Director – Project Management Office & Kantata Owner

CrossCountry Consulting•McLean, VA

7d•Remote

About The Position

CrossCountry Consulting is hiring its first dedicated PMO leader and senior business owner of Kantata, the platform used to manage the firm’s engagement delivery process. The role focuses on optimizing an established platform—not implementing a new one—and creating practical, user-centric delivery standards without unnecessary bureaucracy. The position requires a product-owner mindset, project management expertise, knowledge of professional services economics, and the judgment to challenge changes that add complexity without proportional value. The role governs the engagement lifecycle from Salesforce opportunity through engagement setup and delivery to Intacct and period close. It is accountable for data integrity, reporting accuracy, process consistency, Kantata strategy and adoption, delivery standards, business rules, integrations, and firmwide reporting. The Director works across Finance, CITS, RevOps, Accounting & Billing, Staffing, Service Lines, Market Leaders, and the Global Delivery Center, while Engagement Owners retain responsibility for execution. The Director will lead PMO practices and delivery governance; own the Kantata roadmap and serve as Executive Sponsor of the Kantata Council; improve user experience, support, training, and adoption; oversee integrations and the business data model; and partner with Finance on revenue recognition, data hygiene, dashboards, pricing, and margin modeling. The role also supports acquisitions and escalates complex engagement, commercial, and relationship risks.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, business, information systems, or a related field.
12+ years of experience in professional services (consulting, advisory, or accounting) in operations, finance, business systems, or delivery leadership.
At least 4 years leading teams and cross-functional programs.
Proven project management expertise leading a PMO, delivery function, or large engagement portfolios, including earned value and ETC/EAC methods.
Hands-on Kantata (formerly Mavenlink) experience as a business owner, administrator, or senior power user.
PSA or ERP implementation or optimization experience, with working knowledge of integrations.
Command of professional services economics, including ASC 606 revenue recognition for fixed fee, T&M, and subscription work; utilization; ABR; standard cost; margin; and GL structures.
Record of improving enterprise platform adoption and owning firmwide data governance or business rules in a complex, multi-practice environment.
Track record of driving behavior change among senior practitioners using change management methods such as Prosci.
Executive presence and judgment to challenge senior leaders with data and make decisions on the firm’s behalf.

Nice To Haves

Prior PMO leadership in a mid-to-large professional services firm.
Experience in a PE-backed, acquisitive environment.
Offshore or global delivery experience.
Familiarity with Salesforce, Workday, Concur, Intacct, Smartsheet, Tableau or Power BI, and EDW/BI tooling.
PMP, PgMP, or equivalent certification.
MBA or CPA.

Responsibilities

Define PMO decision rights, escalation paths, and interfaces with Finance, CITS, RevOps, Accounting & Billing, Staffing, and the Global Delivery Center.
Publish and own delivery standards adapted from PMI/PMBOK and implement them in Kantata workflows while Engagement Owners retain execution responsibility.
Govern SOW completeness, change orders and cumulative overages, ETC/EAC forecast quality, RAG status, risk registers, AR aging, and engagement closeout and lessons learned.
Transition forecast accountability to Engagement Owners and build a Community of Practice to coach them on difficult client conversations.
Serve as the escalation point for engagements facing commercial or relationship risks.
Partner with Service Line and Global Delivery Center leaders on offshore quality control and cross-time-zone practices, and standardize methodologies, including responsible AI-enabled practices under firm policy.
Track delivery KPIs, including budget adherence, change order conversion, fixed fee recognition accuracy, AR aging, and training completion.
Serve as the accountable senior business owner and Executive Sponsor of the Kantata Council, leading, approving, and concluding changes across the engagement lifecycle.
Own a multi-year Kantata roadmap with CITS, prioritizing user experience, operational, executive, and reporting needs and communicating trade-offs.
Represent practices and end users at the Change Control Board and partner with CITS on vendor relations and releases.
Monitor Kantata feature adoption, month-end data quality, administrative time, and user satisfaction.
Establish structured user feedback channels and prioritize high-friction workflows; simplify setup, forecasting, and change orders while preserving reporting data needs.
Refine product templates and setup defaults, including staffing mix, and reactivate underused capabilities such as delivery portfolios, manual profiling, milestone management, and fixed fee tools.
Provide Service Line and Market Leaders with real-time visibility into engagement progress, portfolio health, and resource allocation.
Own the practice support model, including ticket triage, service levels, and routing, and consolidate training and reference materials into a program embedded in onboarding.
Maintain command of integrations involving Salesforce, Workday, Concur, Intacct, Smartsheet, Power BI, and the EDW, and partner with CITS and Finance on the EDW build.
Co-lead the annual core data model review for Markets, Service Lines, Capabilities, and Products, assessing changes in light of reporting continuity.
Own business rules for revenue configuration, utilization, ABR, GL coding, and sales tax, with Finance sign-off where specified; define setup rules for product types and validate new products before go-live.
Oversee standard costs and their effects on project margin, Workday attributes driving gross margin, and utilization rules, including distortions caused by acquired-firm hires entering Kantata early.
Engage at the start of every acquisition and ensure structural changes are handled through governance.
Approve firmwide leadership dashboards built on Kantata data with Finance, manage mid-year adjustments, and run a monthly pre-close data hygiene program to reduce Finance intervention.
Oversee revenue recognition monitoring for Fixed Fee, T&M, and Subscription work, identify variances before close, and lead resolution of fixed fee issues.
Advance pricing and margin modeling, including more accurate generic resource rates by Service Line and Market.
Act as senior escalation point for complex setup, fixed fee anomalies, change orders, and acquisition integration, applying materiality judgment and bridging practice and Finance on reporting.