement of Work in place for this position from Universal Orlando HR/Recruitment will be deemed the sole property of Universal Orlando. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by Universal Orlando as a result of the referral or through other means.Universal Orlando Resort. Here you can.Universal Orlando is an equal opportunity employer. Universal elements and all related indicia TM & © 2025 Universal Studios. All rights reserved. EOE
Expected salary:
Location: Orlando, FL
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