Enterprise Portfolio Manager (IT Project Management – Senior/Specialist)

State of Washington; Lacey (WA); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Department of Ecology seeks an Enterprise Portfolio Manager to guide the agency’s IT portfolio program across ITSO and multiple program portfolios. You will align technology initiatives with agency needs and drive transparent planning and prioritization.

In this senior role, you will collaborate with executive leaders, IT managers, and partners to deliver a strategic roadmap while addressing legislative impacts, risk, and continuous improvement opportunities.

Qualifications

• Eight years of experience and/or education related to IT portfolio leadership and program management.
• Experience leading IT professionals or technical teams and aligning IT work with agency goals.
• Ability to apply portfolio methods to prioritize and maximize value.

Responsibilities

• Guide and develop the enterprise-wide Information Technology Portfolio Management (ITPM) program with governance and alignment to agency goals.
• Oversee existing investments across ITSO, environmental program portfolios, and supporting divisions; help prioritize new work.
• Maintain portfolio standards, templates, and tools including intake, review, prioritization, and capacity planning.
• Provide senior guidance to executives and teams to create a strategic portfolio roadmap.
• Coordinate with legislative partners for review and compliance related to ITSO portfolios.
• Mentor IT professionals on portfolio management practices and process improvements.
• Administer annual technology certification requirements and support accommodation requests.
• Serve as Technical Change Manager to assess impacts of changes and document needs.

Skills

IT Leadership

Strategic IT Alignment

Portfolio Management

Data-Driven Decision Making

Collaborative Planning

Risk Management

Continuous Improvement

Education

Bachelor’s degree in IT/Computer Science/Project Management

Tools

Monday.com

Jira

Job description

Keeping Washington Clean and Evergreen

The Department of Ecology is hiring an Enterprise Portfolio Manager (IT Project Management – Senior/Specialist) within the Information Technology Services Office (ITSO).

Location

• Headquarters Office in Lacey, WA.

• Upon hire, you must live within a commutable distance from the duty station.

Schedule

• This position is eligible for telework and flexible schedule options.

• You may telework most of your work time with occasional in-person meetings and activities.

• Position is overtime exempt and may require an adjusted schedule and/or work in excess of 40-hours-per-week occasionally to meet deadlines.

• Occasional travel, typically local or regional, may be required to meet with clients, conduct business, or attend or provide training.

• Schedules are dependent upon position needs and are subject to change.

Application Timeline

• Apply by August 23, 2026

• Applications submitted after the date above may not be reviewed unless additional qualified applicants are needed.

In this senior role as the Enterprise Portfolio Manager, you will be responsible for shaping and guiding the agency’s Information Technology Portfolio Management (ITPM) program. You will have the opportunity to support strategic IT investments across a diverse portfolio—including more than 220 applications, infrastructure assets, and multiple program portfolios—contributing directly to the agency’s mission to protect Washington’s environment.

This role brings together strategic thinking, cross-team coordination, and practical portfolio oversight. You’ll help align technology initiatives with business needs, encourage transparent planning, and support thoughtful resource allocation. The work is meaningful and varied: you’ll address complex topics such as legislative impacts, risk awareness, and process improvement, while collaborating with executive leadership, IT managers, and external partners.

What you will do

• Guide and support the continued development of the agency’s enterprise-wide Information Technology Portfolio Management (ITPM) program, including shared vision, governance, and alignment with agency goals.

• Coordinate the agency’s enterprise information technology portfolio by overseeing existing investments and helping prioritize new ones. This includes ITSO’s portfolio, eleven environmental program portfolios, and the portfolios for Administrative Services, Fiscal, and Human Resources.

• Maintain and improve portfolio management standards, processes, templates, and tools, including project intake, technical review, prioritization, and resource capacity planning.

• Provide senior-level guidance to executive leadership, IT managers, and project teams as they build and maintain a strategic portfolio roadmap and service list that reflects agency needs and goals.

• Serve as the agency’s primary legislative partner for ITSO, coordinating bill review, compliance needs, and communication with key partners.

• Mentor and support IT professionals and managers on portfolio management practices, policies, and opportunities for process improvement.

• Administer annual technology certification requirements and act as a liaison for IT-related reasonable accommodation requests, ensuring inclusivity and compliance.

• Serve as the Technical Change Manager for IT teams, helping assess the impacts of changes, anticipate infrastructure updates, and identify documentation needs.

For detailed information on how we calculate experience and responses to other frequently asked questions, please visit our Recruitment website.

Required Qualifications

• Eight years of experience and/or education related to the duties of the position, which includes the following:

  • IT Leadership – At least one year of experience leading IT professionals or consulting as a technical lead
  • Strategic IT Alignment – Demonstrated ability to connect agency goals to technology work to ensure long-term, mission-focused planning.
  • Portfolio Management – Demonstrated ability to apply advanced project portfolio methods to organize, prioritize and oversee IT work to maximize value and impact.
  • Data-Driven Decision Making – Demonstrated ability to collect, review and interpret data to support transparent decisions about IT projects and resources.
  • Collaborative Planning – Proven track record working effectively with leaders, technical teams, statewide partners and program staff to support coordinated planning and problem solving.
  • Risk Management – Demonstrated ability to identify issues early, assess impacts and help teams develop realistic strategies to avoid or reduce risk.
  • Continuous Improvement – Demonstrated ability to evaluate completed work, identify opportunities to improve processes and stay current with best practices to strengthen agency performance.

• Educationinvolving a major study in IT, Computer Science, Project Management, or closely related field.

Examples of how to qualify

• 8 years of experience.
• 7 years of experience AND 30-59 semester or 45-89 quarter college credits.
• 6 years of experience AND 60-89 semester or 90-134 quarter college credits (Associate’s degree).
• 5 years of experience AND 90-119 semester or 135-179 quarter college credits.
• 4 years of experience AND a Bachelor’s degree.
• 2 years of experience AND a Master’s degree.

Special Requirements/Conditions of Employment

• This position requires training to keep consistent with industry best practices. Leadership works with industry leaders to forecast changes in information technology and lists required training in this position’s yearly Performance Development Plan (PDP). Staff within this division are provided two (2) hours per week for training. It is expected that this position will take what is learned in their training and apply it to their daily work.

Desired Qualifications

• A Bachelor’s degree with a focus on computer science, project management or related field.
• Four years of portfolio management experience managing a large multi-program/division enterprise portfolio.
• Certification as a Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP) or Project Management Professional (PMP) through the Project Management Institute (PMI).
• Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Foundation Certification.
• Knowledge of Monday.com and Jira (or similar enterprise-wide portfolio management system).

If you are excited about this role and meet the required qualifications, we encourage you to apply. Desired qualifications reflect additional knowledge, skills, or experience that are nice to have but not required. Studies have shown that some applicants, especially women and people of color, are less likely to apply unless they meet every listed qualification. At the Department of Ecology, we are dedicated to building a diverse and authentic workplace centered in belonging, and we welcome applicants with varied backgrounds and unique perspectives.

Ecology does not use the E-Verify system; therefore, we are not eligible to extend STEM Optional Practical Training (OPT). For more information, please visit www.uscis.gov.

Our Commitment to DEIR

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Respect (DEIR)are core values central to Ecology's work. We strive to be a workplace where we are esteemed for sharing our authentic identities, while advancing our individual professional goals and collaborating to protect, preserve, and enhance the environment for current and future generations.

Diversity: We celebrate and appreciate diversity; our unique perspectives and abilities enrich us all and lead to innovative approaches and solutions.

Equity:We champion equity, recognizing that each of us need different things to thrive.

Inclusion: We intentionally create and hold space so that we all have meaningful opportunities to participate and contribute to Ecology’s work.

Respect: We treat each other with respect and dignity, acknowledging the inherent worth of our diverse perspectives and lived experiences, even in times of uncertainty and disagreement.

We believe that DEIR is both a goal and an action. We are on a journey, honoring our shared humanity and taking steps to demonstrate our commitment to a vision where each of us is heard, seen, and valued.

About the Information Technology Services Office’s (ITSO)

The Information Technology Services Office’s (ITSO) mission is to create and support useful technology services that adapt for the future and support Ecology’s mission. ITSO’s mission is realized by focusing on the following strategic objectives and outcomes:

• Modeling behavior that demonstrates strong work ethics, high performance, and transparency in decision making so that team members are engaged, we keep and attract highly motivated, innovative and productive professionals.
• Engaging in continuous learning, process improvement and proactive communication with our business partners so that we deliver high quality services that leverage modern technical solutions and meet the business needs.
• Advancing the Portfolio Management program for transparent decision-making, and mission driven prioritization.
• Managing agency systems to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability by evaluating business need, cyber threats, risk, and maintainability, so that agency data is accurate and reliable.
• Leading enterprise data management: promote agency defined data standards and industry best practices, architect technical systems integrations, and provide technical support for hardware and software tools allowing the agency to make data driven decisions.

Section Mission: The ITSO Enterprise Business Technology Operations and Planning Section (TOPS) provides expert consulting and leadership across critical disciplines necessary for a mature, high-performing IT organization, focused on sustainable, agency-wide solutions.

About the Department of Ecology

As the State of Washington’s environmental protection agency, we are deeply committed to protecting, preserving, and enhancing Washington’s environment for current and future generations. Joining Ecology means becoming part of a team dedicated to protecting and sustaining healthy land, air, water, and climate in harmony with a strong economy. A career in public service at Ecology allows you to help solve some of the most challenging problems facing our state, while keeping your health and financial security a priority. We combine one of the most competitive benefits packages in the nation with a strong commitment to life/work balance. We invest in our employees to create and sustain a working environment that encourages creative leadership, effective resource management, teamwork, professionalism, and accountability.

Ecology employees may be eligible for the following

• Medical/Dental/Vision for employee & dependent(s)
• Public Employees Retirement System (PERS)
• Vacation, Sick, and other Leave*
• 11 Paid Holidays per year*
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness
• Tuition Waiver
• Long Term Disability & Life Insurance
• Deferred Compensation Programs
• Dependent Care Assistance Program (DCAP)
• Flexible Spending Arrangement (FSA)
• Employee Assistance Program
• Commute Trip Reduction Incentive
• Combined Fund Drive
• SmartHealth
• Click here for more information

To learn more about Ecology, please visit our website, explore Working at Ecology, check out our Strategic Plan, and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or our blog.

Equal Opportunity Employer

The Washington State Department of Ecology is an equal opportunity employer. We strive to create a working environment that includes and respects cultural, racial, ethnic, sexual orientation and gender identity diversity. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, persons of disability, persons over 40 years of age, veterans, military spouses or people with military status, and people of all sexual orientations and gender identities are encouraged to apply.

Collective Bargaining

This is a position covered by a bargaining unit for which the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) is the exclusive representative.

Note: This recruitment may be used to fill other positions of the same job classification across the agency. Once all the position(s) from the recruitment announcement are filled, the recruitment may only be used to fill additional open positions for the next sixty (60) days.