Manager, Program Management Office

State of Colorado

$130K — $135K *
Education, Government & Non-Profit
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.
  • Five years leading technical project or program delivery.
  • Experience in large-scale initiatives spanning multiple departments.
  • Delivery experience in an agile environment (Scrum/Kanban) on enterprise applications.
  • One year in a supervisory role managing and developing staff.

Responsibilities

  • Own the end-to-end delivery of PMO projects, ensuring proactive progress.
  • Advance and adapt agile methodologies like Scrum or Kanban for evolving team needs.
  • Set and maintain delivery standards, ensuring work status is visible and issues are addressed early.
  • Facilitate agile practices and coach the team effectively on these methodologies.
  • Lead core business analysis functions, ensuring clear communication of requirements.

Benefits

  • No-cost or low-cost medical & dental plan options, including IVF assistance.
  • Disability, Life, and Vision Insurance options available.
  • Retirement plans with CU contributions and multiple options to choose from.
  • Pre-tax savings plans for health care and dependent care.
  • Generous vacation leave, sick leave, and at least 12 paid holidays.
  • Six weeks of parental leave for new parents.
  • Tuition benefits for you and dependents.
  • Free public transit access and onsite parking.
  • Additional perks and professional development opportunities.
Full Job Description
Salary: $130,000.00 - $135,000.00 Annually
Location : Denver, CO
Job Type: Full Time
Job Number: CU40463
Department: University of Colorado - System Administration
Opening Date: 07/17/2026
Closing Date: 7/27/2026 11:59 PM Mountain
FLSA: Determined by Position
Primary Physical Work Address: 1800 Grant St., Denver, CO 80203
FLSA Status: Exempt; position is not eligible for overtime compensation.
Department Contact Information:
Type of Announcement: This announcement is not governed by the selection processes of the classified personnel system. Applications will be considered from residents and non-residents of Colorado.
How To Apply: Online applications through the Colorado Jobs portal will not be accepted. Please follow instructions on the job announcement for submitting an application.

Position Summary:

The CU System Office of Advancement provides strategy, expertise, and service to our partners across CU's campuses and the University of Colorado Foundation, supporting the university's fundraising and engagement goals through advancement operations spanning constituent data, business intelligence, technical architecture, gift administration, marketing, IT, and more.

The Program Management Office (PMO) is the technical delivery function within System Advancement - the counterpart to Service Delivery, Training & Outreach. Where that team owns governance, training, and stakeholder adoption, the PMO owns the technical delivery and execution side: leading complex projects, performing business analysis, and stewarding the systems that run the work. Together, the two functions deliver whole solutions and change - not technology alone.

The Program Management Office (PMO) Manager leads this function and its team of project managers and business analysts. The role is accountable for delivery across a backlog of business-critical initiatives on the CU Ascend (Salesforce) platform and related systems; for advancing the team's agile ways of working; and for serving as connective tissue across development teams, Service Delivery, Training & Outreach, and the campuses and Foundation the work serves.

We are seeking a delivery leader who can mature an established PMO: raising delivery rigor, evolving methodology toward agile, building business analysis capacity, and owning the tools and standards that keep work transparent and moving.

Where You Will Work:

The CU System Office of Advancement follows a "flexibility first" approach to work, which guides how we manage and utilize in-person time. This hybrid position primarily operates remotely, with occasional in-office requirements as directed by your supervisor and up to four callback weeks per year, during which all team members are expected to be onsite.

Two of these callback weeks are required and typically occur in the spring and fall. Any additional callback weeks or in-office time will be determined by your supervisor.

During callback weeks, this role is expected to work onsite at the CU System Office located at 1800 Grant Street, Denver, Colorado.

Description of Job
Duties and Responsibilities:

Delivery & Methodology Leadership
  • Owns end-to-end delivery across the PMO's slate of projects, ensuring work advances proactively and predictably rather than reactively.
  • Advances the team's agile ways of working - assessing, selecting, and evolving methodology (Scrum, Kanban, flow-based delivery) to fit the work rather than applying a fixed model.
  • Sets and upholds delivery-rigor standards: current and accurate work status, near-term work visible, and blockers surfaced early and owned.
  • Facilitates agile practices (backlog refinement, planning, standups, retrospectives) and coaches the team to run them well.
  • Defines the metrics that make delivery health visible (flow, work aging, progress toward release) and uses them to drive improvement.

Business Analysis
  • Leads business analysis as a core discipline of the PMO: requirements eliciting requirements, analyzing processes, and framing business needs clearly for technical teams that own solution design.
  • Builds and grows BA capacity, including cross-training to expand analysis capability across the team.
  • Ensures shared understanding of business needs throughout delivery, refining requirements as the work evolves.

Product Ownership & Systems Governance
  • Serves as product owner for the team's work-management platform (Monday.com) - owning its configuration, standards, and governance.
  • Establishes consistent conventions for fields, statuses, workflows, and workspace structure, replacing ad hoc, siloed usage with a governed, transparent system.
  • Responds to and resolves system and integration issues affecting delivery, partnering with development teams as needed.

People Leadership & Coaching
  • Supervises and develops a team of project management and business analysis staff, setting direction, goals, and work plans.
  • Coaches team members toward proactive ownership, building the judgment to move work forward and raise issues without prompting.
  • Mentors across disciplines, developing both project-management and business-analysis skill sets.
  • Observes team dynamics, removes obstacles, and fosters effective collaboration.

Collaboration & Connective Tissue
  • Serves as the technical-delivery partner to Service Delivery, Training & Outreach - bridging the build side of solutions to governance, training, and adoption.
  • Coordinates across development teams, stakeholders, and the campuses and Foundation to deliver complete solutions, not technology in isolation.
  • Acts as liaison between Advancement leadership and delivery teams; represents the PMO's work in governance and prioritization decisions.
  • Partners with budget and finance on the financial elements of projects; drafts scopes of work, quotes, RFPs, and change requests for vendors; and manages vendor relationships and budgets on outsourced resources.

Minimum Qualifications, Substitutions, Conditions of Employment & Appeal Rights
Minimum Qualifications:
  • Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution, or equivalent professional experience on a year-for-year basis.
  • Five years leading technical project or program delivery, including:
    • Large-scale initiatives spanning multiple departments or working groups;
    • Facilitating planning and execution across executive leadership, managers, and delivery teams;
    • Delivery in an agile environment (Scrum/Kanban) on enterprise application work.
  • One (1) year in a supervisory role - managing, developing, and reviewing staff.

Preferred Qualifications:
  • Seven (7) years of directly related delivery-leadership experience.
  • Agile certification (e.g., CSM, PMI-ACP, SAFe, Kanban) and/or business analysis certification (e.g., IIBA/CBAP).
  • Experience coaching teams on delivery and analysis fundamentals.
  • Experience in the Salesforce ecosystem.
  • Prior experience in higher education, non-profit, or government IT.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
  • Strong command of agile delivery methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, flow) and the judgment to adapt them to context.
  • Experience leading business analysis and requirements practice, or strong working fluency in it.
  • Skill in operating a work-management platform as a product - configuring, governing, and reporting from a central tool (e.g., Monday.com).
  • Ability to make work transparent through clear, accurate metrics and status, and to use them to drive progress.
  • Strong communication, facilitation, and relationship-building skills across technical and non-technical audiences.
  • Sound decision-making and problem-solving under changing priorities and concurrent demands.
  • Understanding of complex, matrixed budget structures and vendor management.
  • Knowledge of advancement/development operations a plus.

Supplemental Information

How to Apply:

For full consideration, please attach the following as separate documents to your application at :
  1. A cover letter identifying the job specific minimum qualifications you possess and interest in the position.
  2. A resume including all relevant experience to be accurately assessed against the qualifications listed in the posting.

Benefits:

With our unparalleled range of benefits, including top-notch healthcare, comprehensive wellness programs, enriching professional development, and a dynamic work-life balance, we ensure your holistic growth and happiness.
  • No-cost or low-cost medical & dental plan options, some inclusive of IVF assistance.
  • Disability, Life, Vision Insurance options.
  • Multiple retirement planning options including a mandatory 401(a) plan where CU contributes 10% of your gross pay, a 401k or 403b plan and a 457 deferred compensation plan.
  • Pre-tax savings plans, such as Health care and Dependent care flexible spending accounts.
  • Embrace a healthy work-life balance with ample sick and vacation leave, along with at least 12 paid holidays. This includes a dedicated week off for winter break.
  • 6 weeks of parental leave to adjust to the joys of parenthood.
  • A tuition benefit program for you and/or your dependents.
  • Free RTD EcoPass and free onsite parking at our 1800 Grant Street Office.
  • Many additional perks & programs with the CU Advantage.

Additional taxable fringe benefits may be available.

For more information on benefits programs, please review our

Access our Total Compensation to see what your total rewards could be at CU. (This position is a University Staff position)
Please note that each agency's contact information is different; therefore, we encourage all applicants to view the full, official job announcement which includes contact information and class title. Select the job you wish to view, then click on the "Print" icon.

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