Director, Portfolio Manager

Welcome to the intersection of energy and home services. At NRG, we're driven by our passion to create a smarter, cleaner and more connected future.

Vivint Smart Home, an NRG owned company, is a leading smart home company in the United States, dedicated to redefining the home experience with intelligent products and services. We find purpose in proactively protecting and keeping our customers connected to home, no matter where they are. Join the Smart Home team to create smarter, safer and more sustainable homes.

Summary:

The Director of Portfolio Manager will work with a high-performing program team within Vivint's Innovation group as they look to deliver innovative and leading services via technology (including software, hardware, analytics, and strategic partnerships). They will work across operational and product/engineering groups to deliver outcomes while contributing to improving the way we work together.

The Portfolio Manager Director will be the lead program team member within our cross-functional product portfolio vertical supporting the Vertical Lead and being their go-to partner for all items relating to program delivery and management/risk or product delivery and execution. They will line-manage other program managers in the vertical as well as represent them in leadership forums as appropriate. They will also have overall responsibility for the portfolio of programs within eachvertical and ensure related objectives and deliverables are met by the team.

It is expected that the Portfolio Manager Director spend approximately half of their time providing direct support to the other program managers in their Vertical. The remaining half would be split between team leadership and leading cross business improvement initiatives.

The Portfolio Manager Director will also support the respective vertical by facilitating strategic resource planning and budgeting for programs within the vertical working closely with Product, UX, and Engineering to meet business objectives.

The Portfolio Manager Director will oversee the delivery of a set of programs, including single programs or multiple sub-projects within a program depending on size and complexity including multiple project streams across Vivint's Innovation Center teams (product management, hardware and software engineering, UX, design, QA) as well as Vivint's broader operational groups (supply chain, sales, operations, IT, marketing, Finance). The portfolio will cover projects from full new product development, product feature development, revisions of hardware or software updates, VAVE, or product pilots.

At the fundamental level, the program manager's role in Vivint is to lead a broad team and manage scope, budget, schedule, and quality with high order ability to bring people and teams together, identify risks, and necessary tradeoffs to maintain track with program goals and negotiate between those stakeholders to deliver a product that will meet our business goals to delight our customers, provide peace of mind and be business accretive (value accretive, channel ready, service smart).

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:

• ACCOUNTABILITY: Accountable for the plan, schedule and budget for your assigned program and projects. Understand priorities and create clear plans to deliver. Communicate with stakeholders and partners. Set and meet commitments. Set specific release dates and milestones with the team and keep them focused on those accountabilities while communicating needs for support or issues that put those at risk.

• LEADERSHIP: Know Vivint's strategic priorities, and work with product manager and vertical leads to see that the team's work is aligned to the top priorities. Partner with engineering teams to deliver working solutions in software, products, and systems. Set schedules and create strong execution plans to develop products and features to bring to market. Partner with the Product, Engineering, Supply Chain, external partners, and Operations team to drive the program. Work across teams to review the proposed scope and provide Level of Effort (LOE) estimates as well as suitable tradeoffs for quality and business risk.

• COMMUNICATION: Create appropriate communications to update the business regularly on the status, risks, and support needed to be successful for the portfolio of programs. Provide weekly status updates communicating progress towards commitment in terms of scope, schedule, and cost.

• RISK AND ISSUE MANAGEMENT: Lead the team to identify risks up front, manage and mitigate them, and monitor residual risks and any issues that arise regularly. Track tasks and lead a culture of accountability in the team and across the business. Set up excellent change and risk management practices to keep work on track.

• ADDITIONAL ITEMS FOR PROGRAM MANAGEMENT LEAD: Represent vertical overall in matters relating to program delivery, risk, program budgets, and strategic planning. Recruiting and management of vertical program team members. Part of the leadership team within vertical partnering with the Vertical Lead and Tech Lead. Leading the process for strategic program resource planning and budgeting relating to program delivery.

DAY TO DAY & TOOLS:

• Facilitate and chair relevant program meetings, participate in agile activities where appropriate, develop communications, and deliver to stakeholders. Hold regular risk reviews and accountability tracking meetings. Work with stakeholders as risks and issues arise. Develop partner relationships and manage the performance of partners relating to program delivery. Work with the team to monitor and keep the program on track or escalate risk and support as required.
• Draw on professional experience in scheduling, budgeting, risk mitigation, and task tracking platforms (MS PROJECT, SMARTSHEETS, EXCEL, etc.) as well as content and engineering tracking systems (e.g. JIRA, CONFLUENCE, SHAREPOINT, etc.)
• A bias to strong leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills will exist in assessing success in this role along with the ability to work in a fast-paced environment where change and pivots to priorities occur occasionally.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE:

• MATRIX (or CROSS-FUNCTIONAL) STRUCTURE / PRODUCT PORTFOLIO VERTICALS: The program manager's primary relationships and responsibility are to the team they work with daily, and as they are assigned within a product portfolio 'vertical' or team (including product, engineering, UX, etc.) where they support the Vertical Lead to execute on their roadmap and plans. In respect to the product approach in Vivint, the Program Manager looks to the Product Manager to define the 'what' and the 'why', engineering and tech leads to define the 'how' and they work with both to determine the 'when' and 'who' to then execute on the plan.
• REPORTING LINE: The program roles report up through the Program Management organization for support on methodologies, tools, skill development, escalation, best practices/performance management, etc. A program manager will typically report to the Vertical Portfolio Manager Director or Program Lead, who reports to the Head of the Program Management Organization. Program Management Lead would work with a 'dotted line' into the Vertical Lead role.
• VIVINT OPERATIONS AND OTHER TEAMS: The Program Manager will assume a broader responsibility for leading their respective programs across all Vivint and interface with representatives or leads from each of the operational units (Supply Chain, Finance, Field Services, Customer Care, IT, Marketing) and relevant channels (Direct to Home, NIS, Retail) to ensure coordinated and aligned product launches and decisions. It is expected that the Portfolio Manager Director role will also be proactive in engaging with leaders across the business to communicate and facilitate the resolution of issues in relation to their program portfolio.
• EXTERNAL PARTNERS: For vendors or suppliers, the Program Manager partners with our supply chain organization (who leads partner/vendor selection, ongoing relationships, commercial agreements, and broader performance) to manage partner performance in relation to their specific programs and participates in periodic review meetings. This will include developing appropriate relationships and accountability mechanisms to monitor status, schedule performance, and risks and issues. In the scenario where a program includes working in partnership with an external channel partner the Program Manager also supports sales and teams and develops a relationship with them as it pertains to execution of the program milestones and goals.

REQUIRED SKILLS and ATTRIBUTES:

• Team Leadership, ability to establish a leadership identity within the respective groups and overall stakeholder organizations and partners.
• Demonstrate the ability and track record of leading in project delivery and excellence in communication.
• Demonstrate a passion to succeed, inspire, and motivate the team.
• Strong negotiation skills as well as the ability to facilitate informed and timely decisions and mediate tradeoffs with various groups to deliver a product on time and ready for market.
• Deliver clear, concise professional verbal and written communication that is appropriate to the situation and audience. Including commitment to transparency, and stakeholder-based communication.

• Exceptional collaboration, listening, written and verbal communication skills, including an ability to clearly communicate with both business and technical audiences.
• Encourage participation & decision-making by all team members and effectively manage group dynamics.
• Experience working with remote and overseas teams and the ability to engage across various cultural and language environments.
• Willingness to travel and participate in after-hours calls as required when working with partners in other geographic locations.

MINIMUM EXPERIENCE and QUALIFICATIONS:

• Min. 10+ years of professional experience leading large programs, including hardware, services platform, and software projects, with internal and external design, development, and quality teams. 10+ years of program leadership may be blended with leadership of other operational or delivery functions.
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, or a related field with formal project management training (preferably PMP or similar qualifications). MBA or Master' degree is also preferred.
• Previous experience managing strategic relationships with external suppliers or partners as part of program delivery (preference to outsourced SW engagements or CM/JDM/ODM management).
• Strong preference for experience with devices, consumer electronics, manufacturing and consumer-facing hardware, and/or software products. This includes working experience with hardware and software development processes.
• Track record of leading others & positive change in project definition, project delivery, and process improvement. Experience in roles where delivery was a responsibility with demonstrated experience in making trade-off decisions to meet targets and goals.
• Working experience with project methodologies such as agile and related hardware development processes including EVT/DVT/PVT framework awareness.
• Past success in creating high-performance teams, inspiring, and empowering them to achieve results.

Learn about the Vivint Culture and why it's a great place to grow your career!

Here are some highlighted perks you should ask us about:

• Free daily lunch and drinks on site
• Paid holidays and flexible paid time away
• Employee/Friends/Family Discounts
• Onsite health clinic, gym, gaming tables
• Medical/dental/vision/life coverage & 24/7 Medical Hotline
• 401(k) + Employer Match
• Employee Resource Groups

WORKING CONDITIONS:

This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines.

SAFETY:

Vivint enforces a safety culture whereby all employees are responsible for continuously developing and maintaining a safe working environment. Each new employee is responsible for completing all training requirements. Additionally, the employee must accept responsibility for maintaining the safety of themselves, their co-workers, and the public. Employees must adhere to all written and verbal instructions, promptly report and correct all hazards or unsafe conditions, question non-standard operations or unmitigated hazards, and provide feedback to management on all safety issues.

NRG Energy is committed to a drug and alcohol-free workplace. To the extent permitted by law and any applicable collective bargaining agreement, employees are subject to periodic random drug testing, and post-accident and reasonable suspicion drug and alcohol testing. EOE AA M/F/Protected Veteran Status/Disability. Level, Title and/or Salary may be adjusted based on the applicant's experience or skills.

EEO is the Law Poster(The poster can be found athttp://www.eeoc.gov/employers/upload/poster_screen_reader_optimized.pdf)

Official description on file with Talent.