Lead, Program Management - CAO Portfolio Consultant

Lead, Program Management – CAO Portfolio Consultant Summary

Carex is partnering with a financial services industry partner to identify a Lead, Program Management – CAO Portfolio Consultant who will support enterprise portfolio management practices through analysis, reporting, planning coordination, and strategic alignment activities. This role helps drive portfolio visibility, investment decision support, capacity planning, value tracking, AI enablement, and annual planning efforts across CAO functions. The position serves as a key partner in connecting initiatives to business priorities while providing insights that support effective governance and decision‑making.

Contract-to-hire position

Schedule
:
Hybrid in Madison, WI (1 day/week or 4 days/mo)

Compensation
: $65-78/hr

• Maintain and enhance portfolio inventory data, ensuring consistency, classification accuracy, and visibility across initiatives, programs, and AI use cases.
• Develop portfolio health, milestone, value, and risk reporting to support leadership forums and governance activities.
• Analyze trends, dependencies, and delivery risks across functions to inform decision-making and prioritization efforts.
• Support portfolio intake processes, initiative assessments, and governance activities.
• Partner with functional leaders to establish and maintain resource capacity baselines, including run, change, and available capacity views.
• Create scenario analyses and investment trade-off recommendations to support prioritization and sequencing decisions.
• Collaborate with Finance partners to align portfolio information with funding models, forecasts, and financial guardrails.
• Track benefit realization and value delivery at both initiative and portfolio levels.
• Support strategy development efforts by connecting portfolio investments to enterprise priorities and organizational objectives.
• Maintain OKR tracking, roadmap documentation, and outcome measurement artifacts.
• Prepare executive-level presentations and materials for leadership reviews, planning cycles, and strategic alignment discussions.
• Maintain visibility into AI and continuous improvement initiatives across the portfolio and contribute to AI performance tracking.
• Identify opportunities to scale AI and continuous improvement efforts across functions through cross‑functional analysis.
• Support AI adoption tracking and value realization efforts in partnership with business stakeholders.
• Coordinate annual planning activities, including portfolio submissions, timelines, and milestone tracking.
• Ensure planning inputs align with established standards, required formats, and business case expectations.
• Partner with stakeholders across Finance, Business Office, and innovation teams to maintain accurate and current portfolio information.
• Support alignment of portfolio investments and initiatives to broader business priorities and organizational demand.

• Bachelor's degree in business, finance, technology, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and professional experience.
• Seven or more years of experience in portfolio management, business analysis, enterprise planning, strategy, management consulting, or related disciplines.
• Experience developing portfolio reporting, performing data analysis, and communicating insights to executive audiences.
• Ability to synthesize complex information from multiple sources into clear recommendations and actionable insights.
• Strong organizational and prioritization skills with the ability to manage multiple initiatives and stakeholders simultaneously.
• Demonstrated success working in matrixed environments and influencing without direct authority.
• Experience with in financial services, insurance, or other regulated industries is preferred.
• Familiarity with AI adoption, use case management, or business technology enablement is preferred.
• Experience supporting capacity planning, benefits realization, and investment analysis is preferred.

Carex Consulting Group is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status.