Senior Manager, Portfolio Management

UL, LLC; Northbrook (IL); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work schedule

Annual bonus

Health benefits

401(k)

Job summary

UL Solutions is seeking a Senior Manager, Portfolio Management to lead the Global Technology portfolio governance, prioritization, and delivery oversight. You will partner with executives and technology leaders to align investments with strategy, capacity, risk, and value realization.

This hybrid role is based in Northbrook, IL, with three days in the office per week. You will drive governance frameworks, scorecard development, and decision-support tools while advancing portfolio health and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in project, program, and portfolio management.
• Experience managing enterprise or large-scale portfolios with multiple programs and cross-functional dependencies.
• Proven ability to balance competing priorities and make data-driven investment decisions.
• Demonstrated experience in portfolio governance, investment prioritization, and capacity planning.

Responsibilities

• Establish and operate the Global Technology portfolio governance framework.
• Manage the enterprise technology portfolio and maintain a single source of truth for all initiatives.
• Lead end-to-end evaluation and prioritization of technology requests based on strategic alignment and value.
• Prepare and present executive-level portfolio reviews and investment recommendations.
• Drive capacity-aligned investment decisions using portfolio data and constraints.
• Monitor overall portfolio health, delivery performance, and risk exposure.
• Escalate risks and resource constraints with recommended actions.
• Develop dashboards, KPIs, and governance metrics for end-to-end processes.

Skills

Portfolio governance

Stakeholder engagement

Executive communication

Strategic thinking

Financial management

Portfolio prioritization

Leadership

Data-driven decision making

Risk management

Change management

Education

Bachelor’s degree

MBA or advanced degree preferred

Tools

PMP

PgMP

PfMP

Prince2

Agile certifications

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.

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

• 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).

A global leader in applied safety science, UL Solutions (NYSE: ULS) transforms safety, security and sustainability challenges into opportunities for customers in more than 110 countries. UL Solutions delivers testing, inspection and certification services, together with software products and advisory offerings, that support our customers’ product innovation and business growth. The UL Mark serves as a recognized symbol of trust in our customers’ products and reflects an unwavering commitment to advancing our safety mission. We help our customers innovate, launch new products and services, navigate global markets and complex supply chains, and grow sustainably and responsibly into the future. Our science is your advantage.

UL LLC has been and will continue to be an equal opportunity employer. To assure full implementation of this equal employment policy, we will take steps to assure that:

Persons are recruited, hired, assigned and promoted without regard to race, color, age, sex or gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, religion, creed, national origin, ethnicity, citizenship, ancestry, disability, genetic information, military or veteran status, pregnancy, marital or familial status, or any other protected category under applicable law.