Director, PMO

Overview

As Director, Project Management Office at PowerPlan, you will take ownership of a portfolio of up to 150 concurrent enterprise software engagements for energy and utility customers, with the authority to independently assess project health, challenge unsupported forecasts, and require corrective-action plans wherever the evidence calls for it. You will harden the operating model, build trust in Certinia as the system of record, resolve the cross-functional friction points that quietly sink engagements, and develop the PM Managers and their teams so predictable execution becomes the norm rather than the product of a few standout individuals. This is an executive operator role with real decision-making authority: you will be in the reviews and recoveries alongside the team, not directing from a distance, and you will have the standing to recommend changes in staffing, governance, or commercial approach when outcomes are at risk.

COMPANY

PowerPlan builds enterprise-grade tax, accounting, reporting, and workflow automation software for organizations in the energy industry, where financial accuracy, regulatory compliance, and operational reliability are not optional. Our Professional Services organization partners with customers through implementations, upgrades, SaaS migrations, and optimization engagements that deliver measurable outcomes for the office of the CFO.

Responsibilities

KEY PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES (FIRST 12 MONTHS)

OBJECTIVE 1: ESTABLISH PORTFOLIO TRUTH AND DELIVERY CONTROL (FIRST 90-120 DAYS)

Outcome: Build an evidence-based baseline of health across all active engagements, so reported status holds up against what is actually happening in the field rather than a comfortable green rating. Get into the field with project and program managers directly rather than relying on desk reviews, and use what you find to stabilize the highest-risk engagements first.

Impact: Leadership cannot make sound business decisions on a portfolio it cannot trust. Establishing truth first, before any process change, is what makes every later fix credible instead of another layer of status theater. Spotting trouble early, before it becomes a red engagement, is what turns this from a reporting exercise into real risk prevention.

How: Conduct structured, field-based reviews across the active portfolio rather than accepting self-reported status. Validate plans, forecasts, staffing, and risk against evidence, and flag engagements whose reported health does not hold up. Define a set of portfolio-wide leading indicators, not just lagging status colors, so emerging problems and intervention needs surface before an engagement turns red. Stand up temporary recovery governance and clear escalation thresholds for the engagements that need it most, and roll up systemic patterns for leadership rather than treating each one as a one-off.

OBJECTIVE 2: HARDEN THE DELIVERY OPERATING MODEL (FIRST QUARTER, SUSTAINED THROUGH MONTH SIX)

Outcome: Tighten delivery standards, stage gates, and governance rhythms so tools, processes, and standards are applied consistently across the portfolio. Consistency and predictability come first: every change is measured not only by whether it improves control, but by whether it actually reduces bureaucracy rather than adding another layer of it.

Impact: A pile of individually managed projects and templates is not a mature PMO. Consistent, proportional governance is what turns delivery predictability into a system property instead of a byproduct of who happens to be running a given engagement. If hardening the model adds more process without cutting the low-value work it replaces, it has failed on its own terms.

How: Audit current methodology adoption in the first 30 days and fix the highest-leverage control gaps first, retiring low-value process as new standards go in so the net bureaucracy trend is visibly down, not up. Tier governance by engagement size, complexity, and risk rather than applying one standard to every project. Set a clear, plainly communicated expectation for consistent use of tools, stage gates, and standards across the delivery model, framed as what good delivery looks like, not as a compliance stick. Define clear, evidence-based health ratings that make consistency visible and trackable.

OBJECTIVE 3: ESTABLISH TRUSTWORTHY PORTFOLIO DATA AND FORECASTING (FIRST 90 DAYS, ONGOING)

Outcome: Make Certinia PSA the real, single system of record for the portfolio, so project health, forecasts, and financial data hold up against the evidence rather than being shaped to tell a preferred story. Eliminate the shadow spreadsheets and side-tracking systems that let a different, unofficial version of the truth circulate outside Certinia. Give leadership credible visibility into margin, budget, and forecast-to-complete on every engagement.

Impact: An engagement can look operationally fine while quietly losing money. Leadership needs one trustworthy source for both delivery status and financial health, not a patchwork of shadow spreadsheets and optimistic status reports competing with the official record.

How: Fix the most material Certinia data-quality issues in the first 30 days and set non-negotiable data-entry standards from there. Identify and shut down the shadow spreadsheets and parallel tracking tools that currently substitute for Certinia. Require health ratings and forecasts to be backed by documented evidence, not a gut call. Build distinct dashboards for project managers, program managers, and executives, each surfacing the level of detail that audience actually needs. Partner with Finance and Operations to establish standard views into margin, estimate-to-complete, and change-order conversion, and require a recovery plan when a project's economics move outside agreed tolerance.

OBJECTIVE 4: BUILD DURABLE CROSS-FUNCTIONAL OPERATING INTERFACES (30 DAYS TO MAP, FIRST QUARTER TO RESOLVE, SIX MONTHS TO INSTITUTIONALIZE)

Outcome: Map where delivery actually breaks down against Sales, Product, Engineering, Support, and Finance, with Sales at project start and Support at project end as the two priority interfaces. Resolve at least one systemic blocker in each with clear ownership within the first quarter, and stand up working operating interfaces with those functions that don't exist today.

Impact: Most of the friction that shows up as a delivery problem is actually a cross-functional handoff problem, and Sales-to-delivery and delivery-to-Support are where a weak handoff does the most damage to a customer's experience. Fixing it at the operating-model level, rather than one escalation at a time, is what makes this role a business partner rather than an internal ticket queue.

How: Spend the first 30 days mapping where Sales-to-delivery handoffs at deal close, and delivery-to-Support handoffs at engagement close, actually break down, in the field, not in a workshop. Represent PMO priorities directly to the Sales and Support leadership, not just their teams, so fixes are agreed at the level that can actually sustain them. Drive the highest-leverage blocker in each relationship to resolution with a named owner, then convert each fix into a durable, repeatable interface (a shared rhythm, escalation path, or decision protocol) rather than a one-time favor, before extending the same approach to Product, Engineering, and Finance.

OBJECTIVE 5: DEVELOP PMO TALENT BY LEADING FROM THE FIELD (ONGOING, STARTING DAY ONE)

Outcome: Operate as an executive operator, not an ivory-tower leader: work alongside PM Managers as they in turn work alongside their project and program managers, coaching at both levels rather than directing from a distance. Diagnose the systemic causes behind recurring delivery problems, address underperformance directly and promptly rather than letting it slide, and identify and accelerate high-potential leaders toward succession, so predictable execution doesn't depend on any one person's heroics.

Impact: A PMO that only survives on its strongest individuals is fragile. Building capability through the PM Managers, addressing weak performance head-on, and growing the next layer of leaders is what makes stabilization and hardening stick after this person moves to the next fire, instead of it depending on their constant personal presence.

How: Get into live engagement reviews and recoveries alongside PM Managers and, through them, the wider team, treating each one as a coaching moment rather than a status check. When a delivery problem recurs, diagnose whether the real cause is methodology, capability, leadership, or something else, and address the actual cause rather than the nearest symptom. Address underperformance directly and promptly when coaching alone isn't closing the gap. Identify high-potential leaders early and give them stretch opportunities and visibility that accelerate their development. Build succession depth at both the PM Manager and project/program manager levels so key-person dependency goes down over time, not up.

Qualifications

Leadership and Transformation Experience

• 10 or more years of progressive leadership experience in project-driven organizations such as enterprise software, consulting, Professional Services, systems integration, or technology outsourcing
• Demonstrated success leading a PMO turnaround, realignment, or material capability transformation
• Proven experience managing a portfolio of concurrent enterprise software implementation or Professional Services engagements
• Accountability for customer, revenue, margin, delivery, and portfolio outcomes
• Experience leading and developing Project Managers and Program Managers
• Experience establishing delivery methodology, governance, assurance, and accountability frameworks
• Demonstrated ability to diagnose systemic delivery problems and distinguish among methodology, talent, leadership, commercial, capacity, product, and customer-readiness causes
• Experience recovering complex, operationally or financially distressed customer programs
• Demonstrated ability to make difficult portfolio, staffing, customer, and performance decisions

Professional Services Commercial Acumen

• Strong understanding of Professional Services economics
• Experience with revenue forecasting, project gross margin, estimate to complete, estimate at completion, backlog conversion, change control, and revenue leakage
• Experience managing fixed-fee and time-and-materials engagements
• Ability to connect delivery decisions to financial outcomes
• Experience identifying and correcting financially distressed engagements
• Understanding of contractual commitments, statements of work, acceptance criteria, milestone billing, and change-order processes

PMO Methodology and Operations

• Demonstrated ability to select, tailor, implement, and sustain project and program management practices across complex enterprise software engagements
• Experience creating tiered governance based on project risk and complexity
• Experience establishing independent delivery assurance
• Experience building and enforcing project planning, financial management, scope management, risk management, change control, escalation, and status reporting standards
• Ability to simplify or eliminate low-value process
• Experience with portfolio-level governance across at least 50 concurrent projects
• Strong understanding of resource management, demand planning, capacity constraints, and project sequencing
• Experience owning or optimizing a Professional Services Automation platform
• Certinia PSA, formerly FinancialForce, experience is strongly preferred

Enterprise Software Delivery Knowledge

• Strong understanding of enterprise software implementation lifecycles
• Familiarity with configuration, data conversion, integrations, testing, cutover, training, customer readiness, deployment, and adoption
• Ability to distinguish project management failures from solution, product, technical, commercial, or customer-readiness failures
• Experience working in complex enterprise technology ecosystems
• SaaS migration experience is preferred
• Experience with ERP, accounting, tax, financial-management, utility, or office-of-the-CFO solutions is preferred

Talent and Performance Leadership

• Experience assessing organizational capability and designing PMO team structures
• Demonstrated success developing Project Managers and Program Managers
• Ability to identify high-potential leaders and accelerate their development
• Willingness and ability to address underperformance directly and promptly
• Experience reducing key-person risk and building succession depth
• Ability to create a culture of ownership, transparency, constructive challenge, and continuous improvement

Strategic and Cross-Functional Capability

• Ability to develop strategy and translate it into operational execution
• Ability to operate across Sales, Finance, Product, Engineering, Support, Customer Success, and Professional Services
• Demonstrated success improving cross-functional handoffs and delivery readiness
• Ability to manage through influence regardless of reporting relationships
• Ability to identify organizational incentives or behaviors that undermine delivery
• Experience making tradeoffs when demand exceeds capacity
• Ability to connect PMO priorities to company strategy, financial objectives, and customer outcomes

Communication and Decision-Making

• Exceptional verbal, written, analytical, and visual communication skills
• Equally comfortable engaging customers, executives, functional leaders, and delivery teams
• Ability to translate portfolio data and risk into clear business language
• Willingness to communicate difficult realities directly and constructively
• Ability to challenge unsupported assumptions, forecasts, status ratings, and commitments
• Makes timely, evidence-based decisions under pressure
• Distinguishes reversible decisions from consequential decisions requiring broader alignment
• Maintains composure and accountability during customer or delivery crises
• Brings recommendations, options, tradeoffs, and required decisions-not merely status updates

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience
• PMP, PgMP, PRINCE2, or comparable certification
• Experience in energy, utilities, accounting, tax, ERP, or office-of-the-CFO software
• Certinia PSA and Salesforce experience
• Experience supporting SaaS transformation or migration programs
• Experience in a private-equity-backed or highly performance-oriented operating environment
• Experience applying Lean, constraint-management, or continuous-improvement principles
• Experience with organizational change management
• Experience leading distributed or global delivery organizations

LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS

The successful candidate will:

• Establish truth before prescribing solutions
• Focus on outcomes rather than activity
• Create clarity where accountability is ambiguous
• Be willing to confront poor performance and weak execution
• Avoid adding process when stronger leadership or decisions are required
• Balance rigor with pragmatism
• Build systems that reduce dependency on individual heroics
• Lead from the field, coaching and working alongside the team rather than directing from a distance
• Protect customer relationships without avoiding difficult conversations
• Challenge unrealistic commitments before they become delivery failures
• Develop others rather than becoming the permanent solution to every problem
• Operate with urgency without creating unnecessary chaos
• Demonstrate high integrity, sound judgment, and clear ownership

THE LEADERSHIP MANDATE

PowerPlan is not seeking someone to administer the existing PMO.

We are seeking a delivery executive who can establish control, rebuild and harden the operating model, elevate the capability of the team, strengthen commercial and operational discipline, and make predictable execution the norm.

Above all, we are seeking an executive operator and coach on the field-a leader who gets into the work with the team to get things done, not one who directs from afar.

PowerPlan is an EOE

Applicant and Candidate Privacy Notice

Please note that this is a hybrid role that involves a combination of onsite work from our corporate office as well as work from home. While we strive to accommodate flexible working arrangements when sensible, there will be times when onsite work is required. This could include scheduled office days, team meetings, client meetings, or special events.