Portfolio Management Consultant
Pacific Life
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Benefits offered by this job
Job summary
Pacific Life, in Newport Beach, CA, seeks a Project Portfolio Management Consultant to lead portfolio governance and strategic alignment across business and technology teams. This hybrid role partners with finance, strategy, and product leaders to drive value realization and disciplined decision-making.
You will elevate portfolio maturity by instituting standards, roadmaps, and executive-ready reporting, while guiding teams through planning, initiation, and benefits tracking to deliver
Qualifications
- 10+ years of experience in portfolio management, program management, project management, strategic planning, governance, or related business transformation roles.
- 4-year degree or equivalent experience.
- Demonstrated expertise in managing or enabling complex portfolios of initiatives across business and technology teams in a matrixed environment.
Responsibilities
- Lead portfolio management rhythms and governance forums that help senior leaders prioritize investments, track health, and make timely trade-off decisions.
- Translate divisional and functional strategies into integrated portfolio roadmaps that connect demand, funding, capacity, dependencies, milestones, risks, and expected outcomes.
- Support the end-to-end portfolio lifecycle, including planning, initiation, prioritization, resource and capacity inputs, execution monitoring, benefits realization, and value tracking.
- Translate Workforce Division strategies into actionable portfolio initiatives that advance growth, innovation, operational excellence, and measurable business outcomes.
- Maintain awareness of business, market, and operational trends to help identify portfolio opportunities, risks, and trade-offs.
- Partner with business, finance, strategy, technology, product, program, and project leaders to ensure project and program work is prioritized, monitored, and executed in support of strategic objectives and business value.
- Develop and continuously improve portfolio management standards, practices, templates, reporting, and operating routines to advance PPM maturity across the organization.
- Analyze portfolio performance, capacity, financials, risks, issues, and dependencies to surface insights, options, and recommendations for decision-makers.
- Drive transparency across portfolio health, value realization, and delivery confidence through concise executive-ready communications, dashboards, summaries, and decision materials.
- Act as a trusted advisor and thought partner to stakeholders, applying broad business perspective and portfolio expertise to solve complex, cross-functional challenges.
- Coach and guide colleagues with less experience, helping teams adopt consistent practices while adapting approaches to business context and delivery needs.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
Providing for loved ones, planning rewarding retirements, saving enough for whatever lies ahead - our policyholders count on us to be there when it matters most. It's a big ask, but it's one that we have the power to deliver when we work together. We collaborate and innovate - pushing one another to transform not just Pacific Life, but the entire industry for the better. Why? Because it's the right thing to do. Pacific Life is more than a job, it's a career with purpose. It's a career where you have the support, balance, and resources to make a positive impact on the future - including your own.
We're actively seeking a talented Project Portfolio Management Consultant to join our Portfolio and Program Management team in Newport Beach, CA. This role is hybrid. We believe in empowering our employees to get work done both in and out of the office.
As a Project Portfolio Management Consultant, you'll move Pacific Life - and your career - forward by leading portfolio management practices that ensure the right initiatives are prioritized, monitored, and executed in alignment with strategic objectives, business value, and capacity. This P5 consultant role is recognized as an expert-level individual contributor within and beyond the function. You will fill a role within the Workforce Division, partnering with project, program, portfolio, product, finance, strategy, business, and technology leaders to strengthen portfolio governance, forecasting, roadmap visibility, and decision-making discipline.
- Lead portfolio management rhythms and governance forums that help senior leaders prioritize investments, track health, and make timely trade-off decisions.
- Translate divisional and functional strategies into integrated portfolio roadmaps that connect demand, funding, capacity, dependencies, milestones, risks, and expected outcomes.
- Support the end-to-end portfolio lifecycle, including planning, initiation, prioritization, resource and capacity inputs, execution monitoring, benefits realization, and value tracking.
- Translate Workforce Division strategies into actionable portfolio initiatives that advance growth, innovation, operational excellence, and measurable business outcomes.
- Maintain awareness of business, market, and operational trends to help identify portfolio opportunities, risks, and trade-offs.
- Partner with business, finance, strategy, technology, product, program, and project leaders to ensure project and program work is prioritized, monitored, and executed in support of strategic objectives and business value.
- Develop and continuously improve portfolio management standards, practices, templates, reporting, and operating routines to advance PPM maturity across the organization.
- Analyze portfolio performance, capacity, financials, risks, issues, and dependencies to surface insights, options, and recommendations for decision-makers.
- Drive transparency across portfolio health, value realization, and delivery confidence through concise executive-ready communications, dashboards, summaries, and decision materials.
- Act as a trusted advisor and thought partner to stakeholders, applying broad business perspective and portfolio expertise to solve complex, cross-functional challenges.
- Coach and guide colleagues with less experience, helping teams adopt consistent practices while adapting approaches to business context and delivery needs.
- 10+ years of experience in portfolio management, program management, project management, strategic planning, governance, or related business transformation roles.
- 4-year degree or equivalent experience.
- Demonstrated expertise in managing or enabling complex portfolios of initiatives across business and technology teams in a matrixed environment.
- Proven ability to interpret internal or external business issues and recommend process, product, service, or operating model improvements with broad business impact.
- Strong knowledge of portfolio and project management methodologies, techniques, and best practices, with the ability to apply them pragmatically across business contexts.
- Strong executive communication, facilitation, prioritization, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence decisions without direct authority.
- Experience with portfolio governance, integrated roadmapping, demand intake, prioritization, capacity planning, dependency management, financial stewardship, risk management, and value tracking.
- Strong analytical skills, including the ability to synthesize quantitative and qualitative inputs into clear insights, options, and recommendations.
- Experience using portfolio, project, and collaboration tools such as Planview, Smartsheet, Azure DevOps, Jira, Confluence, Microsoft Project, SharePoint, Teams, OneNote, PowerPoint, or similar platforms.
- Experience in regulated industries such as insurance, financial services, healthcare, or similar environments preferred.
- Project Management Professional (PMP), Program Management Professional (PgMP), Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP), or PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP).
- SAFe Agilist (SA), Lean Portfolio Management, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), or similar Agile / Lean certification.
- Experience in implementation and rollout of Portfolio Management and Project Portfolio Management tools such as Planview, Clarity or similar platforms.
- Experience implementing or maturing portfolio governance, cross-portfolio planning, value management, and executive portfolio reporting practices.
- Consulting experience or demonstrated ability to advise leaders, shape ambiguous problems, and build coalitions around pragmatic solutions.
- Demonstrated ability to build a compelling narrative, facilitate working sessions, influence senior leaders, and help drive decisions to conclusion in ambiguous environments.
- Advanced executive storytelling, data visualization, and decision support capabilities.
- Portfolio decisions are grounded in clear strategy, capacity, value, risk, dependency, and funding insights.
- Roadmaps and governance routines remain current, useful, and actionable - not theoretical.
- Leaders have timely visibility into portfolio health, trade-offs, and decisions needed to maintain momentum.
- Teams use consistent portfolio practices while adapting execution approaches to business context.
- Risks, issues, and dependencies are surfaced early and managed through transparent ownership and escalation paths.
- Portfolio management maturity advances through practical standards, continuous improvement, and trusted stakeholder partnerships.
People come first here. We're committed to an inclusive workforce. Learn more about how we create a welcoming work environment through Inclusion at www.pacificlife.com. What's life like at Pacific Life? Visit Instagram.com/lifeatpacificlife.
#LI-TM1
The base pay range noted represents the company's good faith minimum and maximum range for this role at the time of posting. The actual compensation offered to a candidate will be dependent upon several factors, including but not limited to experience, qualifications and geographic location. Also, most employees are eligible for additional incentive pay.
$167,670.00 - $204,930.00
Your wellbeing is important to Pacific Life, and we're committed to providing you with flexible benefits that you can tailor to meet your needs. Whether you are focusing on your physical, financial, emotional, or social wellbeing, we've got you covered.
- Prioritization of your health and well-being including Medical, Dental, Vision, and Wellbeing Reimbursement Account that can be used on yourself or your eligible dependents
- Generous paid time off options including: Paid Time Off, Holiday Schedules, and Financial Planning Time Off
- Paid Parental Leave as well as an Adoption Assistance Program
- Competitive 401k savings plan with company match and an additional contribution regardless of participation
We are committed to a culture of diversity and inclusion that embraces the authenticity of all employees, partners and communities. We support all employees to thrive and achieve their fullest potential.
What's life like at Pacific Life? Visit Instagram.com/lifeatpacificlife
Pacific Life Insurance Company is an Equal Opportunity /Affirmative Action Employer, M/F/D/V. If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran, you have the right to request an accommodation if you are unable or limited in your ability to use or access our career center as a result of your disability. To request an accommodation, contact a Human Resources Representative at Pacific Life Insurance Company.
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