Who You Are

You are passionate about helping students achieve their educational goals. You thrive in a competitive and collaborative team environment. You are comfortable working remotely and have experience collaborating with others in a virtual environment. You possess a strong attention to detail.

The Director of Project Portfolio Management (PPM) leads enterprise technology portfolio governance, investment prioritization, project intake, demand management, and delivery oversight. This leader partners with executive stakeholders to align technology investments with institutional strategy, business outcomes, and financial objectives. The role establishes and matures portfolio management disciplines, drives transparency through executive reporting and performance metrics, chairs portfolio governance processes, and ensures successful execution of strategic initiatives. The Director also provides program leadership for complex, cross-functional initiatives, including major digital transformation efforts, while building a culture of accountability, value realization, and continuous improvement.

Compensation

ACE is committed to paying a competitive wage while staying true to our mission of maintaining high quality, affordable programs for our students. The starting salary range for this position is $175,000 plus all full-time employees are eligible for an annual bonus. Offers vary depending on education, prior experience, and expertise being applied to the role.

What We Look for in the Ideal Candidate
• Demonstrates self-reliance by meeting/exceeding workflow needs.
• Demonstrates positive attitude and motivation, concern for students, teamwork, and excellent time management skills.
• Follows established processes as outlined by organization and leadership.
• Completes assigned duties based on daily business needs and individual skill set.
• Consistently produces a high volume of quality work.
• Capable, and adapts as needed, to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines.
• Proven ability to work independently with limited supervision and with other department personnel.
• Must support and embrace the College's Impact mission to improve the people and communities we serve through our civic engagement initiatives.
• Must have exceptional communication, organization, and time management skills.
• Must be "self-motivated" as well as creative and efficient in proposing solutions to complex, time-critical problems.
• Must be collaborative in driving decisions and a team-player.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a high attention to detail.
• Builds and maintains student satisfaction.
• Recognizes and anticipates student needs.

Day to Day Responsibilities

In this role you will wear different hats, but your skills will be especially essential in the following areas:
• Leads the enterprise technology project and product portfolio, ensuring alignment with strategic priorities, resource capacity, and approved funding.
• Establishes and manages portfolio governance, project intake, demand management, prioritization, and stage-gate review processes.
• Facilitates IT Steering Committee meetings, providing data-driven recommendations, portfolio analytics, risk assessments, and decision support materials.
• Develops executive dashboards, KPIs, and portfolio reporting that measure delivery performance, investment value, strategic alignment, and benefits realization.
• Directs and mentors project managers, program managers, product owners, and external delivery partners.
• Oversees planning and execution of complex, enterprise-wide programs and digital transformation initiatives.
• Partners with business leaders, Finance, and Technology teams to develop business cases, investment roadmaps, and portfolio plans.
• Drives project management best practices, methodology adoption, resource planning, and organizational change management activities.
• Monitors portfolio risks, dependencies, budgets, and delivery health; escalate issues and recommend corrective actions.
• Evaluates and optimizes portfolio management tools, processes, and governance frameworks to improve organizational effectiveness.

Qualifications and Education Requirements
• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Business Administration, Project Management, or related field required, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in project, program, or portfolio management, including leadership responsibility for large-scale technology initiatives.
• 5+ years leading project managers, program managers, product owners, or cross-functional delivery teams.
• Demonstrated experience establishing and managing PPM governance, demand management, investment prioritization, and portfolio reporting processes.
• Strong knowledge of Agile, Waterfall, and hybrid delivery methodologies.
• Experience presenting to executive leadership teams, steering committees, and governance boards.
• Proven financial acumen, including business case development, budget management, and benefits realization tracking.
• Exceptional stakeholder management, communication, negotiation, and organizational leadership skills.
• Professional certifications such as PMP, PgMP, PfMP, PMI-ACP, SAFe, or equivalent project, program, portfolio, or Agile credentials are preferred.
• Experience with enterprise portfolio management platforms such as Wrike, Smartsheet, Planview, Azure DevOps, or similar solutions preferred.

Our Commitment to Employees

Just as we strive to empower our students for success, we also aim to enrich the lives of our employees. For 6 consecutive years, ACE was recognized as one of Indiana's Best Places to Work, winning the #1 spot for medium-sized companies in 2020. In addition, ACE has earned national recognition, being named a USA Top Workplace in 2022, 2023 and 2024. As a virtual first organization, we celebrate diversity and are committed to creating a family-like inclusive work environment. For our full-time employees, we offer the following benefits:
• Medical, dental, & vision Insurance
• HSA and FSA options
• Paid parental leave
• Paid volunteer time
• Tuition reimbursement & reduction programs
• Generous PTO
• 401k and employer match
• Full-service wellness and EAP program
• Employee recognition and awards programs
• Employer paid life & AD&D insurance
• Short-term disability
• Employer paid long-term disability
• And more...

Physical Demands

The physical demand described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to communicate with and receive communications from students and ACE employees in real time using online and other electronic media.

Additional Notes

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Employees are increasingly integrating AI into their roles, demonstrating its potential to boost efficiency,

accuracy, and productivity. By utilizing AI technologies, we can streamline processes, gain valuable insights from data, and automate routine tasks, which allows employees to concentrate on more strategic and creative aspects of their work. While AI is a beneficial tool in the workplace, if its use-such as ChatGPT, Grammarly, Copy.ai, etc.-accounts for more than 50% of any work assignments or job responsibilities, it will need to be reported to a direct leader.

Internet bandwidth speeds from an employee's remote work location must be a minimum of 50Mbps download speeds and 5Mbps upload speeds. Please note if the bandwidth is shared across multiple devices (tablets, computer, streaming, phone, etc.) you will need higher overall speeds. You can test the speed of your connection by visiting speedtest.net Purchase, setup, installation, support, and ongoing maintenance of reliable internet service is the responsibility of the individual.

American College of Education seeks to attract and retain a diverse staff consistent with its diverse student body and surrounding communities. At this time we cannot consider candidates residing in Alaska, Washington D.C., Massachusetts, South Dakota, or Alabama.