Hersheys - Senior Manager - IT Portfolio Governance & Resource Management

The role requires : The core role is to serve as the bridge between IT execution and executive business strategy.

They ensure :

• Strategic Alignment : Every IT investment (project or program) directly supports and moves the organization closer to its strategic objectives.
• Value Maximization : The overall portfolio is optimized to deliver the highest possible business value and return on investment (ROI).
• Oversight and Control : Consistent standards, decision-making processes, and performance monitoring are applied across all initiatives.

Key Responsibilities :

Governance Framework and Standards :

• Establish and Maintain : Develop, implement, and enforce the formal governance framework, standards, policies, and procedures for IT portfolio management.
• Define Decision-Making : Define the roles, responsibilities, and decision rights for various governance bodies (Portfolio Governance Committee).
• Ensure Compliance : Monitor the portfolio to ensure all initiatives comply with organizational standards, methodologies (like Agile or Waterfall), and regulatory requirements

Portfolio Planning and Prioritization :

• Strategic Alignment : Collaborate with senior leadership and business unit heads to define portfolio goals that align with the corporate strategy.
• Collaborating with IS portfolio managers across IT department to understand priority of projects, creating roadmap for each portfolio that will be consolidated into an integrated IT roadmap
• Intake and Evaluation : Centralize and manage the intake process for new project proposals, evaluating them based on strategic fit, business value, risk, and resource requirements.
• Collaborate with the Transformation Program Team to integrate IT governance with the broader Hershey's Integrated Prioritization System to manage project intake.
• Prioritization : Drive the prioritization and sequencing of projects, often facilitating a governing body to make data-driven decisions on which projects to fund, defer, or stop (Portfolio Balancing).

Monitoring, Reporting, and Risk Management :

• Performance Monitoring : Establish and track key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics for the overall portfolio and its constituent projects / programs.
• Reporting : Prepare and deliver regular, transparent reports to senior management and stakeholders on portfolio health, progress, financial status, and strategic achievement.
• Risk Management : Identify, analyze, and manage risks and dependencies that span across multiple projects or threaten the portfolio's overall success.

Process Improvement : Drive continuous improvement of the portfolio management process, adopting best practices and tools to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.

IT Resource Management :

• Manage and optimize the allocation of critical resources (people, systems, funding) across competing projects to prevent overallocation and ensure the highest priority projects are adequately staffed.
• Collaborating with the GCC organization to create end-to-end process from demand intake to resource allocation that will give visibility across Grow (enhancement) and project work.

Required Skills and experience :

MBA (preferred) :

• 5-10 years of experience in IT Portfolio Governance roles with hands-on strategic planning, business case development and prioritization methodologies responsibilities
• Experience designing, implementing, and enforcing standardized portfolio and project management methodologies ( PMBOK, PRINCE2, Agile Portfolio Management).
• Hands-on experience with Portfolio Management applications such as Clarity, ServiceNow, Microsoft Azure DevOps.
• Advanced presentation, public speaking skills and ability to drive C-suite / senior leadership level discussions

(ref : iimjobs.com)