Principal, Portfolio Management
Department: Global Engineering & Products Reports to: SVP, Global Engineering & Products Position Level: Senior Individual Contributor / Strategic Expert Scope: Global Location: Montreal
- POSITION SUMMARY
The Principal, Portfolio Management is responsible for providing strategic oversight, governance, and optimization of the organization's global product development and engineering project portfolio.
Reporting directly to the SVP, Global Engineering & Products, this position plays a critical role in ensuring that engineering investments, product development initiatives, and innovation programs are aligned with corporate strategy, market opportunities, financial objectives, and available organizational resources.
The role provides executive leadership with actionable insights, portfolio performance analysis, and data-driven recommendations to support investment decisions, project prioritization, resource allocation, and long-term product portfolio competitiveness.
Working closely with Product Management, Engineering, Finance, Supply Chain and Operations, the Principal, Portfolio Management expert establishes portfolio management processes in coordination & under the guidance of the SVP, Global Engineering and Products and ensures transparency, accountability, and effective execution across the global engineering and product development organization.
- KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
A. Strategic Portfolio Management
- Develop and maintain a consolidated global portfolio of engineering, product development and product evolution initiatives.
- Ensure alignment between portfolio investments, corporate strategic priorities, product roadmaps, and business objectives.
- Establish and maintain a structured framework for evaluating, prioritizing, and balancing portfolio initiatives.
- Identify portfolio gaps, overlaps, redundancies, and opportunities for consolidation or optimization.
- Support long-term portfolio planning, including multiyear product development and technology investment roadmaps.
- Evaluate the strategic balance between new product development, product enhancements, sustaining engineering, and technology innovation.
B. Portfolio Prioritization & Investment Governance
- Establish standardized methodologies for evaluating and prioritizing engineering and product development investments.
- Develop business-case evaluation frameworks incorporating expected revenue, profitability, development cost, strategic value, technical risk, and return on investment.
- Facilitate portfolio prioritization and investment review meetings with senior leadership.
- Support investment decisions regarding project initiation, continuation, acceleration, postponement, or termination.
- Establish portfolio-level governance mechanisms to ensure disciplined allocation of engineering resources and R&D budgets.
- Monitor the overall portfolio against approved financial and strategic objectives.
C. Portfolio Performance
- Develop and maintain executive-level dashboards providing visibility into portfolio performance.
- Monitor approved budgets, actual expenditures, forecasts, and financial variances across development programs.
- Consolidate portfolio-level information on project schedules, milestones, technical risks, and delivery performance.
- Identify underperforming initiatives and recommend corrective actions or portfolio rebalancing.
- Track portfolio-level performance indicators, including:
- R&D budget adherence.
- Development schedule performance.
- Resource utilization and capacity.
- Portfolio risk exposure.
- New product introduction performance.
- Return on engineering investments.
- Revenue contribution from recently introduced products.
- Provide periodic portfolio performance reports and recommendations to the SVP, Global Engineering & Products.
D. Engineering Capacity Planning
- Work with Engineering Directors and functional leaders to consolidate resource requirements across the global project portfolio.
- Develop portfolio-level resource capacity and demand models.
- Identify resource constraints, competing priorities, and critical skill gaps.
- Support strategic resource allocation decisions to maximize overall portfolio value.
- Evaluate the impact of portfolio changes on engineering capacity, budgets, and delivery commitments.
- Provide scenario analyses to support resource optimization and investment trade-offs.
E. Product Development & Stage-Gate Management
- Establish and continuously improve portfolio governance processes aligned with the organization's product development lifecycle.
- Support implementation and governance of structured development milestones, and product launch readiness, where applicable.
- Ensure that project investment decisions are supported by appropriate business cases, technical assessments, and financial justifications.
- Coordinate portfolio-level gate reviews and maintain visibility into project readiness and outstanding risks.
- Identify opportunities to streamline development processes and improve time-to-market.
- Support post-launch reviews to evaluate actual performance against approved business cases.
F. Reporting & Decision-Making Support
- Serve as the central point of consolidation for global engineering and product development portfolio information.
- Prepare executive presentations, portfolio reviews, and investment recommendations for the SVP and executive leadership.
- Develop scenario-based analyses illustrating the financial, operational, and strategic implications of alternative portfolio decisions.
- Highlight critical portfolio risks, dependencies, and emerging opportunities.
- Provide objective, fact-based recommendations to improve portfolio performance and investment effectiveness.
- Support annual strategic planning, R&D budgeting, and quarterly business reviews.
G. Continuous Improvement & Portfolio Management Excellence
- Develop and standardize portfolio management methodologies, tools, reporting practices, and governance frameworks.
- Establish consistent portfolio data definitions, project classifications, and performance metrics across global teams.
- Promote transparency, accountability, and disciplined decision-making throughout the organization.
- Benchmark portfolio management practices against industry standards.
- Identify opportunities to leverage automation, business intelligence, and AI-driven analytics to improve portfolio visibility and decision quality.
- Drive continuous improvement in portfolio governance and investment effectiveness.
- KEY DELIVERABLES
The Principal, Portfolio Management Expert is accountable for delivering:
- Global Engineering & Product Development Portfolio: A consolidated and continuously maintained view of all active, planned, and proposed initiatives.
- Portfolio Prioritization Framework: A standardized methodology for evaluating strategic alignment, financial value, technical risk, and resource requirements.
- Executive Portfolio Dashboard: A comprehensive view of project status, R&D investments, budget performance, resource allocation, and portfolio risks.
- Annual R&D Investment Plan: A prioritized portfolio of engineering and product development investments aligned with corporate objectives.
- Resource Capacity & Demand Analysis: A consolidated view of engineering resource requirements, constraints, and allocation scenarios.
- Portfolio Performance Reviews: Executive-level assessments of portfolio performance, investment effectiveness, and recommended adjustments.
- Portfolio Governance Framework: Standardized investment approval, project prioritization, and stage-gate review processes.
- KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIs)
Performance will be evaluated against the following indicators:
KPI
Measurement
Portfolio Budget Performance
Variance between approved and forecast R&D expenditures
Portfolio Schedule Performance
Percentage of development projects meeting approved milestones
Portfolio Strategic Alignment
Percentage of investments aligned with approved strategic priorities
Portfolio Resource Visibility
Accuracy and completeness of resource capacity and demand forecasts
Portfolio Risk Management
Identification and timely escalation of critical portfolio risks
Investment Decision Quality
Percentage of major investment decisions supported by validated business cases
Portfolio Reporting Effectiveness
Accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of executive reporting
Portfolio Governance Compliance
Percentage of applicable projects following approved governance and stage-gate processes
Portfolio Value Realization
Actual versus planned financial and strategic benefits of completed initiatives
Specific performance targets will be established in collaboration with the SVP, Global Engineering & Products.
- REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
Education
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business Administration, Finance, or a related technical discipline.
- Master's degree in Engineering Management, Business Administration (MBA), or a related field is considered an asset.
Professional Experience
- Minimum 10–15 years of relevant experience in engineering, product development, portfolio management, program management, or technology-driven organizations.
- Demonstrated experience managing or overseeing complex engineering and product development portfolios.
- Strong understanding of R&D investment planning, financial analysis, and resource allocation.
- Experience with product development lifecycle management and stage-gate governance.
- Proven ability to work effectively with senior executives and cross-functional leadership teams.
- Experience in global, multisite engineering organizations is strongly preferred.
Technical & Business Competencies
- Strong analytical and financial modeling capabilities.
- Advanced understanding of portfolio management methodologies and investment prioritization.
- Knowledge of engineering development processes and product lifecycle management.
- Proficiency with portfolio management tools, advanced Excel, Power BI, and enterprise reporting systems.
- Ability to develop executive dashboards and decision-support models.
- Strong understanding of business cases, ROI, NPV, and investment risk assessment.
- Excellent presentation, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
- LEADERSHIP & BEHAVIORAL COMPETENCIES
- Strategic Thinking: Ability to translate business strategy into actionable portfolio priorities.
- Business Acumen: Strong understanding of financial performance, investment trade-offs, and business value creation.
- Analytical Excellence: Ability to transform complex data into meaningful executive insights.
- Influence Without Authority: Ability to drive alignment across functions without direct operational control.
- Objective Decision-Making: Ability to challenge assumptions and provide independent recommendations.
- Organizational Agility: Ability to operate effectively in complex, global, matrix organizations.
- Continuous Improvement: Commitment to operational excellence, standardization, and process optimization.
- ORGANIZATIONAL INTERFACES
Direct Reporting Relationship
SVP, Global Engineering & Products
Key Internal Stakeholders
- Global Engineering Directors
- Product Management Leadership
- Finance and FP&A
- Operations and Manufacturing
- Sales and Business Development
- Supply Chain and Procurement
- Executive Leadership Team
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- DECISION-MAKING AUTHORITY
The Principal, Portfolio Management serves as the principal advisor to and work closely with the SVP, Global Engineering & Products, on portfolio prioritization, investment governance, and portfolio performance.
The position has the authority to:
- Establish and maintain approved portfolio reporting standards and governance methodologies.
- Request and consolidate project, financial, and resource information from relevant functional teams.
- Facilitate portfolio prioritization and governance reviews.
- Challenge project assumptions, investment justifications, and portfolio performance forecasts.
- Recommend project prioritization changes, investment reallocations, and corrective actions.
Final approval of portfolio investments, resource commitments, and project continuation or termination remains with the SVP and other designated executive decision-makers up to the CEO organization.
- POSITION OBJECTIVE
To maximize the strategic and financial value of the global engineering and product development portfolio by ensuring that the organization invests in the right initiatives, allocates resources effectively, and maintains disciplined oversight of portfolio performance.
