Principal Portfolio Manager

Principal Portfolio Manager

Location: Beaverton, OR
Contract length: ~4 months
Schedule: Hybrid in Beaverton, OR (WFH Friday)
Pay: $59-64.79/hr, DOE

The Planet Group is looking for a Principal Portfolio Manager to join our well-known retail brand on a roughly 4-month contract! This role is 40 hours per week and will be hybrid in Beaverton, OR, working from home on Fridays.

Principal Portfolio Manager Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience in technology portfolio management, strategic planning, technical program management, business operations, or a related discipline, including experience operating at enterprise scale
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education, experience, and training
• Demonstrated experience leading portfolio planning, governance, prioritization, executive reporting, and cross-functional decision forums
• Advanced analytical skills and the ability to work with financial, capacity, delivery, and outcome data to develop insights and recommendations
• Experience transforming ambiguous business questions into structured analyses, options, and executive-ready decisions
• Strong proficiency with portfolio and work-management tools, reporting platforms, and presentation or collaboration tools
• Preferred: experience with supply chain, planning, retail, or enterprise technology portfolios
• Aptitude with various custom and common portfolio planning, execution and financial applications: Microsoft Office Suite, Atlassian tools (Jira, Confluence), AirTable, SmartSheets, etc.
• Strategic portfolio leadership experience in a large, matrixed technology organization
• Demonstrated ability to connect strategy, investment, prioritization, capacity, execution, and measurable outcomes
• Strong communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex information into concise narratives, recommendations, and decision points
• Experience designing and leading annual, quarterly, and continuous planning processes and portfolio governance rhythms
• Expertise with portfolio health reporting, KPIs, risk and dependency management, scenario analysis, and investment or forecast views
• Proven ability to influence across product, engineering, program, finance, business, and portfolio stakeholders without relying on direct authority
• Strong facilitation and change leadership skills, with a record of improving portfolio practices and driving adoption
• Comfort working across geographies, cultures, and time zones with a collaborative, low-ego approach
• Curiosity and practical experience using automation, AI-enabled tools, or modern reporting capabilities to improve speed, accuracy, and insight
  

Principal Portfolio Manager Description:

• Lead and continuously improve core portfolio operating mechanisms, including monthly business reviews, annual operating planning, quarterly planning, and actuals-versus-forecast reviews
• Clarify inputs, ownership, decisions, outputs, and follow-through so each rhythm drives action rather than reporting alone
• Synthesize status, outcomes, risks, dependencies, investment signals, and decisions into a clear portfolio narrative
• Evolve meaningful KPIs and portfolio metrics that help leaders assess health, act quickly, build trust, and make informed trade-offs
• Partner across business and technology portfolio teams to align priorities, sequencing, capacity, and expected outcomes
• Facilitate transparent prioritization and scenario discussions that surface constraints and support enterprise-value decisions
• Design and govern planning processes across quarterly, annual, and longer-range horizons
• Create end-to-end clarity from pre-planning inputs and prioritization through decision forums, committed plans, and post-planning readouts
• Establish and operationalize consistent portfolio intake practices, including entry and exit criteria, decision rights, roles, flow, and governance
• Align approaches across SCPT sub-domains and cross-functional partners to create a scalable, transparent model
• Serve as a connection point between SCPT and broader Global Technology portfolio teams
• Translate enterprise expectations into practical SCPT mechanisms, represent SCPT context and needs, and promote transparency and coordination across organizational boundaries
• Assess current practices, identify friction or gaps, and implement improvements that simplify work, strengthen accountability, increase decision quality, and improve speed
• Lead adoption through clear communication, stakeholder engagement, and practical change management
• Advance portfolio tooling and reporting to improve data quality, accessibility, scenario analysis, and scalable decision support
• Use automation and AI-enabled capabilities where appropriate to reduce manual effort and strengthen consistency