Senior Manager, Portfolio Management

UL Solutions; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus 20%

Medical, dental, vision

401K retirement

PTO 15 days

Floating holidays 12 days

Sick time 72 hours

Job summary

UL Solutions in Northbrook, IL seeks a Senior Manager, Portfolio Management to lead the Global Technology portfolio and align investments with strategy, capacity, and value realization.

You will partner with executives, drive governance, prioritization, and delivery oversight, and own intake/prioritization processes; hybrid work schedule applies.

Qualifications

• Advanced portfolio, program, and project management expertise.
• Strong strategic thinking and business acumen.
• Excellent executive-level communication, influencing, and presentation skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead portfolio governance framework and meetings with executive leadership.
• Oversee prioritization, capacity planning, and investment decisions.
• Engage stakeholders and present portfolio reviews, risks, and options.
• Monitor portfolio health, delivery, and benefit realization across initiatives.
• Develop dashboards and metrics to track demand trends and outcomes.

Skills

Portfolio management

Strategic thinking

Executive-level communication

Data-driven decision making

Analytical problem-solving

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Change management

Risk management

Project management

Education

Bachelor’s degree

MBA or advanced degree preferred

Job description

Senior Manager, Portfolio Management

Northbrook, IL, United States

Job Description

The Senior Manager, Portfolio Management is responsible for establishing, leading, and continuously improving the Global Technology (GT) portfolio management function. This role drives governance, prioritization, and portfolio execution processes to ensure technology investments align with business strategy, resource capacity, risk appetite, and value realization objectives. The position serves as a facilitator of portfolio governance forums and is the owner of the Global Technology Intake/Prioritization processes. The Senior Manager partners with executive leadership, business stakeholders, technology leaders, architecture teams, and delivery teams to evaluate incoming demand, guide investment decisions, manage portfolio health, and ensure successful execution of strategic initiatives.

This position is hybrid, 3 times in the week at the office in Northbrook, IL.

Responsibilities

Portfolio Governance Leadership

• Establish and operate the Global Technology portfolio governance framework, including processes, roles, decision rights, stage gates, and meeting cadences.


• Develop and maintain a tiered governance structure that supports operational intake reviews, cross-functional portfolio prioritization, and executive investment decision-making.


• Facilitate Portfolio Reviews meetings with senior executives, and technology leadership to drive prioritization, funding, sequencing, and trade-off decisions.


• Ensure governance processes are scalable, transparent, and aligned with enterprise strategic objectives.


• Lead continuous improvement efforts to mature portfolio management capabilities and governance effectiveness.

Portfolio Prioritization & Demand Management

• Manage the enterprise technology portfolio and maintain a single source of truth for all approved, proposed, and in-flight initiatives.


• Lead the end-to-end process that supports evaluation and prioritization of incoming technology requests based on strategic alignment, business value, risk, capacity, dependencies, and benefit realization potential.


• Facilitate prioritization discussions across business and technology stakeholders to resolve competing priorities and resource conflicts.


• Drive capacity-aligned investment decisions using portfolio data, resource constraints, and strategic objectives.


• Create and maintain scoring models, prioritization frameworks, and decision-support tools that improve investment transparency.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as a liaison between executive business leaders and Global Technology regarding portfolio investments and prioritization decisions.


• Prepare and present executive-level portfolio reviews, dashboards, investment recommendations, risk assessments, and strategic options.


• Facilitate cross-functional discussions with SVPs, Finance, business sponsors, and GT leadership to drive alignment and timely decision-making.


• Build trusted partnerships across the enterprise to ensure stakeholder engagement and organizational buy-in.

Portfolio Execution & Delivery Oversight

• Monitor overall portfolio health, delivery performance, risk exposure, dependencies, and benefit realization.


• Ensure approved initiatives move efficiently from intake through planning, execution, and value realization.


• Partner with delivery leaders and business sponsors to identify and resolve portfolio-level issues.


• Escalate critical risks, resource constraints, and delivery challenges to executive leadership with recommended actions.


• Support resolution of cross-functional dependencies impacting strategic initiatives.

Reporting, Analytics & Continuous Improvement

• Develop portfolio dashboards, executive reporting, KPIs, and governance metrics for the end to end process.


• Measure portfolio performance, demand trends, resource utilization, throughput, benefits realization, and investment outcomes.


• Manage the performance of direct reports by defining accountabilities, establishing performance objectives and goals, providing feedback and guidance, and ensuring adherence to organizational policies.


• Read and follow the Underwriters Laboratories Code of Conduct, and follow all physical and digital security practices.


• Performs other duties as directed.

Qualifications

• Advanced portfolio, program, and project management expertise.


• Strong strategic thinking and business acumen.


• Excellent executive-level communication, influencing, and presentation skills.


• Proven ability to balance competing priorities and make data-driven investment decisions.


• Deep understanding of financial management, forecasting, and benefits realization.


• Ability to lead through ambiguity and organizational change.


• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.


• Ability to build trusted partnerships across executive, business, and technical teams.


• 10+ years of experience in project, program, and portfolio management.


• Experience managing enterprise or large-scale portfolios with multiple programs and cross-functional dependencies.


• Demonstrated experience in portfolio governance, investment prioritization, and capacity planning.


• Experience developing and presenting executive-level business cases and portfolio reports.


• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred (e.g., MBA, MA in Project Management, or equivalent).


• PMP, PgMP, PfMP, Prince2, and/or Agile certifications preferred but not required.

What we offer:

• Total Rewards: We understand compensation is an important factor as you consider the next step in your career. The estimated salary range for this position is $140,000-$175,000 and is based on multiple factors, including job-related knowledge/skills, experience, geographical location, as well as other factors.


• This position is eligible for annual bonus compensation with a target payout of 20% of the base salary.


• This position also provides health benefits such as medical, dental and vision; wellness benefits such as mental and financial health; and retirement savings (401K) commensurate with the standard rewards offered in each individual location or country.


• We also provide full-time employees with paid time off including vacation (15 days), holiday including floating holidays (12 days) and sick time off (72 hours).