Director of Strategic Program Management

The RoleWe have more good ideas than people to execute them. We are hiring a Director of Strategic Program Management to own the company's portfolio of initiatives: every project we've committed to, who is on it, when it will land, what it costs, and whether it is delivering what we expected.This is a build-from-scratch role. There's no team under you on day one and no system waiting for you. You'll build the initiative inventory, the planning standards, the operating cadence, and the reporting, then run them every month until they are second nature across the company. The cadence, templates, tools, and metrics are yours to design.You are accountable for two things. Keeping our projects on time and giving leadership a quantitative answer on whether each one is delivering a return. That means holding initiative owners to the timelines and results they signed up for, and saying clearly when a project should be stopped, resized, or accelerated. Accountability applies to everyone, including the CEO.You will report to the COO and work directly with the CEO, the CRO, and every functional leader.What You'll DoOwn the PortfolioRun a single intake so every new idea, whether from leadership, a partner, or the front line, is captured and framed before anyone starts workBuild and maintain a single inventory of every initiative, with owner, scope, timeline, budget, staffing, and expected outcome, including approved work that has quietly stalledTrack who is working on what and at what allocation, and surface capacity conflicts before they cause slippage. When something new is funded, make clear what waits or what we need to hireManage Programs and ProjectsSet lightweight planning standards (charters, milestones, dependencies, risks, decisions) sized for a 30-person company, not an enterprise PMOPartner with initiative owners to build plans, track milestones and dependencies, and clear blockers across product, technology, marketing, sales, operations, and complianceStep in directly to run the most critical cross-functional programs, such as acquisition integrationsClose every project with a handoff to a named owner, with ongoing metrics, and a short debrief on what we learnedMeasure Delivery and ROIBefore work is funded, require a short written brief from each owner: the goal, the investment case, what has to be true, the budget in people and dollars, success metrics, and stop conditions. You recommend; the executive team decidesReport monthly on schedule, spend, and results against the original case: what is on time, what is slipping, and what is paying offRecommend which initiatives to stop, resize, or accelerate, with the numbers behind it. When a project hits its stop conditions, you call it, and continuing takes an explicit leadership decisionRun the Cadence and Hold the LineOwn a monthly portfolio review covering the last 30 days and the next 90; prepare the materials, run the meeting, and drive each item to a decisionTrack every commitment made in that room and report against it the following month Raise problems early and have the direct conversation with the owner, without escalating by reflex or softening it into nothingUse AI tools and automation aggressively so your time goes to judgment, not to chasing and reformatting updatesYour First 90 DaysMeet every functional leader and understand what their teams are working on and whyDeliver a complete inventory of active and stalled initiatives, each with an owner, timeline, estimated cost, and staffing, along with your first written read on what you seePut intake, written briefs with stop conditions, and a tracking standard in place, with milestones, success metrics, and expected ROI documented for every active initiativeRun at least two monthly portfolio reviews with materials you produced, and report on the commitments made in themMake at least one recommendation to stop, resize, or accelerate an initiative, backed by the dataWhat We're Looking For8+ years in program management, project management, PMO leadership, or a similar operational discipline, with ownership of multiple concurrent, cross-functional initiativesA track record of delivering programs on time, the ability to get a room of independent leaders pointed the same way, and the backbone to hold them to it without direct authorityWorking command of planning methods and tools (Agile and waterfall, dependency and risk management, resource planning) and the judgment to scale them down for a small company. You bring a framework and adapt it, and you would rather own the outcome than advise on itSolid business and financial understanding: P&Ls, budgets, business cases, and ROI analysis Highly proficient with AI tools such as Claude or ChatGPT, and able to build automated workflows that make the work more efficientComfortable in a small company where the systems do not exist yet and you are the one who builds themNice to haves: background in finance; experience building this kind of system in a PMO, a PE portfolio company value creation office, or an EOS Integrator role; PMP, Scrum Master or similar certificationCompensation & BenefitsBase: $130,000 to $150,000, depending on experienceMedical, dental, and vision401k with up to 6% matchPaid time off and holidaysWhy This Role MattersWe want to be able to say at the end of every year: here are the bets we made, here is what they cost, here is what they delivered, and here is what we are doing next. People and time are the real inputs to this business. This role makes sure we spend both on purpose.