Portfolio Governance & Project Delivery Manager

Cooley is seeking a Portfolio Governance & Project Delivery Manager to join the firm operations team.

About Cooley: Cooley is a global law firm with an expansive practice and more than 3,000 employees and partners worldwide. We value and celebrate diverse perspectives and strive to create a workplace where every individual can thrive. At the core of Cooley's success is the exceptional talent and unwavering spirit of our people. We embrace individuality while fostering a 'one-firm' culture where collaboration and creativity thrive. Our people are the foundation of our success and the driving force behind everything we do.

Hybrid Schedule Philosophy: As part of the Cooley culture, we recognize and appreciate the value of being together, in person, to build comradery with others in the office and to be a contributing member of the Cooley office. However, we also appreciate the benefits and flexibility that come from remote working. As such, the default assumption for employees and partners is a hybrid schedule: some in-office presence and some work from home days absent certain essential in-office roles that require five (5) days/week in-office.

Position summary: The Portfolio Governance & Project Delivery Manager is responsible for supporting and advancing the firm's portfolio governance, project delivery, and project management operations practices. This role helps connect strategic priorities to execution by bringing structure, consistency, and visibility to how initiatives are evaluated, prioritized, approved, governed, delivered, and reported across the organization. Working closely with business, technology, innovation, finance, and other firm stakeholders, this role oversees portfolio intake, governance routines, delivery standards, portfolio reporting and the continued evolution of project management tools and practices. The manager will also supervise project managers, helping ensure consistent delivery, reporting, stakeholder experience, and adherence to project management standards. Specific duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

Position responsibilities:

Portfolio governance and prioritization:

• Lead and continuously improve portfolio governance processes, including intake, evaluation, prioritization, approval, escalation, and status reporting.
• Support leadership in evaluating and sequencing work based on strategic alignment, business value, cost, risk, timing, resource capacity, and organizational readiness.
• Coordinate governance meetings, track decisions and follow-up items, and help ensure requests are sufficiently defined for evaluation and action.

Project and program delivery oversight:

• Oversee the firm's portfolio of projects and programs to ensure alignment to goals, timelines, business outcomes, and delivery expectations.
• Promote consistent project delivery standards, methodologies, communications, and reporting across the team.
• Monitor initiative health, including scope, schedule, budget, risks, dependencies, and critical milestones, and escalate issues as needed.
• Support value realization and operational readiness by ensuring initiatives are established with clear outcomes and appropriate testing, communication, and change management planning.
• Portfolio reporting, KPI's (Key Performance Indicators), and PPM (Project Portfolio Management) operations

• Continuously improve project and portfolio management processes, tools, templates, and standards to strengthen execution and transparency.
• Partner with finance, technology, procurement, and business stakeholders to support business case review, resource planning, demand management, and portfolio forecasting.
• Help identify resource constraints, overlapping work, and areas where outcomes or business benefits are not sufficiently defined to support investment decisions.

Process improvement, planning, and stakeholder support:

• Maintain a consolidated view of portfolio health, including active initiatives, delivery status, key milestones, risks, dependencies, capacity constraints, and performance trends.
• Oversee the development and maintenance of program and portfolio level KPIs, dashboards, and executive-ready reporting materials to support portfolio review and governance discussions.
• Develop and maintain reports covering strategic initiatives across programs and portfolios, including key risks, issues, decision point, and critical dates.
• Provide insights and recommendations based on portfolio performance data to help assess whether initiatives are achieving intended business outcomes.
• Support the development of reporting frameworks for initiatives managed outside of centralized project management structure so they can be reported consistently to leadership.

Other:

• Serve as direct supervisor and mentor to direct reports
• Provide day-to-day supervision of direct reports, ensure compliance with assigned work hours and monitor for compliance with all firm and department policies. Manage staffing coverage, review and process time logs/time off requests
• Support business professional development and continued educational opportunities
• In collaboration with immediate supervisor and central HR, participate in hiring, performance appraisals, counseling, termination and other employee lifecycle events
• All other duties as assigned or required

Skills and experience:

Required:

• After orientation at Cooley LLP, exhibit proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite, iManage and other firm applications
• Ability to work extended and/or weekend hours, as required
• Ability to travel, as required
• 5+ years applicable experience in PMO, portfolio management, program management and/or, project management, ideally with an emphasis on governance. (Eligible for consideration of Senior designation with 7+ years applicable experience in the field with 2+ years of exempt/management experience in relevant roles. Senior level will work more independently, demonstrate escalating ownership and mastery of assigned area, exhibit strength in the areas below, become a resource and mentor to others.)
• Experience managing project intake, prioritization, governance, portfolio reporting, and project oversight.

Preferred:

• Bachelor's degree
• Supervisory experience

Competencies:

• *Entrepreneurial by nature
• *Excellent attention to detail
• *Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills with ability to facilitate and solve problems
• *Ability to organize, prioritize and coordinate multiple activities often under tight timelines
• *Ability to drive projects to completion and achieve goals
• *Strong judgment
• *Team-player with collaborative spirit
• *Unwavering ability to handle and maintain confidentiality regarding firm information, projects,
• client data (if applicable)
• *High level of professionalism at all times
• *Demonstrated ability to lead through influence and develop talent [if applicable]
• *Proactive, analytical mindset
• *Effective presentation skills