Business Portfolio Manager - Sr Director

Northwestern Mutual

About The Position

Summary: Provides thought leadership and portfolio management expertise and consultation to the business in order to meet department, cross-department and enterprise-wide goals. Plans, monitors and manages internal portfolios from initiation through rollout and ongoing portfolio management. Accountable for aligning multiple large, highly complex, strategic portfolios consisting of multiple efforts tied to business outcomes. Portfolio Management includes managing multiple different projects within a portfolio / portfolio which incorporate multiple larger initiatives and overseeing portfolios / portfolios and initiatives which are ongoing. Primary Duties & Responsibilities: Independently leads large, complex, and multi-faceted programs or portfolios. Responsible for managing scope, risk, business value, schedule and budget. Acts as a thought leader on portfolio management activities; develops strategy for planning and executing highly complex efforts. Implement and enhance best practices for optimized portfolio delivery. Serves as integration point to support complex, enterprise-wide initiatives. Enables and drives cross collaboration across other portfolios to create alignment. Maintains, and revises portfolio objectives and deliverables; accountable for defining the portfolio structure and creating a single, unified plan to deliver on portfolio objectives. Manages portfolios to ensure appropriate allocation of resources according to portfolio objectives, specifications, deliverables, and changes. Takes accountability for portfolio success. Drives for clarity on portfolio objectives, priorities, and measures. Develop solutions/recommendations to unique, high-impact problems with notable risk and complexity; develops portfolio solutions that have a broad impact on the business and are consistent with organizational objectives and strategy. Identifies, assesses, and mitigates portfolio risks and issues and removes impediments. Develops strong relationships with business clients to manage portfolio delivery expectations and implementation. Provides expert level portfolio management consulting, negotiation and influencing at all levels. Aligns all stakeholder leadership on strategy, business priorities, and approach to portfolio delivery. Responsible for gathering and impacts to metrics required by the portfolio. Uses data to make successes and challenges visible, and to drive insights and action plans to continually adjust and pursue portfolio goals. Applies extensive business acumen in depth and breadth of industry, and company initiatives and strategy, products complexities, integrates knowledge into portfolio objectives. Uses expert-level knowledge of portfolio management and business requirements to understand the key business drivers as they relate to the portfolios. Conduct highly complex analysis to identify scope and nature of portfolio deliverables; portfolios are intended to solve department or business need.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree with an emphasis in Business, Project Management or related field preferred OR a significant amount of directly related work experience beyond the minimum required for the position
Minimum 10 years of related experience managing complex portfolios and working with a range of diverse business areas.
Experience in strategic and operational planning and leading large, complex, cross-functional portfolios.
Experience in strategic and operational planning and leading multiple large, complex, cross-functional projects with organization-wide impact.
Ability to prioritize work and handle multiple tasks simultaneously, work under pressure and meet tight deadlines.
Proven leadership skills working with diverse teams.
Excellent written and oral communications skills with the ability to build rapport within the company, field and/or outside vendors.
Ability to establish and maintain strong relationships among leaders in the Home Office and Field.
Ability to get buy-in from all levels of leadership in strategic and operational functions.
Strong short term and long-term planning skills, coupled with ability to manage resources to response to business needs.
High degree of self-motivation with leadership and initiative in sharing information, contributing towards group goals, and accepting responsibility for results.
Demonstrated organizational agility to work across organizational boundaries, influence, and collaborate with all levels on solutions that benefit the organization.
Exceptional business acumen and focus on achieving business impact through progressive practices and sound business judgment.
Strong problem solving and strategic/critical thinking skills.
Facilitation and team building skills; ability to play an active, operational and communicative role.
Interpersonal savvy and comfort interacting with and presenting to all levels of the organization, including senior leaders.
Program Governance: Establishes and manages policies, processes, and structures to guide the decision-making, roles and responsibilities, and overall direction of the program. Defines the framework to ensure the program is aligned with organizational goals and is executing in compliance with requirements.
Program Management: Oversees and is responsible for the realization of larger workstream goals and manages activities that span across the program. Understands technical aspects of the program, defines scope, develops schedules, and manages resourcing, risks, and dependencies to deliver successful outcomes.
Prioritization: Assesses and accurately assigns priority levels to different tasks based on importance, urgency, and alignment to business and strategic goals.
StakeHolder Relationships: Organizes, influences, monitors, and improves relationships with key stakeholders; systematically identifies stakeholders and analyzes their needs and expectations to support in planning and decision making while implementing various tasks to engage with them.
Adaptive Communication: Formulates strategies to be used to convey complex information about services, products, systems, or processes to targeted audiences; communicates and liaises between technical and non-technical audiences.

Responsibilities

Independently leads large, complex, and multi-faceted programs or portfolios.
Responsible for managing scope, risk, business value, schedule and budget.
Acts as a thought leader on portfolio management activities; develops strategy for planning and executing highly complex efforts.
Implement and enhance best practices for optimized portfolio delivery.
Serves as integration point to support complex, enterprise-wide initiatives.
Enables and drives cross collaboration across other portfolios to create alignment.
Maintains, and revises portfolio objectives and deliverables; accountable for defining the portfolio structure and creating a single, unified plan to deliver on portfolio objectives.
Manages portfolios to ensure appropriate allocation of resources according to portfolio objectives, specifications, deliverables, and changes.
Takes accountability for portfolio success.
Drives for clarity on portfolio objectives, priorities, and measures.
Develop solutions/recommendations to unique, high-impact problems with notable risk and complexity; develops portfolio solutions that have a broad impact on the business and are consistent with organizational objectives and strategy.
Identifies, assesses, and mitigates portfolio risks and issues and removes impediments.
Develops strong relationships with business clients to manage portfolio delivery expectations and implementation.
Provides expert level portfolio management consulting, negotiation and influencing at all levels.
Aligns all stakeholder leadership on strategy, business priorities, and approach to portfolio delivery.
Responsible for gathering and impacts to metrics required by the portfolio.
Uses data to make successes and challenges visible, and to drive insights and action plans to continually adjust and pursue portfolio goals.
Applies extensive business acumen in depth and breadth of industry, and company initiatives and strategy, products complexities, integrates knowledge into portfolio objectives.
Uses expert-level knowledge of portfolio management and business requirements to understand the key business drivers as they relate to the portfolios.
Conduct highly complex analysis to identify scope and nature of portfolio deliverables; portfolios are intended to solve department or business need.