Sr. Director, Project Management

Capital One•McLean, VA

3d•$217,000 - $297,200

About The Position

At Capital One, we’re building a leading information-based technology company. Guided by our shared values, we thrive in an environment where collaboration and openness are valued. We believe that innovation is powered by perspective and that teamwork and respect for each other lead to superior results. We elevate each other and obsess about doing the right thing. Our associates serve with humility and a deep respect for their responsibility in helping our customers achieve their goals and realize their dreams. Role Specific: As a Senior Director, Project Management in Capital One’s Bank Tech Organization, you’ll lead the Bank Modernization initiative driving innovation, optimizing operational efficiencies and fueling the bank's future. Candidates should have a passion for technology in financial services, strong strategic command, an engaging executive presence, exceptionally strong written and verbal communication skills, expertise in relationship-building, and the ability to manage large complex programs with energy and excitement. General Responsibilities: Strategic Leadership & Governance: Align project portfolios with strategy and growth goals, defining success criteria and portfolio governance models. Executive Communication & Stakeholder Management: Serve as the primary liaison between executive leadership and teams, presenting project updates, risks, and recommendations. Enterprise-wide Mobilization: Drive the program roadmap using insights from survey data and industry trends to ensure teams remain focused on the highest-leverage AI opportunities. Operational Excellence: Maintain our "Always be Well-Managed" standard, ensuring that even the most evolutionary process changes meet Capital One’s high bar for governance and security. The candidate will: Exhibit outstanding influencing skills to effectively drive program efforts Demonstrate a proven track record of excellent project management in a highly regulated environment, bringing the ability to quickly put structure in place to manage work in a dynamic complex environment Display a passion for coaching and developing others through their leadership style and presence, whether as direct reports, extended team members or third party resources Have excellent communication and partnership skills which are essential for interacting and communicating with key stakeholders at all levels across the company, as well as external stakeholders to manage, inform and influence outcomes Have the "Trailblazer" Mindset: You must be comfortable with ambiguity and have a proven track record of managing "sophisticated failures" that lead to long-term success. Influence & Narrative: The ability to tell a compelling story to executives and engineers alike, turning raw data into a vision that motivates 140+ pioneers. Risk Mitigation & Escalation: Act as the final escalation point for critical issues and identify complex portfolio-level risks. Cross-Functional Orchestration: Partner deeply with leaders across the company, to communicate, update, plan for and adjust to shifting priorities. Learning Synthesis & Evangelism: Distill complex learnings from the initial 15-team wave into actionable playbooks that can be scaled across the entire enterprise. Change Management: Lead the cultural shift toward process and team changes that shift how we operate based on the evolution of the approach. Focus on Leverage: A ruthless ability to guard teams against low-leverage work and distractions. AI Literacy: A deep curiosity for (and ideally experience with) AI/ML tools, Agentic AI, and how LLMs are transforming the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle). Ability to evaluate technology-assisted outputs using strong judgment and accountability

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree
At least 9 years of project or program management experience
At least 7 years of People Management experience

Nice To Haves

Master’s Degree or MBA
10+ years of project or program management experience
10+ years of people leadership experience
Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean, Agile or Six Sigma certification
5+ years of project management experience leading cross functional programs in risk
3+ years of experience working in the financial services industry
Experience in project management and cross-functional coordination

Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Governance: Align project portfolios with strategy and growth goals, defining success criteria and portfolio governance models.
Executive Communication & Stakeholder Management: Serve as the primary liaison between executive leadership and teams, presenting project updates, risks, and recommendations.
Enterprise-wide Mobilization: Drive the program roadmap using insights from survey data and industry trends to ensure teams remain focused on the highest-leverage AI opportunities.
Operational Excellence: Maintain our "Always be Well-Managed" standard, ensuring that even the most evolutionary process changes meet Capital One’s high bar for governance and security.
Exhibit outstanding influencing skills to effectively drive program efforts
Demonstrate a proven track record of excellent project management in a highly regulated environment, bringing the ability to quickly put structure in place to manage work in a dynamic complex environment
Display a passion for coaching and developing others through their leadership style and presence, whether as direct reports, extended team members or third party resources
Have excellent communication and partnership skills which are essential for interacting and communicating with key stakeholders at all levels across the company, as well as external stakeholders to manage, inform and influence outcomes
Have the "Trailblazer" Mindset: You must be comfortable with ambiguity and have a proven track record of managing "sophisticated failures" that lead to long-term success.
Influence & Narrative: The ability to tell a compelling story to executives and engineers alike, turning raw data into a vision that motivates 140+ pioneers.
Risk Mitigation & Escalation: Act as the final escalation point for critical issues and identify complex portfolio-level risks.
Cross-Functional Orchestration: Partner deeply with leaders across the company, to communicate, update, plan for and adjust to shifting priorities.
Learning Synthesis & Evangelism: Distill complex learnings from the initial 15-team wave into actionable playbooks that can be scaled across the entire enterprise.
Change Management: Lead the cultural shift toward process and team changes that shift how we operate based on the evolution of the approach.
Focus on Leverage: A ruthless ability to guard teams against low-leverage work and distractions.
AI Literacy: A deep curiosity for (and ideally experience with) AI/ML tools, Agentic AI, and how LLMs are transforming the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle). Ability to evaluate technology-assisted outputs using strong judgment and accountability