Senior Consultant (Portfolio)

University of California, San Francisco•San Francisco, CA

About The Position

The Senior Portfolio Consultant will be responsible for defining, leading, and evolving the organization’s portfolio management capabilities across strategy, process, technology, and analytics. The primary objective of this role is to operationalize the EST’s portfolio governance playbook across the organization — turning documented process intent into adopted, repeatable behavior among project, demand, and resource managers. The Senior Portfolio Consultant owns the governance cadence, status reporting standards, and stakeholder change management required to drive adoption, and establishes the mechanisms that track and measure the value realized from technology implementations, process efficiency initiatives, and change enablement programs. This role requires deep expertise in portfolio and program governance — ideally gained in complex, multi-stakeholder, or academic medical center environments — combined with strong analytical fluency to direct the translation of portfolio data into actionable insight. Prior ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) experience is not required; the successful candidate must be able to learn the platform quickly enough to coach stakeholders on process. Platform configuration and report production are supported by the Portfolio Consultant (Analyst) role, which this position directs on a day-to-day basis. The Senior Portfolio Consultant will lead the design and implementation of portfolio management processes leveraging ServiceNow SPM, with Tableau-based analytics, to enable data-driven decision making across demand intake, prioritization, investment planning, and portfolio performance management. The role works cross-functionally with business leaders, technology teams, and data stakeholders to establish scalable portfolio governance frameworks, modernize portfolio analytics, and strengthen transparency, forecasting accuracy, and strategic alignment across the enterprise project and program portfolio. As the governance foundation matures, the Senior Portfolio Consultant will identify and champion opportunities to apply AI-enabled capabilities — such as intelligent demand triage and automated portfolio insight generation — within the portfolio lifecycle.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in related Organizational Change, Business Administration or related area and/or equivalent experience / training.
Advanced knowledge of project, program and portfolio management within the management consulting field, theories, models to assess, design and implement customized, strategic organization interventions.
Advanced knowledge of the consulting process to effectively lead engagements from inception to conclusion.
Ability to conceptualize projects, write proposals and draft project plans after consultation with supervisor.
Demonstrates advanced analytical, problem-solving, project planning and implementation skills.
12+ years of experience in project/program/portfolio financial management or strategic financial analysis
Strong understanding of benefits realization and value measurement frameworks
Demonstrates skill consulting to managers and groups at all levels.
Ability to focus on priorities, strategies, and vision.
Demonstrates ability to learn quickly, reason, synthesize and generalize based on information obtained.
Sound judgment, ability to draw unbiased conclusions.
Ability to coach, facilitate and influence people at all levels of the clients teams.
Ability to persuade through both logic and appeal to positive motivations.
Possesses strong consulting, relationship building, and strategic thinking skills.
Strong facilitation and collaboration skills.
Demonstrated ability to lead team with minimal input from supervisor.
Ability to apply change management in implementing programs
Ability to establish and manage project governance groups.
Ability to assess needs and design services/programs to meet those needs.
Demonstrated capacity to anticipate obstacles and plan for contingencies; demonstrated ability to determine relevance and prioritize tasks.
Applies strong verbal, written communication and presentation skills.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree preferred.
Experience in higher education, healthcare, or mission-driven environments preferred
Financial acumen, including budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, and ROI modeling
Some knowledge of the organizational environment of higher education and large research universities to understand client issues, motivations and constraints.
Has advanced knowledge of the Systems Development Life Cycle to assess, design and implement new technology systems.
Uses AI to elevate domain expertise, producing higher-quality insights and reusable patterns that raise the standard of work for others

Responsibilities

Own the portfolio governance cadence — intake, prioritization, status, and review forums — and the status reporting standards used across the EST.
Partner with department leads and project, demand, and resource managers to embed standardized portfolio management practices into daily operations, coaching for adoption and driving accountability without direct authority.
Design and execute the stakeholder change management approach for portfolio process rollouts, including communications, training touch points, and adoption measurement.
Serve as a trusted advisor to EST leadership on governance maturity, surfacing adoption risks and behavioral barriers early and recommending course corrections.
Oversee financial performance across all active projects and programs within the internal consulting portfolio.
Direct the tracking of budget vs. actual performance for each initiative; interpret variances and partner with project managers and program leads to agree and drive corrective actions.
Ensure the accuracy, timeliness, and decision-readiness of portfolio financial data maintained in ServiceNow SPM and associated tracking systems by the Portfolio Consultant.
Direct analysis of portfolio-level spending trends, resource utilization, and forecasted demand to support strategic workforce and investment planning.
Collaborate with HR, Finance, and initiative leads to align FTE allocations, effort tracking, and financial forecasts with portfolio priorities.
Act on early indicators of resource constraints, capacity gaps, or underutilization across the portfolio, framing trade-off decisions for leadership.
Own the standardized benefits realization framework — metrics such as ROI, cost avoidance, operational efficiency, and expanded access — and evolve it as the portfolio matures.
Partner with initiative owners to define, validate, and hold ownership for expected and realized benefits across financial and non-financial dimensions.
Report realized value across the portfolio to leadership, ensuring alignment with UCSF’s strategic priorities of mission, quality, equity, and access.
Own the executive portfolio reporting narrative: set reporting standards, review analyst-produced dashboards and packages, and present insights and recommendations to leadership.
Deliver monthly and quarterly portfolio reporting to executive audiences, summarizing financial performance, benefits realization, risk exposure, and strategic recommendations.
Provide actionable recommendations that support prioritization, deferral, acceleration, and investment-adjustment decisions.
Design and facilitate the portfolio governance process — demand intake, triage, investment review, and portfolio review forums — using financial, capacity, and value analytics prepared with the Portfolio Consultant.
Serve as process owner and escalation point for portfolio financial and value reporting standards; maintain transparent documentation and audit trails supporting governance decisions.
Guide and advise less experienced consultants and analysts, including day-to-day direction of the Portfolio Consultant’s governance-support work.
Identify and pilot opportunities to apply AI-enabled capabilities within the portfolio lifecycle — including intelligent demand triage, automated portfolio health analysis, and AI-assisted insight generation — in partnership with IT and data governance stakeholders, sequenced behind adoption and data quality fundamentals.
Recommend enhancements to portfolio processes, analytics, and tooling that improve transparency, forecasting accuracy, and strategic alignment.
Exercises wide judgment in selecting and developing methods, techniques and evaluation criteria for obtaining appropriate operational, portfolio, program and initiative objectives.
Understands business portfolio management needs, performs advanced analyses, and ensures that solutions, both technical and non-technical, can support those needs. Applies advanced management consulting concepts to perform highly complex technical analyses to understand past performance and determine present and future performance and / or resource allocations. Assesses complex situations, identifies desired improvements, and works with clients executive and senior leaders, along with internal partners to address issues, develop recommendations and implement solutions in alignment with strategic goals and objectives.
Provides collaborative leadership and consultation, strategic planning, design and facilitation, and portfolio and project management on multi-faceted problems to achieve strategically aligned solutions. Applies advanced project, program and portfolio management concepts with a full understanding of project, program and portfolio management practices and procedures to manage complex projects. Develops or advises on detailed project plans and monitors budget and resources. Interacts with senior internal and external personnel. Oversees the project from inception to delivery. May guide and advise less experienced management consultants.
In consultation with leadership, establish and manage project program and portfolio governance. Leads cross-functional teams to solve complex management related issues.