Principal Project Manager

Key Responsibilities

Portfolio Governance & Visibility

• Maintain comprehensive visibility across all active and planned initiatives within the Product Development portfolio.
• Establish and manage portfolio governance frameworks from ideation through launch and post-release review.
• Develop and maintain standardized project intake, prioritization, planning, reporting, and review processes.
• Ensure project data is accurate, current, and consistently maintained across all portfolio management systems.
• Create transparency across the organization regarding priorities, timelines, dependencies, and resource commitments.
• Monitor portfolio health and proactively identify initiatives requiring intervention, escalation, or executive decision-making.

Resource Planning & Capacity Forecasting

• Develop and maintain resource planning and forecasting models across Product, Engineering, QA, Content, Design, and Compliance teams.
• Analyze current and future capacity against planned work to identify potential bottlenecks and resource constraints.
• Provide recommendations regarding staffing needs, resource allocation, prioritization, and organizational trade-offs.
• Monitor utilization trends and ensure leadership has visibility into team capacity and workload distribution.
• Partner with department leaders to support strategic planning and portfolio balancing decisions.

Portfolio Analytics & Financial Oversight

• Establish frameworks for estimating, tracking, and reporting project and portfolio-level costs.
• Monitor investment levels across initiatives and provide visibility into resource expenditures.
• Analyze portfolio performance and identify opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce waste, and optimize resource utilization.
• Support annual planning and budgeting efforts with portfolio forecasting and capacity analysis.
• Provide data-driven recommendations regarding project investments and organizational priorities.

Executive Reporting & Stakeholder Communication

• Develop executive dashboards and reporting systems that provide meaningful portfolio insights.
• Deliver monthly portfolio health reports to executive leadership and key stakeholders.
• Communicate portfolio status, risks, dependencies, capacity constraints, delivery confidence, and investment impacts.
• Present strategic recommendations and trade-off analyses to support executive decision-making.
• Ensure leadership has accurate and timely information regarding organizational commitments and delivery expectations.

Risk, Dependency & Delivery Management

• Establish and maintain portfolio-level risk management processes.
• Identify cross-functional dependencies and potential delivery impacts across initiatives.
• Monitor project health indicators and proactively surface concerns before they impact delivery.
• Facilitate discussions and decision-making when risks, constraints, or competing priorities emerge.
• Partner with Product Managers and functional leaders to develop mitigation plans and maintain delivery continuity.
• Serve as a trusted advisor and escalation partner when projects require additional support or intervention.

Portfolio Systems & Process Excellence

• Design, implement, and continuously improve portfolio management systems, tools, and workflows.
• Drive automation and process improvements to reduce manual reporting and increase organizational visibility.
• Establish meaningful portfolio metrics and key performance indicators.
• Improve forecasting accuracy, reporting quality, and operational efficiency across the organization.
• Champion best practices in portfolio management, governance, resource planning, and organizational effectiveness.
• Evaluate and optimize portfolio management tools to ensure they support organizational goals and scalability.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Project Management, Operations, Engineering, Technology, Education, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience in Project Management, Program Management, Portfolio Management, PMO Leadership, Strategic Operations, or related disciplines.
• Experience managing complex portfolios involving multiple cross-functional teams and concurrent initiatives.
• Demonstrated success building governance frameworks, operational processes, reporting systems, and forecasting models.
• Strong experience with resource planning, capacity forecasting, risk management, and executive reporting.
• Experience working in highly collaborative environments involving Product, Engineering, QA, Design, Content, and Operations teams.
• Exceptional analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• Advanced proficiency with portfolio management, reporting, and analytics tools.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in EdTech, SaaS, software development, curriculum development, educational publishing, or related industries.
• Experience supporting executive leadership through portfolio analytics and strategic planning.
• PMP, PgMP, PMI-PMOCP, Lean Portfolio Management, Agile, Scrum, or related certifications.
• Experience implementing and optimizing project and portfolio management platforms.

What Success Looks Like in This Role

• Accuracy and effectiveness of portfolio forecasting and capacity planning.
• Visibility and transparency across Product Development initiatives.
• Reduction in delivery surprises and late-stage escalations.
• Executive confidence in portfolio reporting and decision-making.
• Early identification and mitigation of organizational risks and bottlenecks.
• Effective resource utilization across teams.
• Maturity and adoption of portfolio governance processes.
• Continuous improvement of portfolio systems, reporting, and operational effectiveness.
• Ability to provide actionable insights that improve organizational performance and delivery outcomes.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance with multiple plan options
• Company-paid short-term disability, long-term disability, and life insurance
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Paid Time Off (PTO) program
• 10 paid holidays plus 1 floating holiday annually
• Wellness resources and support programs