Director, Portfolio Management - Contract to Hire (Remote)

Do you have a passion for children and education? Would you like to positively impact families in need of help? We want to speak with you!

Step Up For Students empowers families to pursue and engage in the most appropriate learning options for their children.


Step Up For Students empowers families to pursue the most appropriate learning options for their children. We unite communities to provide scholarships that open doors to a stronger future. With this support, students can choose the right learning environment and access resources to reach their full potential.

Our culture is rooted in two core values:
• Everyone is an asset
• Every event is an improvement opportunity

These values guide how we work together and continuously improve. We expect every team member to bring these principles to life in their daily work.

The Director of Portfolio Management provides enterprise-level leadership to ensure strategic initiatives and investments are aligned with the organization’s mission, long-term objectives, and operational priorities. This role is responsible for architecting and leading a comprehensive portfolio governance framework that enables data-driven decision-making, value realization, and effective resource allocation across the enterprise.

Reporting into senior leadership, the Director oversees portfolio planning, prioritization, governance, performance management, risk oversight, and benefits realization, bringing transparency and rigor to how initiatives are selected, funded, and delivered. As a trusted advisor and key liaison between executive leadership and delivery teams, this leader facilitates informed investment decisions, resolves cross-portfolio trade-offs, and ensures enterprise capacity and resources are optimally aligned to drive outcomes and maximize portfolio value.

Location: Remote (United States)

Key Responsibilities:
• Architect and lead enterprise-wide governance frameworks that drive alignment of strategic investments with corporate objectives and long-range plans.
• Facilitate C-suite portfolio governance forums, enabling high-quality decision-making through advanced scenario planning, trade-off modeling, and strategic risk assessment.
• Maintain enterprise visibility of the full strategic initiative portfolio, ensuring optimal balance between near-term operational demands and long-term growth objectives.
• Provide executive oversight and mentorship to the portfolio team, ensuring consistent application of governance standards, project assurance practices, and audit.
• Design and evolve governance protocols, including scoring models and prioritization criteria, based on organizational performance analytics and strategic shifts.
• Own and evolve enterprise portfolio management policies, including stage-gate, intake, scoring, and selection procedures.
• Ensure continuous improvement of governance practices based on performance metrics, stakeholder feedback, and benchmarking.
• Lead enterprise-level governance committees and facilitate decision-making at the executive level.
• Represent the EPMO as a trusted advisor in senior leadership forums, providing enterprise portfolio performance reporting and recommending strategic adjustments through informed data driven decision making.
• Direct the intake, evaluation, and strategic prioritization of enterprise-wide initiatives, ensuring investment decisions are aligned with business objectives and resource constraints.
• Develop and maintain an integrated, multi-year strategic roadmap that aligns investment timing with corporate business planning and opportunities.
• Serve as the escalation point for enterprise prioritization conflicts, resolving trade-offs with executive sponsors to maximize portfolio value.
• Support the annual planning process with scenario-based portfolio modeling and capital/resource forecasting.
• Act as the enterprise integrator for strategic initiatives, ensuring clarity of dependencies, sequencing, and benefit realization across portfolios.
• Own the enterprise benefits realization lifecycle, tracking value delivery and ensuring measurable outcomes from strategic investments.
• Establish and manage enterprise metrics and KPIs to measure portfolio health, strategic contribution, and realized business value.
• Drive continuous assessment of initiative performance, making recommendations for continuation, acceleration, or termination.
• Hold formal portfolio reviews and benefits assessments, ensuring transparent reporting to executive stakeholders.
• Proactively identify systemic and cross-portfolio risks; develop enterprise-level mitigation plans to protect strategic investments.
• Govern enterprise resource allocation and capacity management to ensure successful delivery of strategic init