Consultant, project portfolio management (ppm)

For more than three decades, premier organizations have trusted IPM to lead the successful execution of their strategic portfolios and critically important initiatives. Headquartered in Chicago with offices in Boston, Parsippany, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, IPM has led more than 5,000 projects for over 500 clients. Our clients range from Fortune 100 companies to start-ups.

Our Consultants are full-time employees and the competitive advantage that sets us apart from the rest.

IPM partners with clients across multiple industry sectors, including pharmaceuticals, medical technology, biotechnology, consumer products, industrial products, and healthcare.

As part of IPM’s national Project Portfolio Management (PPM) practice, we help clients raise the maturity of their portfolio management to reduce risk and enhance decision-making, communication, governance, resource allocation, and prioritization, ensuring projects align with strategy and achieve business goals. We meet clients where they are: assessing and enhancing existing PMOs, establishing new PMO and PPM capabilities, developing portfolio frameworks and customized prioritization models, and building resource planning models that work within real financial and human resource constraints. PMOs could include variations such as EPMO, TMO, SRO, VMO, etc. These frameworks often include processes, governance, tools, capabilities, and leadership.

JOB DESCRIPTION

As a Consultant in IPM’s PPM practice, you will work alongside IPM engagement leads and client teams to help organizations strengthen how they plan, prioritize, and deliver their portfolios. Depending on each client’s needs and maturity, you may support current-state assessments and help shape practical improvement roadmaps; serve as a hands-on member of a client PMO, managing portfolio reporting, governance cadences, resource tracking, and steering committee materials; or help build and roll out processes, templates, and tools while coaching project teams as they adopt new ways of working. This role focuses on enterprise and functional PMOs, with an emphasis on new product development, strategic initiatives, and business execution, and offers broad exposure to clients and industries as you grow your consulting and portfolio management expertise.

Please note: This role does not manage IT systems implementations or infrastructure projects, nor does it involve application development, cybersecurity, or technology operations.

Your primary goals and focus will be to:

• Support current-state assessments of PMO and portfolio frameworks, including stakeholder interviews, data gathering, and analysis
• Analyze findings to help identify the root causes of issues and inefficiencies
• Contribute to future-state recommendations and roadmaps for improvement
• Build and implement solutions, including processes, governance, templates, and tools
• Help run day-to-day PMO operations, such as portfolio reporting, steering committee materials, and resource tracking
• Apply industry best-practice methodologies and tools, such as Smartsheet
• Coach and support project managers and PMO staff as they adopt new practices
• Identify and help apply AI opportunities within PMO and portfolio functions
• Contribute to proposals and client materials

DESIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

The successful candidate for this position should have the following skills and experience:

• A bachelor’s degree (science or engineering discipline, or related field preferred)
• At least 7 years of professional experience growing into roles of greater responsibility, including 3 or more years managing projects or programs, or supporting a PMO or portfolio function
• Consulting mindset with the ability to assess current practices and recommend improvements
• Relevant PM certifications a plus, such as Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification
• High attention to detail
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including presentation skills
• Familiarity with PMO or portfolio maturity models and ability to adapt approaches to each client’s maturity level
• Experience supporting or coaching project teams
• Hands-on experience with PPM and reporting tools such as Smartsheet, Planisware, or Planview
• Interest in applying AI to PMO and reporting work
• Demonstrated ability to adapt to new situations

WHY IPM

Engaging culture: IPM has a caring, nurturing culture with a transparent communication approach and culture-building and team-building events, both regional and company-wide.

Inclusion: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion have always been a part of our culture; we are a company that treats everyone with respect and dignity. Everyone has a voice and is heard.

Professional development: We ensure you reach your professional aspirations by providing you with training and development opportunities. We’ll create the bandwidth you need to further your career at IPM. You are IPM’s future – we only promote from within.

Diverse projects: We lead a wide variety of projects and provide significant exposure to many clients and project types.

Collaborative work environment: We have a well-structured system to provide support from managers, internal teams, and our Centers of Excellence (CoE). Our CoEs serve as a resource for specific service and industry knowledge, tools and best practices.

Comprehensive compensation and benefits program: including 100% employer-paid health for employees and 80% paid health for dependents; 401(k) matching, performance bonus, relocation assistance, tuition reimbursement, paid vacation, holiday, personal and sick time, among many others; salary range is $110,000-$140,000 dependent on experience.

Philanthropy: We are devoted to the communities we serve and actively promote employee involvement in community improvement projects. We’ve created “Project Mercy” to channel our philanthropic efforts every quarter.

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time.

Disclaimer: Where a specific pay range is noted, it is a good faith estimate at the time of this posting. The actual salary offered will be based on experience, skills, qualifications, and market/business considerations.

IPM is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment.

IPM’s hybrid work environment requires a minimum of three days in the office. The specific days are flexible and may vary depending on project schedules and meetings. On-site locations may also vary. In addition, we follow our clients’ guidance on on-site requirements, so the minimum number of days in the office may increase depending on the client and project assignment.