PMO Lead / Enterprise Program Manager

Smithbucklin, a 650-person, employee-owned professional services company with more than 70 years of success serving the association market, with primary offices in Chicago and Washington, D.C., is looking for a PMO Lead / Enterprise Program Manager to join our Corporate Information Technology team in our Chicago office.

This is a unique opportunity for a high-performing project or program manager to build and lead a Project Management Office (PMO) from the ground up while continuing to drive critical enterprise technology initiatives. This role is ideal for someone ready to take the next step in their career, from delivering projects to shaping how projects are delivered across an organization.

The PMO Lead / Enterprise Program Manager will report to the CIO and play a pivotal role in improving how we prioritize, execute and deliver technology investments that support our business strategy.

At Smithbucklin, we embody a culture driven by optimism, ambition, expertise, and thoughtfulness, where every team member is empowered to exceed expectations and deliver exceptional results for our clients. Join us in shaping the future of association management, where our values serve as the cornerstone of our success.

What You Will Do:

Portfolio Governance and Prioritization

• Establish and evolve a right-sized PMO that brings structure, visibility and consistency to how technology initiatives are delivered across the organization without adding unnecessary bureaucracy
• Stand up and facilitate a Technology Steering Committee, including defining its charter, cadence and decision-making processes to ensure clear prioritization and executive alignment
• Define and implement a consistent approach for building business cases and ROI models and establish processes to measure, track and report realized ROI and business outcomes, enabling clear investment decisions and data-driven portfolio management by the Technology Steering Committee
• Partner with business and technology leaders to define how projects are proposed, prioritized, approved and tracked ensuring alignment with company goals
• Build strong relationships across departments acting as a trusted advisor on how to deliver initiatives more effectively

Execution Discipline and Delivery Standards (Hands-On)

• Track Technology Project Portfolio and communicate progress against key milestones helping leadership understand both performance and business impact
• Lead 1–2 high-impact enterprise technology initiatives ensuring successful delivery while modeling best practices for the broader organization
• Introduce and maintain a consistent project lifecycle from idea through delivery so teams can execute more predictably and efficiently
• Create simple, standardized portfolio and project reporting that gives leadership clear insight into project status, financials, risks, dependencies and required decisions
• Implement practical tools, templates and processes that improve collaboration and reduce complexity while not adding unnecessary bureaucracy
• Identify opportunities to continuously improve project delivery, team effectiveness and overall business outcomes

Resource and Capacity Management

• Actively manage and optimize the capacity of a heavily matrixed organization balancing priorities across busy subject matter experts and ensuring realistic commitments
• Partner with leaders to understand resource capacity, identify constraints and drive informed tradeoff and prioritization decisions

This Role Might Be for You If You…

• Are a strong project or program manager who wants to take the next step into leadership and organizational impact
• Enjoy bringing structure to ambiguity and have successfully improved how projects are delivered, not just executed them
• Have experience establishing or supporting governance forums (e.g., steering committees) and understand how to drive clear, timely decision-making at the senior leadership level
• Are comfortable working with both technical and non-technical stakeholders and can translate complex work into clear, business-friendly updates
• Have demonstrated experience influencing senior stakeholders by framing clear options (including ROI, risks and dependencies), facilitating tradeoff

Basic Qualifications:

• 6–10 years of experience in project or program management, preferably in enterprise or cross-functional environments undergoing meaningful transformation and modernization
• Proven ability to lead complex initiatives involving multiple stakeholders and business units
• Strong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to provide clear, concise updates to senior leadership
• Demonstrated ability to organize work, manage competing priorities and drive results
• Experience working in or alongside technology teams and understanding how technology initiatives support business outcomes
• Exposure to developing or contributing to business cases, ROI analysis, or value realization for projects or programs for technology or transformation initiatives
• Familiarity with project management tools and reporting platforms

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience establishing or improving project management practices, reporting, or governance processes
• Experience partnering with leadership teams or steering committees to evaluate ROI, risks and tradeoffs across competing priorities
• Experience defining and tracking post-implementation value realization (e.g., benefits tracking, KPI/OKR alignment, ROI reporting)
• Exposure to portfolio and resource planning concepts
• Background in professional services, consulting, or matrixed organizations; Trade or professional association experience a plus
• Experience working directly with executive stakeholders

Where Do You Fit?

Whether you are just beginning your career or are a mid- or senior-level professional, working at Smithbucklin will offer you countless opportunities to develop transferable skills, acquire meaningful knowledge and gain rich experiences at an accelerated pace. By working collaboratively with smart, ambitious, multi-talented, genuine and hardworking colleagues, you will build meaningful, deep and enduring relationships that will serve you well throughout your career, regardless of your chosen path. In addition, as a 100 percent employee-owned company, Smithbucklin offers all of our people - regardless of position or compensation - an equal chance to experience the fulfillment and reap the benefits of ownership. As owners, our employees control the destiny of Smithbucklin and are unified in the goal of building a great, enduring company.

Smithbucklin is a hybrid work environment with in-office days established as Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Employees will work a standard 40-hour week, with the possibility of additional hours based on project deadlines.

Smithbucklin considers several factors when determining compensation, including a candidate's recent coursework, training, experience, and certifications, among other considerations. The expected pay for this role is $130,000-160,000.

Equal Employment Opportunity

At Smithbucklin, Equal Employment Opportunity is our commitment and goal. All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, gender, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, marital status or any other protected status designated by federal, state or local law. Applicants are encouraged to confidentially self-identify when applying. Employment is contingent upon successful completion of a reference and background investigation based on position.

Smithbucklin will not sponsor applicants for work visas and as a precondition of employment. You must be authorized to work in the United States permanently.