Director, Project Management

Provide project and portfolio management knowledge, leadership and expertise to business projects including management of the Company Project Management Office (PMO). The incumbent will organize, manage, and plan complex projects across the organization’s various business units. In addition, this role will manage a project prioritization process as well as continue improving Project Management frameworks, tools and templates for the business.

Working with senior leaders will facilitate governance, prioritization, and execution of strategic initiatives across the enterprise. the role partners closely across all departments and functions to enable reliable, high-quality outcomes and communications across an integrated enterprise This person may lead a small team of project managers.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Play a lead role in managing and coordinating business projects.
• Function as a senior business expert in the analysis, modification, and implementation of project objectives.
• Communicate information to senior level management and business units.

Cross-Functional Alignment & Execution

• Work with functional leaders to establish clear ownership, accountability, and decision‑making across PMO sponsored initiatives.
• Identify and address execution risks, resource constraints, and cross‑team dependencies early.
• Facilitate clear, timely communication between project teams and executive leadership.
• Support trade‑off discussions and course corrections to keep initiatives on track.

Enterprise Project & Portfolio Management and Governance

• Ensure enterprise-level visibility across timelines, resources, dependencies, and risk.
• Facilitate prioritization recommendations and scenario planning to support leadership decision-making.
• Ensure projects are aligned to business strategy, enterprise priorities, and capacity constraints.
• Develop, update and monitor key project deliverables throughout the end-to-end lifecycle of the projects including cost and risk analyses, project plans, requirements, test plans, postmortems.
• Conduct cost analyses, and/or partner with accounting to perform cost analyses and estimates on expected costs for various projects. Partner with Accounting to prepare and implement pro-formas and/or budgets based on estimates.
• Monitor projects and allocate resources as needed.
• Prepare and present information required to effectively communicate the progress and results of activities.
• Define, implement, and continuously improve project management frameworks, tools, and standards across the enterprise.
• Facilitate application of best practices across all projects, respecting departmental differences, balancing rigor with speed and agility.

• PMO Continuous Improvement Partner with Leadership, Accounting and IT to improve prioritization and monitoring of Enterprise strategic initiatives as well as associated projects.
• Maintain and enhance UDF-relevant project management methodology and associated tools and templates leading the development of standardized best practices for the organization. Communicate and collaborate with Learning & Development to teach project management capabilities, methodologies, templates and tools. Serves as an internal SME.
• Continue emphasizing risk and issue management and adaption of key Project Management Office (PMO) deliverables across the enterprise

Stakeholder Engagement

• Establish and maintain working relationships with peers and leadership across all lines of business.
• Act as a liaison between company, customers, vendors and other stakeholders.
• Foster a culture of accountability, transparency, change management, and continuous improvement.

People Leadership

• Responsible for providing direct reports with timely, candid and constructive performance feedback; developing employees to their fullest potential and provide challenging opportunities that enhance employee career growth.
• Developing the appropriate talent pool to ensure adequate bench strength and succession planning; recognizing and rewarding employees for accomplishments.
• Incumbent also holds his direct reports accountable for performing the same functions and activities with their direct reports if applicable.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES REQUIRED:

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Management, Operations or other 4-year degree preferred
• Seven-Ten (5-7) years’ experience and comprehensive knowledge of Project or Program management. Portfolio Management experience is highly desirable.
• Previous experience in a Retail and/or C-Store environment preferred.
• PMP or comparable Project Management certification highly desirable.

Competencies & Capabilities:

• Fundamental understanding of key financial, operational, and technology-related performance metrics.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills,and the ability to present information to external and internal groups.
• Self-starter, strong drive, highly motivated to make change and bring about fact-driven decisions.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to assess tradeoffs, capacity, and risk.
• Ability to operate in a complex, rapidly changing environment while adhering to tight schedules and budgets.
• Demonstrated project management skills and proven ability to balance multiple projects in varying degrees of implementation.
• Strong organizational, problem-solving, and attention-to-detail skills are required.
• Must be well-organized and able to coordinate multiple tasks and requests.
• Ability to quickly learn about projects and what they are trying to accomplish.
• Ability to prioritize tasks and delegate them when appropriate.[RL5.1]
• Risk management perspective complemented by data-supported decision facilitation.
• Strategic thinking, strong execution discipline.
• Excellent interpersonal and customer service skills.
• Position requires the ability to establish self as a leader, to not only perform in a leadership role, but to also be recognized by other divisions and business partners as a leader. Must be able to work in a team environment with the ability to interact well, and in a positive manner, with senior management.
• Strong supervisory and leadership skills. Has led teams and developed talent.
• Strong influence skills and situational leadership.

Computer/Technical:

• Proficient in MS Word, Excel, Power Point
• Prior experience with, Smartsheet, Monday.com or other project management software required
• Prior experience with ERP/SaaS systems (Sage, Oracle, SAP, etc.) preferred
• Proficiency in generative AI tools desirable