Director, Digital Planning

Waste Management, Inc. (WM)•Houston, TX

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Digital Planning Director is a key leader within the Corporate & Enterprise Services Organization, responsible for shaping the Digital project portfolio and core budget annually, managing strategic vendor performance and value realization and serves as the Office of the CIO for WM Digital. This role partners directly with the Business and Digital Leadership to ensure that Digital investments are strategically aligned, economically sound, and executed with rigor, while translating investment roadmaps into clear, actionable plans and executive-level narratives. This role plays a key role in ensuring WM is investing in the right things, in the right way, with clear value and disciplined execution. In addition to investment management, the Planning Director works across Finance and Digital leadership to plan, optimize and steward the Digital core budget on a monthly basis. Lastly, the role also fosters a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement within the IT department and across the organization. This includes coordinating Digital-wide events, communications and sponsored CIO initiatives.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Administration or related field. Master's degree preferred.
10+ years in strategy, consulting, portfolio management, or corporate planning (technology or digital preferred)
Experience supporting CIO, CTO, or senior executive leadership in a strategy or planning capacity
Proven track record managing large-scale investment portfolios and financial planning processes
Experience collaborating with Supply Chain and Finance to deliver organizational outcomes
Experience working with third party professional services & technology vendors
Experience building or evolving governance and operating models
Experience in interpreting and building narratives with financial data
Strong strategic thinking and structured problem-solving
Strong stakeholder management and ability to influence senior leaders
Expertise in project economics, investment analysis and spend
Ability to drive process rigor and operating discipline at scale
Exceptional executive communication and storytelling skills
High ownership mindset with ability to operate in ambiguity and fast-paced environments

Nice To Haves

Master's degree preferred.

Responsibilities

Grow and manage the Planning team (5-7 resources – both employee and 3rd party/services). Direct reports include Planning Sr. Manager and Vendor Management Program Manager.
Partner with business and digital teams to coordinate, define and evolve the multi-year roadmap
Develop and deliver clear, compelling narratives for Digital and Business executives on actionable investment portfolio including sequencing, trade-offs, and dependencies
Support discussion and transparent decision-making and trade-offs at cross enterprise leadership levels
Continuously mature to disciplined portfolio governance model, including: Investment intake and prioritization, Stage gates and funding approvals, Ongoing portfolio reviews and rebalancing
Drive process rigor and standardization across digital planning, funding, and execution aligned with enterprise level investment processes
Partner with key project managers across the organization to drive visibility and tracking progress on project delivery
Partner with Finance to support planning & budgeting cycles (annual, quarterly, long-range)
Partner with Finance to institutionalize project economics frameworks across the portfolio. Track and report on value realization vs. plan, spend giveback, identifying gaps and driving corrective actions
Partner with Finance to help drive financial insights for digital leadership on total investments (projects + core) including - current variance budget, forward-looking forecast.
Identify and lead cost optimization and productivity initiatives tied to strategic priorities
Partner with Finance to drive financial discipline and accountability across the Digital organization
Support development of a holistic view of Digital vendor landscape, including spend, contracts, roles, and performance.
Partner with Finance and Supply Chain to enable cost optimization across vendor engagements
Drive visibility and proactively enable optimization opportunities across technology spend including AI.
Implement performance governance to ensure vendors deliver expected value and outcomes
Partner with digital leadership and value streams to implement scalable processes for vendor engagement across the lifecycle