Program Manager – Intake & Portfolio Management

Responsibilities

• Own and operate the POI intake process end-to-end. Manage the Jira-based intake system, ensuring all incoming requests are triaged promptly, routed correctly, and tracked through their full lifecycle from submission to delivery.
• Serve as the primary intake partner for People team requestors. Act as a knowledgeable, approachable first point of contact who helps teams scope and frame requests well, setting clear expectations on timelines, effort, and likelihood of prioritization.
• Facilitate regular intake and portfolio cadences. Set cadence for POI Intake reviews, backlog grooming, and full roadmap reviews.
• Identify systemic patterns and surface insights to leadership. Synthesize trends across intake submissions to proactively flag capacity constraints, recurring themes, capability gaps, and emerging risks before they become blockers.
• Apply strategic judgment to prioritize the POI portfolio. Evaluate incoming tickets against People team SOKRs, the 3-Year Plan (3YP), and establish prioritization frameworks.
• Build and maintain portfolio visibility and capacity reporting. Develop dashboards and reporting that give POI leadership and People team stakeholders real-time insight into resource allocation, queue depth, and roadmap health. Participate in quarterly business reviews and annual planning cycles.
• Design, build, and continuously improve an AI agent for intake. Create an intelligent agent that automates and enhances the intake experience, that ultimately can be deployed to reduce time-to-decision and improve requestor experience at scale.
• Continuously improve the intake experience. Build and maintain requestor-facing documentation, submission guides, communication templates, and onboarding materials that reduce friction and improve ticket quality at submission.
• Partner with POI leaders and People team leaders on resourcing and prioritization conversations. Prepare and present portfolio data and recommendations to senior stakeholders, facilitating trade-off discussions with rigor, objectivity, and a clear point of view.

• 7+ years of experience in project management, business operations, strategy, or consulting with experience navigating complex, matrixed organizations and managing competing priorities.
• Demonstrated experience designing, building, or significantly improving an intake, triage, or portfolio management process for a delivery team or operations function.
• Strong analytical and systems-thinking skills. Able to evaluate competing requests against strategic frameworks, make well-reasoned prioritization recommendations, and communicate trade-offs clearly to senior stakeholders.
• Proficiency in Jira or equivalent ticketing/project management tools. Comfortable with workflow configuration, ticket lifecycle management, capacity planning, and reporting.
• Proven experience using AI tools (LLMs, AI agents, or automation platforms) to streamline workflows, build lightweight productivity solutions, or automate repetitive operational tasks.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Able to translate ambiguous, incomplete requests into clear, actionable project briefs and present complex portfolio data accessibly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Proven ability to manage relationships with senior stakeholders (directors, VPs), including setting expectations, navigating pushback, and facilitating alignment conversations with confidence.
• Comfort operating in ambiguous environments where the work is not always well-defined. Able to independently identify the right approach and establish meaningful success metrics.
• Collaborative, low-ego working style. Able to operate as a strategic partner and trusted advisor rather than a decision-maker, earning credibility through rigor and good judgment.
• At least 2 years of experience working within or closely alongside an HR, People, or equivalent internal operations team.