Strategic Portfolio Manager

Primary Work Address: 4000 Jones Bridge Road, Chevy Chase, MD, 20815

Current HHMI Employees, click here to apply via your Workday account.

HHMI is focused on supporting and moving science forward in a variety of different ways ranging from conducting basic biomedical research, empowering educators, inspiring students, developing the next generation of scientists - even stretching into film and media production. Our Headquarters is in the greater Washington, DC metro area and is home to over 300 employees with expertise in investments, communications, digital production, biomedical sciences, and everything in between. The work housed here supports and augments the groundbreaking research conducted in HHMI labs across the nation. As HHMI scientists continue to push boundaries in laboratories and classrooms, you can be sure that your contributions while working here are making a difference.

Role Overview:

This role sits at the center of how HHMI turns priorities into progress.

As a Strategic Portfolio Manager, you will lead complex, cross-Institute initiatives that matter. Some will focus on AI and emerging capabilities. Others will involve enterprise systems, operational redesign, or Institute-wide alignment and engagement efforts. You might be leading implementation of a new AI pilot one month and an Institute-wide communications initiative the next. All of them require sound judgment, practical structure, and the ability to move meaningful work forward in complex, evolving environments.

The goal of this role is straightforward: partner with senior leaders to translate the Institute's highest priorities into executable plans and sustained results.

This role reports to the Senior Manager, Strategic Projects within the Office of the President and operates with high visibility across the organization. This role will follow a hybrid model

• Lead end-to-end execution of complex, cross-functional initiatives from concept through implementation and stabilization.

• Translate broad strategic objectives into clear scope, timelines, deliverables, and measurable success criteria.
• Develop and manage detailed project plans aligned with cost, scope, schedule, and quality expectations.
• Identify and manage risks, dependencies, and tradeoffs, proactively developing mitigation strategies.
• Apply systems thinking to anticipate cross-functional impacts and align teams to maximize organizational impact.
• Drive disciplined scope management while maintaining flexibility in dynamic environments.

• Build coalitions and create shared accountability across teams that don't share reporting lines, navigating organizational complexity to drive coordinated action.
• Facilitate workshops, working sessions, and decision forums that move initiatives forward.
• Provide clear, concise, and audience-appropriate communication, including executive-ready materials and presentations.

• Design and maintain reporting cadences that give leadership clear visibility into initiative status, risks, outcomes, and interdependencies.
• Tailor reporting to different audiences - from executive dashboards to working-team updates - ensuring the right level of detail.
• Proactively surface risks and blockers rather than waiting for scheduled check-ins.

• Develop and implement stakeholder engagement and change adoption strategies.
• Partner with leaders and teams to prepare for and sustain change.
• Promote transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement across initiatives.

• Leverage AI-assisted project management tools and digital capabilities to enhance planning, analysis, and communication.
• Experiment with modern, adaptive approaches to improve speed, clarity, and collaboration across teams.

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.

• Five or more years of experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives from planning through implementation and stabilization in matrixed or similarly complex organizations.
• Proven experience leading or playing a significant role in enterprise-wide system implementations or comparable large-scale transformation efforts spanning people, process, and technology.
• Experience supporting strategy execution, operational transformation, process redesign, or organizational change initiatives.
• Experience implementing ERP systems such as Workday, SAP, Oracle, or similar enterprise platforms is a plus.
• Experience working in higher education, research, or mission-driven institutions is a plus.

• Strong knowledge of Agile, Waterfall, and hybrid project management methodologies.
• Demonstrated systems thinking and ability to manage cross-functional interdependencies.
• Strong financial and business acumen, including the ability to manage scope, tradeoffs, and resource constraints.
• Ability to design clear, audience-appropriate executive and portfolio reporting.
• High comfort operating in ambiguous environments and shaping emerging concepts into executable plans.
• Excellent written, visual, and verbal communication skills, including creation of clear, executive-ready presentations and materials.
• Strong facilitation, stakeholder engagement, and influence skills.
• Comfort with and curiosity about generative AI tools and their practical application to project planning, analysis, and communication.
• Experience implementing and scaling digital planning and project management tools such as Asana or comparable platforms.
• Ability to manage competing priorities while maintaining accountability and follow-through.