Portfolio Manager Lead

Your opportunity

At Schwab, you’re empowered to make an impact on your career. Here, innovative thought meets creative problem solving, helping us “challenge the status quo” and transform the finance industry together.

We believe in the importance of in-office collaboration and fully intend for the selected candidate for this role to work on site in the specified location(s). This role is expected to be in the office 4 days a week.

The Schwab Technology Services (STS) Portfolio & Project Management (PPM) organization partners with Business and Technology Leaders to prioritize and execute technology work for strategic business sponsored initiatives, enhancements, as well as standard technology operations, production support, and technology enablement to ensure STS capacity is focused on the most important work for the company.

As a Portfolio Manager Lead, you’ll partner with a Portfolio Manager to help steward major programs and initiatives with large, complex scope. You’ll play a key leadership role in shaping portfolio execution, enabling transparency, and ensuring the right work is prioritized at the right time. Working in a highly matrixed environment, you’ll provide leadership, structure, and insight across projects, programs, and Agile Release Trains (ARTs).

This role offers the opportunity to influence enterprise‑level outcomes, mentor others, and help scale portfolio practices that support Schwab’s long‑term success.

Responsibilities:

• Partner with the Portfolio Manager to manage projects or ARTs and support portfolio‑level leadership activities.
• Manage portfolio intake and the flow of work, ensuring alignment to strategy, capacity, and priorities.
• Serve as a key point of contact for portfolio requests from Corporate Strategy and Strategic Program Management.
• Ensure adherence to CPMO policies, standards, and governance practices across initiatives.
• Act as primary back‑up for the Portfolio Manager during planned or unplanned absences.
• Coach, support, and help level up project and program managers across the portfolio as needed.
• Maintain portfolio‑level Kanban boards and key metadata, including prioritization, capacity, benefits, and strategic alignment.
• Analyze portfolio performance, benefits realization, risks, and dependencies; surface insights and recommend improvements.
• Lead portfolio governance operations, including preparation of materials for quarterly portfolio reviews.
• Coordinate with Release Train Engineers, Project Managers, and Solution Managers to ensure data accuracy and effective risk and dependency management.
• Develop and maintain portfolio dashboards that enable leadership to make informed prioritization and trade‑off decisions.
• Owning end‑to‑end portfolio responsibilities for large portfolios by managing defined sub‑portfolios.
• Leading specific, complex workstreams within a single portfolio and aggregating insights to the broader portfolio view.

What you have

To ensure that we fulfill our promise of “challenging the status quo,” this role has specific qualifications that successful candidates should have:

Required Qualifications:

• 7+ years of experience in project or program management, including leading complex business programs or initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to influence, communicate with, and build strong relationships across senior leaders and cross‑functional partners.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including experience facilitating executive‑level discussions.
• Experience supporting projects, programs, or ARTs in a standard senior‑level project, program, or RTE capacity.
• Experience using data and analytics to support portfolio decisions, including financial analysis and capacity modeling.
• Experience designing, improving, or managing processes such as intake, governance, or portfolio‑level reporting.
• Strong documentation skills, including creating clear, repeatable process documentation.
• Experience mentoring, coaching, or supporting the development of others.

Preferred Skills:

• Background/experience in financial services industry
• PMP or PMI-ACP certification

Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis without employer sponsorship.

In addition to the salary range, this role is also eligible for bonus or incentive opportunities

What’s in it for you

At Schwab, you’re empowered to shape your future. We champion your growth through meaningful work, continuous learning, and a culture of trust and collaboration—so you can build the skills to make a lasting impact. Our Hybrid Work and Flexibility approach balances our ongoing commitment to workplace flexibility, serving our clients, and our strong belief in the value of being together in person on a regular basis.

We offer a competitive benefits package that takes care of the whole you – both today and in the future:

• 401(k) with company match and Employee stock purchase plan
• Paid time for vacation, volunteerin