Principal, Portfolio Management

Principal, Portfolio Management
Department: Global Engineering & Products
Reports to: SVP, Global Engineering & Products
Position Level: Senior Individual Contributor / Strategic Expert
Scope: Global
Location: Montreal
1. POSITION SUMMARY
The Principal, Portfolio Management is responsible for providing strategic oversight, governance, and optimization of the organization's global product development and engineering project portfolio.
Reporting directly to the SVP, Global Engineering & Products, this position plays a critical role in ensuring that engineering investments, product development initiatives, and innovation programs are aligned with corporate strategy, market opportunities, financial objectives, and available organizational resources.
The role provides executive leadership with actionable insights, portfolio performance analysis, and data-driven recommendations to support investment decisions, project prioritization, resource allocation, and long-term product portfolio competitiveness.
Working closely with Product Management, Engineering, Finance, Supply Chain and Operations, the Principal, Portfolio Management expert establishes portfolio management processes in coordination & under the guidance of the SVP, Global Engineering and Products and ensures transparency, accountability, and effective execution across the global engineering and product development organization.
2. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
A. Strategic Portfolio Management
Develop and maintain a consolidated global portfolio of engineering, product development and product evolution initiatives.
Ensure alignment between portfolio investments, corporate strategic priorities, product roadmaps, and business objectives.
Establish and maintain a structured framework for evaluating, prioritizing, and balancing portfolio initiatives.
Identify portfolio gaps, overlaps, redundancies, and opportunities for consolidation or optimization.
Support long-term portfolio planning, including multiyear product development and technology investment roadmaps.
Evaluate the strategic balance between new product development, product enhancements, sustaining engineering, and technology innovation.
B. Portfolio Prioritization & Investment Governance
Establish standardized methodologies for evaluating and prioritizing engineering and product development investments.
Develop business-case evaluation frameworks incorporating expected revenue, profitability, development cost, strategic value, technical risk, and return on investment.
Facilitate portfolio prioritization and investment review meetings with senior leadership.
Support investment decisions regarding project initiation, continuation, acceleration, postponement, or termination.
Establish portfolio-level governance mechanisms to ensure disciplined allocation of engineering resources and R&D budgets.
Monitor the overall portfolio against approved financial and strategic objectives.
C. Portfolio Performance
Develop and maintain executive-level dashboards providing visibility into portfolio performance.
Monitor approved budgets, actual expenditures, forecasts, and financial variances across development programs.
Consolidate portfolio-level information on project schedules, milestones, technical risks, and delivery performance.
Identify underperforming initiatives and recommend corrective actions or portfolio rebalancing.
Track portfolio-level performance indicators, including:
R&D budget adherence.
Development schedule performance.
Resource utilization and capacity.
Portfolio risk exposure.
New product introduction performance.
Return on engineering investments.
Revenue contribution from recently introduced products.
Provide periodic portfolio performance reports and recommendations to the SVP, Global Engineering & Products.
D. Engineering Capacity Planning
Work with Engineering Directors and functional leaders to consolidate resource requirements across the global project portfolio.
Develop portfolio-level resource capacity and demand models.
Identify resource constraints, competing priorities, and critical skill gaps.
Support strategic resource allocation decisions to maximize overall portfolio value.
Evaluate the impact of portfolio changes on engineering capacity, budgets, and delivery commitments.
Provide scenario analyses to support resource optimization and investment trade-offs.
E. Product Development & Stage-Gate Management
Establish and continuously improve portfolio governance processes aligned with the organization's product development lifecycle.
Support implementation and governance of structured development milestones, and product launch readiness, where applicable.
Ensure that project investment decisions are supported by appropriate business cases, technical assessments, and financial justifications.
Coordinate portfolio-level gate reviews and maintain visibility into project readiness and outstanding risks.
Identify opportunities to streamline development processes and improve time-to-market.
Support post-launch reviews to evaluate actual performance against approved business cases.
F. Reporting & Decision-Making Support
Serve as the central point of consolidation for global engineering and product development portfolio information.
Prepare executive presentations, portfolio reviews, and investment recommendations for the SVP and executive leadership.
Develop scenario-based analyses illustrating the financial, operational, and strategic implications of alternative portfolio decisions.
Highlight critical portfolio risks, dependencies, and emerging opportunities.
Provide objective, fact-based recommendations to improve portfolio performance and investment effectiveness.
Support annual strategic planning, R&D budgeting, and quarterly business reviews.
G. Continuous Improvement & Portfolio Management Excellence
Develop and standardize portfolio management methodologies, tools, reporting practices, and governance frameworks.
Establish consistent portfolio data definitions, project classifications, and performance metrics across global teams.
Promote transparency, accountability, and disciplined decision-making throughout the organization.
Benchmark portfolio management practices against industry standards.
Identify opportunities to leverage automation, business intelligence, and AI-driven analytics to improve portfolio visibility and decision quality.
Drive continuous improvement in portfolio governance and investment effectiveness.
3. KEY DELIVERABLES
The Principal, Portfolio Management Expert is accountable for delivering:
Global Engineering & Product Development Portfolio: A consolidated and continuously maintained view of all active, planned, and proposed initiatives.
Portfolio Prioritization Framework: A standardized methodology for evaluating strategic alignment, financial value, technical risk, and resource requirements.
Executive Portfolio Dashboard: A comprehensive view of project status, R&D investments, budget performance, resource allocation, and portfolio risks.
Annual R&D Investment Plan: A prioritized portfolio of engineering and product development investments aligned with corporate objectives.
Resource Capacity & Demand Analysis: A consolidated view of engineering resource requirements, constraints, and allocation scenarios.
Portfolio Performance Reviews: Executive-level assessments of portfolio performance, investment effectiveness, and recommended adjustments.
Portfolio Governance Framework: Standardized investment approval, project prioritization, and stage-gate review processes.
4. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPIs)
Performance will be evaluated against the following indicators:
KPI
Measurement
Portfolio Budget Performance
Variance between approved and forecast R&D expenditures
Portfolio Schedule Performance
Percentage of development projects meeting approved milestones
Portfolio Strategic Alignment
Percentage of investments aligned with approved strategic priorities
Portfolio Resource Visibility
Accuracy and completeness of resource capacity and demand forecast

Employment type
Full-Time (Regular)

Work arrangement
No