Manager, PMO

PowerPlan is looking for a Manager to lead, coach, and hold accountable a team of six to ten project managers delivering enterprise software implementation, upgrade, and optimization engagements. This is a front-line leadership role, not an administrative one: the Manager will establish evidence-based visibility into portfolio health, strengthen how project managers apply the PMO operating model, and build PMs who can lead engagements independently. Success is measured by team capability and portfolio discipline, not by how many projects the Manager personally has to rescue.

KEY PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES (First 12 Months)

OBJECTIVE 1: Establish evidence-based control of the portfolio (First 60-90 days and ongoing)

Outcome: Within the first 60-90 days, independently validate that every assigned project's reported health, financials, staffing, and forecasts are actually supported by evidence, rather than accepted on a project manager's confidence alone. Ensure materially at-risk engagements have time-bound recovery plans with clear owners, and deliver a formal written portfolio-health baseline to the Director, PMO at day 90.

Impact: A project manager's confidence in a project does not make it healthy. Establishing facts before accepting status keeps small problems from becoming customer escalations and preserves more recovery options while they still exist.

How: Review each engagement's plan, milestones, financials, staffing, dependencies, and customer behavior against what's being reported, on a set cadence of weekly project-level reviews and monthly portfolio-level reviews. Set clear thresholds for when a status needs to be challenged. Require corrective-action plans for projects outside tolerance and track recovery through closure.

OBJECTIVE 2: Coach and hold project managers accountable through real-situation development (Ongoing)

Outcome: Build a team of project managers who lead their projects with the PMO operating model rather than just completing templates against it. Coach using real, current project situations and case-based learning, while holding each PM to clear, direct performance expectations.

Impact: Coaching and accountability are not opposites. Supporting a PM's development and holding them to a clear performance bar have to happen at the same time, or PMs either stay dependent on the manager or drift without correction.

How: Hold regular one-on-ones focused on decision quality, not just status. Use live project situations as coaching material rather than hypotheticals. Give timely, specific, evidence-based feedback. Calibrate each PM's capability against the PowerMe framework. Address performance concerns directly and promptly rather than letting them ride, and differentiate skill gaps from capacity or accountability issues before deciding how to respond.

OBJECTIVE 3: Drive consistent, proportionate application of the PMO operating model (Ongoing)

Outcome: Ensure the PMO operating model is applied consistently enough across the portfolio to create real accountability, while keeping the model proportionate to each engagement's size, complexity, and risk so it doesn't become unnecessary administrative burden. Hold the team to standard operating cadences: weekly project status, monthly portfolio reviews, and quarterly business reviews with key customers.

Impact: The operating model only creates value when it improves decisions, accountability, and transparency. Project managers need to use it to lead the project, not just complete templates for it.

How: Reinforce lifecycle, governance, and stage-gate requirements. Confirm required artifacts, RAID logs, and status reports are current and actually useful rather than performative. Coach PMs on tailoring governance to engagement size and risk, and require a documented exception when standard governance genuinely doesn't fit. Hold PMs accountable for repeated failure to meet required operating standards, and raise low-value process and methodology improvement ideas directly to the Director, PMO.

OBJECTIVE 4: Strengthen financial and commercial discipline across the portfolio (Ongoing)

Outcome: Ensure project managers understand and actively manage the financial and commercial condition of their engagements, maintaining reliable visibility into revenue, budget, margin, estimate to complete, unscheduled backlog, and change exposure across the portfolio.

Impact: A project can hit its milestones and still produce a poor business outcome. PMs need to understand how their delivery decisions affect revenue, margin, and the broader Professional Services business, not just schedule.

How: Review financial performance and forecasts with PMs regularly. Validate estimate-to-complete and estimate-at-completion assumptions rather than accepting them at face value. Actively manage the unscheduled backlog so future demand and forecasts stay reliable. Monitor margin exposure and identify unplanned or out-of-scope effort early. Challenge unsupported revenue or completion forecasts, and require financial recovery actions when engagements move outside agreed tolerances. Partner with Finance and Practice Leadership on material exposure rather than owning it alone.

OBJECTIVE 5: Lead customer governance and cross-functional escalation (Ongoing)

Outcome: Support or directly lead customer governance and escalations when complexity, risk, or relationship strain exceeds a project manager's current authority, and help project managers resolve cross-functional dependencies with Product, Engineering, Support, Sales, and Finance.

Impact: Strong customer management does not mean avoiding difficult conversations. It means confronting risk early and keeping both PowerPlan and the customer focused on the agreed outcome, while strengthening the PM's credibility rather than displacing them.

How: Participate selectively in kickoff, steering committee, and recovery meetings. Establish clear escalation paths. Intervene directly when customer confidence or project viability is materially at risk, ensure commitments made during escalations are realistic and tracked, and transition leadership back to the PM once the issue is stabilized. Ensure cross-functional dependencies have named owners and dates, and escalate blockers with clear business and customer impact to the Director, PMO.

• Experience independently validating project health, financials, and forecasts against evidence rather than accepting status reports at face value.
• A track record coaching project managers through real project situations, building judgment and decision quality rather than only enforcing template compliance.
• Ability to apply governance and delivery standards proportionately, tailoring rigor to engagement size, complexity, and risk.
• Working knowledge of project financials, margin, estimate to complete, backlog, and change management practices.
• Experience leading customer escalations and governance conversations at the executive level, and knowing when to step back once an issue is stabilized.
• Direct people-management experience holding delivery professionals accountable while supporting their growth and independence.
• Strong analytical and communication skills, with the judgment to distinguish symptoms from root causes.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.

Please note that this is a hybrid role that involves a combination of onsite work from our corporate office as well as work from home. While we strive to accommodate flexible working arrangements when sensible, there will be times when onsite work is required. This could include scheduled office days, team meetings, client meetings, or special events.