Project Manager, Employee Experience & HR Technology Director - (B6)

Applied Materials • Santa Clara, CA

14d • Onsite

About The Position

The Director, Employee Experience Portfolio & HR Technology Delivery serves as the strategic portfolio leader responsible for driving execution excellence across the HR function's most critical transformation, employee experience, and HR technology initiatives. Operating at the intersection of HR Centers of Excellence (COEs), Global Information Services (GIS), and HR leadership, this role provides enterprise-level portfolio oversight, governance leadership, and strategic planning support to ensure initiatives align with business objectives and deliver measurable outcomes. As a senior individual contributor, this role influences without direct authority, bringing executive-level rigor, visibility, and accountability to the HR investment portfolio. The Director partners closely with the HR Technology Leader, COE executives, and the VP of Employee Experience to establish strategic priorities, guide investment decisions, identify organizational risks, and drive alignment across a complex portfolio of initiatives. This role does not directly manage project execution teams but serves as the senior leader responsible for ensuring that appropriate governance, planning disciplines, prioritization frameworks, and delivery mechanisms are in place to enable successful outcomes. The ideal candidate combines deep expertise in portfolio management, HR transformation, enterprise technology delivery, and organizational change leadership, with the executive presence necessary to influence senior leaders and navigate highly matrixed environments.

Requirements

• 10-15+ years of progressive experience in portfolio management, enterprise PMO leadership, HR transformation, HR technology, or large-scale business transformation initiatives.
• Experience leading enterprise portfolios or PMO functions supporting complex, cross-functional organizations with multiple concurrent strategic initiatives.
• Demonstrated success partnering with executive leadership teams, influencing strategic decisions, and driving alignment across matrixed organizations.
• Significant experience overseeing HR technology transformations, including Workday, HRIS, employee experience platforms, or enterprise-wide system deployments.
• Experience developing and governing enterprise roadmaps, investment portfolios, and strategic planning processes.
• Deep expertise in portfolio governance, program management, resource planning, risk management, and organizational change leadership.
• Strong understanding of HR processes, employee lifecycle programs, HR operating models, and supporting technologies.
• Ability to evaluate complex organizational dependencies and align business, process, technology, and people considerations.
• Experience building executive dashboards, portfolio reporting frameworks, and investment prioritization methodologies.
• Familiarity with Agile, Product Delivery, Waterfall, and hybrid delivery frameworks at scale.
• Executive presence with the ability to influence senior leaders and drive action without formal authority.
• Strong business acumen and strategic thinking, capable of connecting portfolio decisions to broader organizational goals.
• Exceptional facilitation and stakeholder management skills across executive, functional, and technical audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity, competing priorities, and organizational complexity.
• Proven track record of building alignment across diverse stakeholder groups and driving enterprise-wide outcomes.
• Exceptional communication skills, including executive presentations, roadmap storytelling, and strategic recommendations.
• High degree of accountability, judgment, and organizational influence.

Nice To Haves

• Background in Employee Experience, HR Operations, HR Transformation, Digital HR, or Workforce Technology strongly preferred.
• Experience operating within large, global organizations undergoing significant transformation.

Responsibilities

• Lead the strategic governance and oversight of the HR transformation and HR technology portfolio, ensuring initiatives align with enterprise priorities, resource capacity, and business outcomes.
• Establish portfolio prioritization frameworks, investment criteria, and governance standards used to evaluate and sequence HR initiatives.
• Provide executive-level visibility into portfolio health, dependencies, risks, resource constraints, and delivery outcomes across the HR function.
• Facilitate portfolio-level decision making among HR leadership, COEs, and GIS partners, balancing competing priorities and organizational needs.
• Drive portfolio reviews with senior stakeholders, ensuring alignment on strategic objectives, delivery commitments, and investment tradeoffs.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to the VP of Employee Experience and HR leadership team on portfolio strategy, delivery health, risk management, and organizational readiness.
• Partner closely with HR Technology leadership to align technology investments, roadmap priorities, and transformation objectives across the HR ecosystem.
• Anticipate and proactively address portfolio-level risks that may impact business objectives, adoption outcomes, or delivery timelines.
• Influence executive stakeholders and functional leaders to drive alignment and accountability across complex cross-functional initiatives.
• Provide recommendations regarding investment decisions, prioritization changes, resource allocations, and mitigation strategies.
• Lead the development and ongoing evolution of the multi-year HR transformation roadmap in partnership with HR leadership and GIS stakeholders.
• Facilitate strategic planning processes that translate business priorities into executable HR and technology initiatives.
• Evaluate interdependencies across programs and identify opportunities to consolidate efforts, improve efficiency, and maximize organizational impact.
• Ensure roadmap priorities are supported by appropriate governance, resource plans, and change readiness strategies.
• Drive annual and quarterly portfolio planning cycles, supporting executive decision-making and investment prioritization.
• Champion adoption of portfolio management disciplines, governance frameworks, and delivery standards across HR.
• Assess organizational delivery maturity and identify opportunities to improve consistency, predictability, and execution effectiveness.
• Establish executive reporting mechanisms and success metrics that provide meaningful insight into portfolio performance and business value realization.
• Lead lessons learned reviews and continuous improvement efforts to strengthen portfolio execution capabilities across the HR organization.
• Identify systemic obstacles impacting project delivery and recommend structural improvements to increase organizational effectiveness.
• Oversee portfolio-wide change readiness strategies across HR transformation initiatives.
• Partner with COE leaders, HR Business Partners, and communications teams to ensure coordinated adoption and change management approaches.
• Assess organizational readiness for major HR technology and employee experience initiatives.
• Guide senior leaders through change impacts, stakeholder considerations, and adoption risks associated with strategic programs.
• Promote best practices in change leadership, stakeholder engagement, and organizational adoption.

Benefits

• Supportive work culture that encourages you to learn, develop, and grow your career
• Comprehensive benefits package
• Participation in a bonus and a stock award program, as applicable

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed