PMO Portfolio Lead

Role Description

The Project Management Office (PMO) Portfolio Lead ensures execution quality and acts as the ultimate owner of delivery assurance for our projects. Serving as the first point of escalation, you will focus deeply on project health, ensuring all projects are delivered on time and on budget with a strict “no surprises” philosophy. You will work closely with Project Managers on the ground while feeding critical project intelligence up to Delivery Managers and the Account team.

This is a remote position. We do not offer visa sponsorship or assistance. Resumes and communication must be submitted in English.

Responsibilities

• Project Execution & Risk Management
  • Ensure delivery readiness of new projects (sales handoff, talent fulfillment and onboarding, setup baseline governance).
  • Act as the primary owner for identifying, assessing, and managing project-level risks across your assigned portfolio.
  • Evaluate delivery health weekly and ensure consistent reporting cadence (client-facing and internal).
  • Identify cost, schedule, and value realization risks, support mitigation planning, and rigorously track and update Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies (RAID) logs.
  • Own project financials including revenue, margin, and forecasting.
• Escalation & Communication
  • Serve as the immediate escalation point for complex project roadblocks, intervening before they impact the broader client relationship, while exercising discretion and independent judgment.
  • Design and implement early mitigation strategies for identified risk flags.
  • Provide clear, data-driven escalations and status updates to Delivery Managers and the Account team to ensure alignment on project realities.
• Collaboration & Leadership
  • Select and onboard Project Managers and ensure the project team understands the Toptal Project Delivery Methodology.
  • Partner with and support embedded Project Managers to ensure day-to-day execution meets quality standards (influence without authority).

Onboarding Expectations

• In the first week, expect to:
  • Onboard and integrate into Toptal; meet your colleagues.
  • Learn about Toptal’s history, culture, and vision, with a focus on the state of our industry, the Future of Work, and the core messages important to Toptal.
  • Shadow critical teams throughout the organization to learn Toptal’s core operations and capabilities.
• In the first month, expect to:
  • Begin developing relationships with key leaders and stakeholders — Delivery Managers, Account teams, Sales, and Talent Operations.
  • Learn the Toptal Project Delivery Methodology and understand how baseline governance is established at project kickoff.
  • Get oriented to the delivery tooling and reporting stack, including but not limited to, RAID logs, project status reporting, portfolio reporting, and project financials.
  • Take inventory of your assigned projects portfolio: scope, billing model, current project health, and open risks and issues for each project.
• In the first three months, expect to:
  • Understand and embed yourself within the flow of Delivery operations, including the sales-to-delivery handoff.
  • Own the weekly delivery-health review and reporting cadence across your portfolio.
  • Maintain rigorous RAID logs and have handled your first live escalations, intervening early before they impact the broader client relationship.
  • Be fluent in each project’s financials (revenue, margin, forecast) and able to speak to cost, schedule, and value-realization risk on any project in your portfolio.
• In the first six months, expect to:
  • Have a demonstrated track record of early mitigation: risk flags identified and addressed before they became client-visible issues.
  • Ensure every project team understands and applies the Delivery Methodology, with PM selection and onboarding running smoothly.
  • Identify and begin driving optimization opportunities across delivery-health reporting, governance setup, and forecasting accuracy.
• In the first year, expect to:
  • Deliver measurable Delivery results — more projects are Green at completion, increased on-time delivery, and reduced budget variance.
  • Shift the portfolio from reactive escalation to proactive assurance — fewer surprises, earlier signals.
  • Be trusted by Delivery Managers and Account teams as the definitive source of truth on portfolio health.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree is required. Preferably in Computer Science, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, or related IT discipline; or equivalent experience.
• Minimum of five (5) years’ experience managing multi-project portfolios.
• PMP certification.
• Experience coordinating across client and internal stakeholder groups.
• Excellent understanding of project management, including methodologies and best practices.
• Ability to connect portfolio financials, project execution, and business value realization into clear management reporting.
• Strong attention to detail and ability to synthesize portfolio-level insights from multiple data sources.
• Strong facilitation and virtual collaboration skills.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, rapidly growing company and handle a wide variety of challenges, deadlines, and a diverse array of contacts.
• You must be a world-class individual contributor to thrive at Toptal. You will not be here just to tell other people what to do.