Director, Enterprise Portfolio Management

ExtensisHR • Iselin, NJ

9d • $160,000 - $200,000

About The Position

ExtensisHR is seeking a Director of Enterprise Portfolio to own how the company’s most important initiatives are selected, funded, delivered, and adopted, while personally leading some of its most critical initiatives. Reporting to the CIO, the Director partners with executives and department leaders to set priorities. This hands-on leadership role is divided approximately equally between directly leading high-impact projects and programs and providing portfolio strategy, governance, and delivery-maturity improvements across the company.

The Director leads one to three high-priority or high-risk initiatives at a time, from scoping through delivery and adoption, owning plans, budgets, stakeholder alignment, risk management, and outcomes. Initiatives may span technology, operations, client impact, AI, and automation. The role also manages portfolio intake and prioritization, maintains an enterprise roadmap aligned with company goals, designs tiered governance, reports on portfolio health, coaches project leads, manages a small team, and modernizes PMO tooling through automation, dashboards, and AI-assisted workflows.

The Director works with executives to make funding, capacity, and sequencing decisions; resolves cross-functional conflicts and resourcing tradeoffs; and supports agile, waterfall, and hybrid delivery. As a core participant in technology and AI governance, the Director contributes to intake, vendor evaluation, integration considerations, and risk review, working with Legal, Compliance, Security, and IT to address privacy and regulatory requirements early. The role requires ethical and effective use of AI tools and ongoing development of AI proficiency.

Success is measured by measurable business outcomes and delivery against scope, schedule, and budget; trusted portfolio visibility and executive decision-making; reduced reporting overhead; clear and well-governed AI and technology intake; strong solution adoption; more capable project leads; and a trusted working partnership with the CIO.

Requirements

• 10 or more years in program, project, or transformation leadership.
• Recent and ongoing hands-on delivery experience; this is not a purely managerial role.
• Track record leading complex, cross-functional initiatives to measurable outcomes.
• Ability to influence executives and peers without direct authority.
• Ability to manage up, make recommendations, push back respectfully, and escalate early.
• Strong financial acumen, including budgeting, capacity planning, and business case review.
• Fluency in agile, waterfall, and hybrid delivery.
• Comfort with data and tooling, including portfolio management platforms, dashboards, and automation.
• Excellent executive communication and facilitation skills.
• Ability to switch between detailed project execution and enterprise-level thinking.
• Ability and expectation to use AI tools ethically and effectively and continuously develop AI proficiency.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in a PEO, HR services, payroll, benefits, or other regulated, multi-state service environment.
• Experience with AI or automation governance, vendor evaluation, or enterprise integration programs.
• Prior experience building or modernizing a PMO or portfolio function.
• Change management experience, with a formal credential or demonstrated practice.
• PMP, PgMP, SAFe, or similar certification (helpful, not required).

Responsibilities

• Directly lead one to three high-priority or high-risk initiatives from scoping through delivery and adoption.
• Own initiative plans, budgets, stakeholder alignment, risk management, and outcomes.
• Deliver priority initiatives to measurable business outcomes, not merely on-time completion.
• Build change management and enablement into projects to support adoption.
• Model effective delivery practices for the organization.
• Run a unified intake and prioritization process that balances demand against capacity, funding, and risk.
• Maintain an enterprise roadmap tied to company goals and recommend work to retire, pause, or rescope.
• Design tiered governance that applies appropriate rigor based on initiative size and risk.
• Report portfolio health to leadership, including value delivered, forecast accuracy, and time to decision.
• Coach and support project leads across the business and raise delivery maturity.
• Manage a small team and modernize PMO tooling with automation, live dashboards, and AI-assisted workflows.
• Give executives clear options and tradeoffs when demand exceeds capacity.
• Partner with [your title] to bring prioritization recommendations to the executive team and secure decisions on funding, capacity, and sequencing.
• Escalate cross-functional conflicts and resourcing tradeoffs with clear options and drive them to resolution.
• Support agile, waterfall, and hybrid teams without imposing a single method.
• Own risk, dependency, and escalation management across the portfolio.
• Participate in technology and AI governance, including intake, vendor evaluation, integration considerations, and risk review of automation and AI requests.
• Work with Legal, Compliance, Security, and IT to address data privacy and regulatory requirements early.
• Use AI tools ethically and effectively, maintain awareness of relevant emerging AI applications, and continuously develop AI proficiency.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation.
• Progressive paid-time-off program, including time off for volunteering and life events.
• Group medical, dental, vision, and life insurance available from day one.
• Student Loan Assistance Program contributions toward employee student loans.
• Pretax spending accounts for health and dependent care expenses.
• Professional development programs.
• Retail and entertainment discounts.
• Social and community outreach committee with in-office events and networking opportunities.
• Complimentary coffee and snacks.

What This Job Offers

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