Director, PMO

PowerPlan, Inc•Atlanta, GA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

PowerPlan is seeking a Director of the Project Management Office to strengthen and, where necessary, redesign the Professional Services delivery operating model. This is a hands-on, roll-up-your-sleeves leadership role. PowerPlan is seeking an executive operator and coach on the field—a leader who drives change from within the work alongside the team, not from above it. This leader will oversee a portfolio of up to 150 concurrent enterprise software implementation, upgrade, migration, and optimization engagements serving energy and utility customers. The Director will be accountable for improving portfolio control, customer outcomes, financial performance, delivery predictability, and the capabilities of PowerPlan’s Project and Program Management organization. The successful candidate will inherit an established PMO with existing people, processes, and technology, but with opportunities to improve consistency in execution, governance adherence, portfolio visibility, data quality, forecasting, and accountability. This is not a methodology administration role. The Director will be expected to rapidly diagnose root causes, distinguish process gaps from capability and accountability gaps, stabilize critical engagements, harden the delivery operating model, and drive sustained behavioral adoption across Project Managers, Program Managers, delivery leaders, and cross-functional partners. This is a hands-on PMO transformation and portfolio leadership mandate. The Director must be equally capable of designing scalable systems, confronting weak execution, developing leaders, managing customer escalations, and translating portfolio performance into clear business decisions. This is an executive operator role, not an ivory-tower directorship. PowerPlan is looking for a coach on the field—a leader who rolls up their sleeves, works shoulder to shoulder with Project and Program Managers, and steps directly into the work when it matters. The Director sets strategy and builds durable systems, but leads from the field: in the reviews, in the recoveries, and alongside the team, never from a distance. The Director will serve as the business owner for PMO methodology, delivery governance, portfolio assurance, and Certinia PSA, formerly FinancialForce. The role will also provide selective executive sponsorship to PowerPlan’s most strategic or highest-risk customer programs.

Requirements

10 or more years of progressive leadership experience in project-driven organizations such as enterprise software, consulting, Professional Services, systems integration, or technology outsourcing
Demonstrated success leading a PMO turnaround, realignment, or material capability transformation
Proven experience managing a portfolio of concurrent enterprise software implementation or Professional Services engagements
Accountability for customer, revenue, margin, delivery, and portfolio outcomes
Experience leading and developing Project Managers and Program Managers
Experience establishing delivery methodology, governance, assurance, and accountability frameworks
Demonstrated ability to diagnose systemic delivery problems and distinguish among methodology, talent, leadership, commercial, capacity, product, and customer-readiness causes
Experience recovering complex, operationally or financially distressed customer programs
Demonstrated ability to make difficult portfolio, staffing, customer, and performance decisions
Strong understanding of Professional Services economics
Experience with revenue forecasting, project gross margin, estimate to complete, estimate at completion, backlog conversion, change control, and revenue leakage
Experience managing fixed-fee and time-and-materials engagements
Ability to connect delivery decisions to financial outcomes
Experience identifying and correcting financially distressed engagements
Understanding of contractual commitments, statements of work, acceptance criteria, milestone billing, and change-order processes
Demonstrated ability to select, tailor, implement, and sustain project and program management practices across complex enterprise software engagements
Experience creating tiered governance based on project risk and complexity
Experience establishing independent delivery assurance
Experience building and enforcing project planning, financial management, scope management, risk management, change control, escalation, and status reporting standards
Ability to simplify or eliminate low-value process
Experience with portfolio-level governance across at least 50 concurrent projects
Strong understanding of resource management, demand planning, capacity constraints, and project sequencing
Experience owning or optimizing a Professional Services Automation platform
Strong understanding of enterprise software implementation lifecycles
Familiarity with configuration, data conversion, integrations, testing, cutover, training, customer readiness, deployment, and adoption
Ability to distinguish project management failures from solution, product, technical, commercial, or customer-readiness failures
Experience working in complex enterprise technology ecosystems
Experience assessing organizational capability and designing PMO team structures
Demonstrated success developing Project Managers and Program Managers
Ability to identify high-potential leaders and accelerate their development
Willingness and ability to address underperformance directly and promptly
Experience reducing key-person risk and building succession depth
Ability to create a culture of ownership, transparency, constructive challenge, and continuous improvement
Ability to develop strategy and translate it into operational execution
Ability to operate across Sales, Finance, Product, Engineering, Support, Customer Success, and Professional Services
Demonstrated success improving cross-functional handoffs and delivery readiness
Ability to manage through influence regardless of reporting relationships
Ability to identify organizational incentives or behaviors that undermine delivery
Experience making tradeoffs when demand exceeds capacity
Ability to connect PMO priorities to company strategy, financial objectives, and customer outcomes
Exceptional verbal, written, analytical, and visual communication skills
Equally comfortable engaging customers, executives, functional leaders, and delivery teams
Ability to translate portfolio data and risk into clear business language
Willingness to communicate difficult realities directly and constructively
Ability to challenge unsupported assumptions, forecasts, status ratings, and commitments
Makes timely, evidence-based decisions under pressure
Distinguishes reversible decisions from consequential decisions requiring broader alignment
Maintains composure and accountability during customer or delivery crises
Brings recommendations, options, tradeoffs, and required decisions—not merely status updates

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience
PMP, PgMP, PRINCE2, or comparable certification
Experience in energy, utilities, accounting, tax, ERP, or office-of-the-CFO software
Certinia PSA and Salesforce experience
Experience supporting SaaS transformation or migration programs
Experience in a private-equity-backed or highly performance-oriented operating environment
Experience applying Lean, constraint-management, or continuous-improvement principles
Experience with organizational change management
Experience leading distributed or global delivery organizations
SaaS migration experience is preferred
Experience with ERP, accounting, tax, financial-management, utility, or office-of-the-CFO solutions is preferred
Certinia PSA, formerly FinancialForce, experience is strongly preferred

Responsibilities

Creating a Professional Services delivery system in which project health is visible, evidence-based, and trusted.
Ensuring commitments are realistic and supported by executable plans.
Ensuring delivery risks are surfaced early and acted upon decisively.
Actively controlling scope, schedule, financials, resources, dependencies, and customer readiness.
Holding Project Managers and Program Managers accountable for outcomes, not merely process completion.
Escalating and resolving cross-functional blockers with clear ownership.
Ensuring leadership can rely on portfolio data and forecasts to make business decisions.
Ensuring governance is proportional to project complexity and creates value rather than administrative burden.
Improving customer outcomes and Professional Services economics measurably over time.
Independently assessing project health, challenging unsupported forecasts, requiring corrective-action plans, escalating unresolved delivery risks, and recommending changes in project leadership, staffing, governance, or commercial approach when customer, financial, or delivery outcomes are at risk.