Senior IT Project & Portfolio Manager

The Senior IT Project & Portfolio Manager is a senior individual contributor responsible for leading selected strategic and cross-functional technology projects while strengthening and operating a practical project and portfolio management framework for IT. The position provides portfolio visibility, governance, executive reporting, risk and dependency management, resource capacity insight, and project management coaching across IT. Success requires strong technical fluency, executive-level communication, disciplined follow-through, and the ability to influence leaders and project teams without direct authority. ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include but are not limited to the following. Strategic and Cross-Functional Project Delivery Lead selected complex IT projects from intake and initiation through implementation, operational transition, stakeholder acceptance, and closure. Manage cross-functional initiatives involving infrastructure, cybersecurity, data center and facilities technology, enterprise applications, compliance, vendors, and business stakeholders. Develop and maintain project charters, integrated delivery plans, schedules, budget tracking, milestones, and dependencies appropriate to project size and complexity. Coordinate internal teams, business stakeholders, vendors, contractors, and implementation partners, including tracking ownership, statements of work, deliverables, commitments, and project financial status. Lead project meetings, steering reviews, decision forums, implementation readiness activities, and post-project retrospectives as appropriate. Proactively identify and manage risks, issues, dependencies, assumptions, decisions, resource constraints, and delivery trade-offs; escalated with clear options and recommendations. Ensure required testing, change management, security, architecture, operational readiness, documentation, and support handoffs are incorporated into project plans. Serve as the process owner for IT project and portfolio governance, including reporting standards, update cadence, minimum documentation, project health definitions, risk escalation, and closure requirements. Create, maintain, and continuously improve the enterprise IT project portfolio dashboard, providing accurate visibility into project health, milestones, risks, dependencies, decisions, resource constraints, and financial status. Prepare concise executive-level portfolio reports, presentations, dashboards, and decision materials. Establish and facilitate a consistent portfolio review cadence to evaluate priorities, sequencing, delivery confidence, dependencies, and risks; validate reported project status; hold project owners accountable for timely and supportable updates; and identify corrective actions, recovery plans, or escalations when warranted. Portfolio Intake, Prioritization, and Capacity Planning Help establish a transparent project intake, evaluation, and prioritization process aligned with business value, strategic objectives, risk reduction, compliance requirements, cost, urgency, effort, and available capacity. Partner with the Head of IT and IT leaders to establish project intake criteria, ownership, sponsorship, and appropriate governance requirements. Develop practical resource capacity-planning tools and processes that provide visibility into availability, demand, competing commitments, and critical skill constraints. Identify resource bottlenecks and delivery conflicts before they materially affect project outcomes. Recommend project sequencing, scope adjustments, resource alternatives, or deferrals to support leadership prioritization and trade-off decisions. Help prepare business cases by coordinating estimates and soliciting input regarding costs, benefits, risks, alternatives, resource needs, and expected outcomes. Project Management Framework, Standards, and Education Assess, strengthen, and evolve the existing IT project management framework to support Waterfall, Agile, hybrid, Kanban, and vendor-led delivery approaches. Create and maintain practical project templates, standards, and guidance, including charters, project plans, status reports, risk, assumption, issue, and dependency (RAID) logs, implementation-readiness controls, and closure documentation. Establish tiered governance, documentation requirements, stage gates, and quality checkpoints based on project complexity, risk, and organizational impact. Develop RFP templates, evaluation tools, vendor-selection guidance, implementation governance practices, and related processes for the IT team. Coach IT leaders, project owners, and technical leads on planning, estimation, risk management, stakeholder communication, documentation, and project management best practices. Use lessons learned, retrospectives, and portfolio performance to improve delivery practices, tools, transparency, and accountability without introducing unnecessary bureaucracy. ServiceNow and Tool Enablement Own the functional requirements, adoption, data quality, and continuous improvement of ServiceNow capabilities used for IT project and portfolio management. Partner with ServiceNow administrators and implementation partners to enhance project intake, workflows, dashboards, reporting, demand, portfolio, and resource-management capabilities; limited hands-on configuration may be performed based on experience. Leadership and Collaboration Participate as a member of the senior IT leadership team, providing objective insight into portfolio health, delivery risks, resource constraints, and organizational priorities. Build trusted relationships across Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, Enterprise Applications, Service Desk, IT Operations, business functions, vendors, and implementation partners. Lead through influence, sound judgment, facilitation, constructive challenge, and disciplined follow-through rather than direct organizational authority. Partner with the Head of IT and senior IT leadership team to translate strategic priorities into actionable plans, monitor commitments, and provide timely visibility and recommendations regarding delivery risks, blockers, resource conflicts, and unresolved decisions. QUALIFICATIONS To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations will be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Minimum of 7 years of progressive experience in IT project, program, portfolio, or PMO management; 10 or more years is preferred. Demonstrated success leading multiple complex, cross-functional technology projects involving technical teams, business stakeholders, vendors, and senior leaders. Technical background or strong technical fluency sufficient to credibly manage infrastructure, cybersecurity, data center, enterprise application, integration, and complex IT initiatives. Experience leading complex IT projects and establishing or improving portfolio governance, executive reporting, integrated planning, risk management, and delivery standards. Experience with portfolio intake, prioritization, demand visibility, and resource capacity planning is strongly preferred. Working knowledge of Waterfall, Agile, hybrid, Kanban, and vendor-led delivery models, with the judgment to right-size governance based on project complexity and risk. Experience managing third-party vendors, contractors, consultants, and implementation partners is required. Experience with ServiceNow project, demand, portfolio, or Strategic Portfolio Management capabilities is preferred; hands-on configuration is a plus but not required. Experience in manufacturing, distribution, or another operationally complex environment is preferred; nutraceutical, dietary supplement, food, or pharmaceutical experience is highly desirable. Knowledge of cGMP, validation, audit readiness, formal change control, or regulated documentation practices is a plus. PMP or comparable project or program management certification is preferred but not required; Agile or organizational change management credentials are a plus. Advanced skills in executive communication, facilitation, negotiation, organization, problem-solving, and influencing without direct authority. EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business Administration, Project Management, Engineering, or a related field preferred; an equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience may be considered. Minimum of seven years of progressive experience in IT project, program, portfolio, or PMO management is required, with ten or more years preferred. SAFETY RESPONSIBILITY STATEMENT Supports a culture of safety; follows all workplace health and safety procedures. Responsible for safety performance in respective area. Ensures the implementation of, adherence to, and enforcement of workplace health and safety requirements. Ensures activities are completed to promote and enforce safe behaviors by supervisors and employees. Ensures injury prevention efforts are effectively implemented. Fulfills responsibilities as outlined in the company safety management plan. LANGUAGE SKILLS Must possess excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to translate complex technical delivery information into concise executive-level status, risk, decision, and recommendation reporting. Must be able to facilitate meetings, influence stakeholders, constructively challenge assumptions, document decisions, and communicate effectively with technical teams, business leaders, vendors, contractors, and executive audiences. REASONING ABILITY Must be able to work independently, manage competing priorities, and exercise sound judgment in ambiguous and changing situations. Must be able to evaluate portfolio health, distinguish meaningful delivery risk from routine project activity, identify gaps and dependencies, assess resource constraints, develop practical response options, and escalated recommendations at the appropriate time. Must demonstrate the persistence and diplomacy required to drive accountability and timely follow-through across a matrixed organization. PHYSICAL DEMANDS The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The employee is regularly required to remain at stationary work location and occasionally to move from place to place within work facility. Employee is regularly required to use the telephone and computer. Employee will be required to travel to different work sites. WORK ENVIRONMENT Non-standard hours and/or extended work hours can be expected due to user/project requirements and/or deadlines, implementation activities, system or user issues, and workload backlog. The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. #J-18808-Ljbffr Now Foods