Director, IT Portfolio Strategy & Execution - Global Technology & Business Services

What Strategic Planning/Execution contributes to Cardinal Health

Strategy is responsible for leadership, direction and expertise in the development of business strategy, strategic management disciplines and business analytics that support the company's mission vision and valuation objectives, in close collaboration with business leaders.

Strategic Planning/Execution is responsible for developing and supporting the realization of strategic plans and management agendas.

Job Summary

The Director, IT Portfolio Strategy & Execution is a key leadership role within Global Technology & Business Services (GTBS), accountable for enterprise IT portfolio strategy, governance, financial management, and execution transparency across Cardinal Health's segments. This leader owns the portfolio lifecycle and operating rhythm, enabling timely investment decisions and consistent delivery discipline. A critical dimension of this role is serving as the connective layer between the Finance organization and the IT portfolio team — fluent enough in financial concepts to understand the intent behind Finance data requests and capable of translating those requirements into clear direction for portfolio staff. 

The Director is also accountable for portfolio financial forecasting outputs — including year-end close support and forecast cycles — and for ensuring visibility to P&L and GAAP impacts in partnership with Finance and Accounting. This leader builds and sustains a responsive, trust-based partnership with Finance to strengthen alignment and ensure both organizations operate from a shared understanding of portfolio performance.  This role drives data standards, reporting quality, and continuous improvement across portfolio processes and tools.

Responsibilities

• Manage the IT portfolio lifecycle end-to-end: planning, evaluation, funding, execution, optimization, and refresh

• Establish and enforce a portfolio operating rhythm that ensures investment decisions are auditable and consistently executed across segments

• Define and maintain portfolio operating standards that create a single way of working across lines of business

• Own portfolio financial forecast outputs across budget, actuals, and forecast cycles; partner with Finance and Accounting to align to P&L and GAAP impacts and controls

• Lead portfolio variance analysis and action planning; coordinate year-end close readiness activities

• Enforce financial hygiene: timely updates to estimates and assumptions, triggers for business case refresh, funding changes, and governance review

• Act as the primary translator between Finance and the portfolio team — interpret financial terminology (e.g., rolling forecasts, capital/expense classification, GAAP treatment), understand the underlying business intent, and ensure the portfolio team delivers accurate, timely, and properly structured information back to Finance

• Proactively communicate financial signals — including over/under spend and re-forecast needs — so Finance can plan and deploy capital accordingly

• Lead the demand intake process to ensure complete input, clear sponsorship, and structured evaluation prior to governance decisions

• Define and operate prioritization standards and supporting governance to ensure enterprise-wide consistency in portfolio decisions

• Own portfolio capacity planning, risk management, and dependency tracking — including cross-program constraints and sequencing

• Publish executive-level portfolio health reporting with clear variance drivers, delivery confidence, and decision options

• Drive portfolio optimization across active investments to ensure delivery outcomes and financial performance

• Provide leadership oversight of the IT software renewal and asset management function, ensuring renewal cycles, licensing decisions, and cost optimization are aligned to portfolio and financial plans

• Define portfolio data standards, metrics, and quality controls across segments

• Leverage enterprise tools and data sources (e.g., Planview/PPM, SAP financial reporting, and related platforms) to provide dashboards and enterprise reporting

• Evolve portfolio practices in step with the market landscape, including emerging capabilities in AI, analytics, and automation

• Lead and develop a portfolio organization of direct and indirect resources; set goals, coach capabilities, and build a culture of accountability and continuous improvement

• Serve as a teacher and mentor to staff — proactively explain the "why" behind new ways of working, build financial literacy within the team, and develop internal capabilities as the organization evol