Institutional Project Portfolio Manager II

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:
 

Pay Range: $119,400.00 - $185,100.00

Job Description

Essential Functions and Responsibilities:

• Responsible for managing the entire portfolio lifecycle which includes planning, portfolio definition, development, execution, and closure.
• Responsible for managing the following domains within their assigned project portfolio: portfolio value delivery, investment and project cost management, prioritization and executive alignment, risk and change impact, capacity and capability, portfolio roadmap and reporting, and initiative alignment to strategy.
• Leads executive level reporting of initiative roadmaps, OKR tracking, critical milestones, status, and risks to stakeholders using metrics, data visualization, and executive communications.
• Escalates issues that threaten portfolio and project success and directly coordinates with executive leadership to communicate root cause and mitigation plans.
• Accountable for the performance and successful launch and coordination of all projects and programs within their portfolio.
• Strategizes, constructs, coordinates, and maintains program, project, and demand structure within the WGU ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management system.
• Establishes unified, institutional project portfolio management strategies, best practices and governance in a highly collaborative approach with IPM, Ed Tech, Product, Program Launch, and Program Development project management leadership teams.
• Develops and implements portfolio management methodologies and best practices to elevate the skills and capabilities at the team and organization level.
• Advises and trains leaders and other users on reporting and dashboarding using the PPM tool, ServiceNow.
• Collaborates with EdTech engineering teams and PPM tool vendors regarding the permissions, development and architecture needs of our project and portfolio teams within our PPM platform.
• Collaborates with Enterprise Change Management and Enterprise Risk Management office on the implementation impact of portfolio components.
• Continuously improves processes and uses problem solving skills based on Lean Six Sigma statistical techniques and problem-solving methodologies (such as DMAIC – Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) in their identification of root cause and corrective action.
• Ensures user training and adoption of the university’s PPM system and has mastery knowledge of the tool from a non-technical user experience.
• Collaborates with other professionals both inside and outside of the university to promote a positive, “student-obsessed” work environment.
• Key contributor to WGU’s Center of Excellence (COE) and Community of Practice (COP) for project management, to include members of Ed Tech and other groups.
• Consistently exhibits WGU’s Leadership Principles.
• Responds with urgency to organizational needs and exhibits excellent judgment while delivering results.
• Performs other related duties as assigned. 

Knowledge, Skill and Abilities:

• Excellent leadership, portfolio, program, and project management skills.
• Works well in a team environment.
• Ability to influence change and motivate others.
• Strong oral and written communications abilities.
• Ability to present results, risks, and action plans to large groups of executive leaders at internal meetings.
• Solid technical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to plan and meet schedules.
• Ability to record and publish meeting minutes, rolling action items, and status reports.
• Ability to use all related computer equipment and applications.
• Understanding of Business Process Architecture Mapping.
• Strong executive leadership presence.
• Understanding of statistics and statistical analysis techniques related to continuous improvement.

Competencies: 

Organizational Impact: 

• Develops plan to accomplish division or job area responsibilities that align with department. 
• Performance may affect department results. 
• Work requires some knowledge of the University to recognize impact of decisions made.  
• Compiles data to prepare budgets. 

Problem Solving and Decision Making: 

• Responsible for making improvements of processes or systems to enhance performance of the job area. 
• Accountable for coordinating activities and maintaining relationships with internal (and occasionally external) parties.  
• Assignments received and problems faced are broad and undefined, and require use of analytical concepts, investigation, and knowledge from prior experience. 

Communication and Influence: 

• Communicates within job area and occasionally with external groups and external facing professionals (i.e. Admissions) 
• Ensures compliance with university policies and procedures within job area and may influence others outside of job area to justify and gain cooperation for policies, practices, and procedures. 

Job Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor Degree in Business Management or Higher-Education Leadership, Engineering, Quality, or Computer Science/Software/Information Management. Education must be from an accredited institution.
• 10+ years professional experience in a role that required extensive Project/Portfolio/Change Management skills in a large and distributed organization (5000+ employees).
• Project Management qualification (PMP) or equivalent.
• Program Management Professional (PgMP) or Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP) Certification.
• Professional experience in strategic planning, risk management and/or change management.
• Strong proficiency designing reports and dashboards in the ServiceNow PPM tool.
• Understands planning capabilities and reporting in PPM tools such as Strategic Planning Workspace.
• Understands Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) software such as Workday Adaptive Planning. 
• Excellent understanding of Change Management theory/techniques, and implementation into a project plan.
• Excellent understanding and skills in the change management process.

• Excellent understanding of Project Management theory/techniques and demonstrated execution.
• Strong understand of Lean Six Sigma problem solving tools and techniques.
• Proficiency in project management software tools related to waterfall and or agile methodologies.
• Strong proficiency designing reports and dashboards in the ServiceNow PPM tool.
• Understands Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) software such as Workday Adaptive Planning. 
   

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree or higher in relevant field.
• Green Belt, Black Belt or Master Black Best certification
• Lean Silver or Gold certification
• Experience working in a university or institution of higher education.
• Experience developing and or launching new educational programs or offerings.
• Experience with program or product lifecycle management systems.

Position & Application Details

Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time, regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.

How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.

Additional Information

Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It’s not all-inclusive.

Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at recruiting@wgu.edu.

Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.