Senior Director, Project and PMO Lead - Santa Monica, 90404

Senior Director, Project and PMO Lead - Santa Monica, 90404, United States of America

How youll LEAD:

As the Sr. Director, Project & PMO Lead Finance Transformation, you will play a pivotal role in driving the successful delivery of strategic finance transformation initiatives across the organization. This role will serve as the central coordination point for complex, cross-functional programs, ensuring alignment across workstreams, stakeholders, and leadership teams.

You will establish and maintain program governance, oversee planning and execution activities, and provide actionable insights to executive stakeholders to support informed decision-making. The ideal candidate combines strong project management expertise, financial acumen, and the ability to drive accountability in a fast-paced, matrixed environment.

How youll CREATE:

Program Planning & Delivery

• Develop, maintain, and continuously optimize the integrated program plan across all finance transformation workstreams.

• Manage and track key milestones, deliverables, critical dependencies, and interrelated project activities to ensure successful program execution.

• Drive proactive identification and resolution of risks, issues, and blockers impacting program delivery.

• Monitor project health, delivery performance, and achievement of transformation objectives.

Governance & Stakeholder Management

• Establish and manage program governance structures, including leadership meetings, working groups, and executive steering forums.

• Coordinate program cadence, ensuring consistent communication, decision-making, and accountability across stakeholders.

• Support Steering Committee preparation, including development of executive-level presentations, status updates, decision requests, and risk assessments.

• Facilitate cross-functional collaboration among Finance, Technology, Operations, HR, and other business stakeholders.

Reporting & Performance Management

• Coordinate and consolidate status reporting across multiple workstreams to provide a comprehensive view of program progress.

• Develop and maintain reporting templates, dashboards, and executive communications that provide meaningful insights into program performance.

• Monitor program KPIs, delivery metrics, and transformation outcomes to drive continuous improvement.

Risk, Issue & Decision Management

• Maintain comprehensive RAID (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies) logs and decision registers.

• Ensure timely escalation of critical risks and issues while driving mitigation and resolution plans.

• Track action items, decisions, and ownership to maintain program momentum and accountability.

Financial & Resource Oversight

• Monitor program budgets, resource allocation, capacity planning, and financial performance against approved plans.

• Partner with Finance leadership to track investment spend, forecast resource needs, and identify opportunities for optimization.

• Support prioritization of initiatives to maximize business value and delivery effectiveness.

PMO Excellence

• Establish and enforce consistent project management methodologies, standards, tools, and best practices across transformation initiatives.

• Drive adoption of governance frameworks and delivery disciplines to ensure predictable execution and transparency.

• Champion a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and operational excellence across the program portfolio.

Bring Your VIBE:

• 5+ years of experience in Project Management, Program Management, PMO leadership, or Finance Transformation roles.

• Proven experience leading large-scale, cross-functional transformation programs within Finance, Shared Services, ERP, or Business Transformation environments.

• Strong knowledge of project management methodologies, governance frameworks, and delivery best practices.

• Demonstrated experience managing integrated project plans, RAID management, executive reporting, and stakeholder communications.

• Experience overseeing budgets, resource planning, and delivery performance for complex programs.

• Exceptional organizational, analytical, and problem-solving skills with strong attention to detail.

• Ability to influence and collaborate effectively with senior executives, business leaders, and cross-functional teams.

• Excellent verbal, written, and presentation communication skills.

• PMP, PgMP, PRINCE2, Agile, or equivalent project management certification preferred.

• Experience within a global organization and familiarity with Finance processes, ERP implementations, or Finance Transformation initiatives highly preferred.

• This role is office-based