Vice President, Strategic Portfolio Management

Associa•Richardson, TX

About The Position

The Vice President, Strategic Portfolio Management is the senior executive responsible for the organization's strategic portfolio management function, connecting enterprise strategy, prioritization, investment decisions, execution, and outcomes. The position is part of a newly established Strategy department, reports directly to the Chief Strategy Officer, and serves as a key member of the Strategy leadership team. The Vice President owns the enterprise view of strategic initiatives and the processes by which they are evaluated, prioritized, sequenced, and tracked to outcomes. The role advises the Chief Strategy Officer and executive team on portfolio composition and health, shapes annual and multi-year strategic planning and investment cycles, and ensures governance and investment bodies receive decision-ready analysis and recommendations. The Vice President has full authority over the portfolio management function, its operating model, and its standards. Individual initiative execution remains with project and program management, while final enterprise investment decisions remain with executive governance bodies. The role ensures decisions are well-informed, consistently made, and followed through to measurable outcomes. As the department is newly formed, the Vice President will build the function, including its operating model, governance framework, team, and supporting tools, and lead and develop the Strategic Portfolio Management team, beginning with a Portfolio Operations Analyst as a direct report.

Requirements

At least 10 years of senior leadership experience in strategic portfolio management, enterprise PMO leadership, strategy realization, or a comparable function within a complex, matrixed organization.
Track record of building or substantially maturing a portfolio management or comparable enterprise function, including operating model design, team leadership, and organizational adoption.
Demonstrated success advising C-level executives and operating credibly in executive and board-level settings.
Experience designing and leading formal governance or investment-decision processes, including facilitating prioritization and trade-off decisions among senior executives.
Strong financial and commercial acumen, including business-case evaluation, investment analysis, and benefits realization.
Experience with enterprise resource and capacity planning and portfolio-level risk and dependency management.
Demonstrated ability to lead through influence across organizational boundaries and build sustained stakeholder sponsorship for new ways of working.
Proficiency with portfolio management tools and reporting in support of executive decision-making.

Responsibilities

Establish, lead, and continuously develop the strategic portfolio management function, including its operating model, governance framework, standards, tools, staffing plan, and budget; hire, develop, and manage the team as the function grows.
Advise the Chief Strategy Officer and executive leadership on portfolio composition, strategic alignment, investment balance, and portfolio-level risk, including whether the portfolio reflects organizational strategy and risk appetite.
Shape and support annual and multi-year strategic planning and investment cycles, ensuring portfolio priorities, capacity realities, and in-flight commitments inform strategy setting and strategy changes cascade into portfolio decisions.
Own a consolidated, current view of strategic initiatives from intake through completion and benefits realization, and partner with delivery leadership to support their transition from decision into execution.
Own the enterprise process for evaluating, prioritizing, and sequencing initiatives against agreed strategic criteria; recommend portfolio composition, trade-offs, stop/start/continue decisions, and investment reallocation to executive governance.
Design and lead the portfolio governance cadence; chair or facilitate portfolio review forums as delegated by the Chief Strategy Officer; and ensure committees receive decision-ready analysis, options, and recommendations.
Maintain enterprise visibility into cross-initiative dependencies, resource and capacity conflicts, and portfolio-level risk; resolve conflicts within delegated authority and escalate others with clear options and a recommendation.
Own portfolio reporting narratives, analysis, and insights for executive leadership and, as required, the board, covering portfolio health, pipeline, risks, benefits realization, and decisions required.
Establish and own a portfolio-level benefits and outcomes tracking framework, hold initiative sponsors accountable for benefit commitments through governance, and report realized value against approved business cases.
Champion portfolio management discipline across the organization and build the sponsorship, capability, and stakeholder relationships needed for adoption and sustainability.