Sr. Portfolio Program Manager - R&D

Our Mission:

6sense's mission is to multiply what matters: growth, retention, and efficiency.  We envision a future where companies, teams and people reach their full potential.

Our People:

People are the heart and soul of 6sense. We serve with passion and purpose. We live by our Being 6sense values of Win as One Team, Stay Curious, Do The Right Thing, Own the Outcome, and Create Belonging.  Every 6sensor plays a part in defining the future of our industry-leading technology.  6sense is a place where difference-makers roll up their sleeves, take risks, act with integrity, and measure success by the value we create for our customers.  We want 6sense to be the best chapter of your career. 

About the Role : 

We are seeking a Senior Portfolio Program Manager to provide standing, exception-based orchestration across an assigned Research & Development (R&D) pillar. Reporting to the Head of Program Management, this individual contributor partners with Product and Engineering Pillar Leaders to maintain a connected view of portfolio commitments, dependencies, risks, capacity, readiness, and key decisions while improving delivery predictability and organizational effectiveness. Combining Agile coaching with portfolio program management, the role helps teams strengthen planning discipline, execution health, and continuous improvement while translating team-level insights into actionable portfolio visibility and leadership decision support.

The role also serves as a champion for AI-enabled Program Management, continuously identifying and introducing automation, emerging technologies, and workflow improvements that increase scalability, operational efficiency, and decision-making effectiveness. The Portfolio Program Manager coordinates, synthesizes, and escalates material exceptions across teams, product areas, pillars, and functions.  

Accountability for product strategy, roadmap priorities, customer outcomes, engineering architecture, technical design, staffing, performance management, team execution, Scrum practices, backlog management, Jira hygiene, funding decisions, launch approvals, and risk acceptance remains with the appropriate Product, Engineering leaders. End-to-end ownership of strategic initiatives is assumed only when explicitly assigned. 

Key Responsibilities:

• Partner with Product and Engineering Pillar Leaders to establish and maintain portfolio baselines, including commitments, milestones, dependencies, ownership, readiness expectations, capacity assumptions, and success measures. 
• Maintain visibility into portfolio commitments and execution progress, surfacing material variances and coordinating appropriate change-management actions when scope, timeline, resource, or delivery commitments materially change. 
• Establish and continuously improve portfolio metrics, dashboards, reporting practices, automation, and AI-enabled workflows that strengthen portfolio visibility, decision-making, execution transparency, and operational efficiency. 
• Identify, evaluate, and introduce AI, automation, and emerging technologies that improve Program Management effectiveness, scalability, decision-making, and operational efficiency across the R&D pillar. 
• Partner with R&D Operating System teams to improve data quality, portfolio tooling, process standards, reporting, and adoption of portfolio management practices. 
• Establish and maintain visibility into cross-team and cross-pillar dependencies, ensuring ownership, impacts, required dates, and status are understood and tracked. 
• Coordinate dependency management across teams and pillars, facilitate alignment, resolution discussions, and escalate unresolved risks, impacts, and decisions through established governance forums. 
• Lead portfolio reviews focused on material changes, risks, dependencies, readiness gaps, capacity conflicts, and decisions requiring leadership attention. 
• Facilitate scaled planning, portfolio governance, and synchronization forums that improve alignment, transparency, and execution across the pillar. 
• Support quarterly planning cycles by validating commitments, dependencies, capacity assumptions, risks, and decision readiness across the pillar. 
• Synthesize portfolio information into decision-ready executive insights, including risks, dependencies, trade-offs, and recommendations, and ensure resulting decisions, escalations, and accountable follow-through are tracked through closure. 
• Coach Product and Engineering teams on Agile practices, planning discipline, delivery predictability, flow efficiency, and continuous improvement to strengthen execution effectiveness and delivery outcomes. 
• Identify work that may warrant dedicated Strategic Initiative Program Management support and provide evidence to support coverage decisions. 
• Coordinate with Strategic Initiative Program Managers to incorporate initiative health, dependencies, change impacts, and readiness into the pillar portfolio view. 

Qualifications: 

• 8+ years of experience in Portfolio Management, Program Management, Technical Program Management, Product Operations, or related roles within a SaaS or technology environment. 
• Experience leading Product and Engineering portfolios spanning multiple teams, product areas, or organizational units. 
• Experience establishing and leading portfolio governance frameworks, operating rhythms, quarterly planning processes, executive review forums, and reporting mechanisms that improve visibility, alignment, decision-making, and execution predictability. 
• Demonstrated success managing portfolio risk, dependencies, capacity constraints, competing priorities, and roadmap execution at scale. 
• Experience facilitating executive, leadership, and cross-functional governance forums that drive alignment, accountability, and decision-making. 
• Demonstrated success improving team effectiveness, delivery predictability, planning maturity, flow efficiency, and execution outcomes through Agile coaching, facilitation, and continuous improvement practices. 
• Demonstrated ability to influence without formal authority, navigate ambiguity, clarify accountability, and drive alignment, decision-making, and follow-through across multiple stakeholders. 
• Experience identifying, evaluating, and implementing automation, AI-enabled workflows, and emerging technologies that improve portfolio visibility, operational efficiency, scalability, and decision-making effectiveness. 
• Strong analytical, facilitation, communication, and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to synthesize complex information into executive-ready insights and recommendations. 
• Working knowledge of Productboard, Jira, Confluence, dashboarding, and business intelligence platforms. 
• Agile coaching or Agile delivery certifications such as ICP-ACC, CSP, CSM, PSM, SAFe SPC, SAFe Agilist, or equivalent practical experience. 
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience. 

Success In This Role:

• Trusted portfolio visibility enables informed leadership decisions. 
• Risks, dependencies, and changes to commitments  are identified and addressed early. 
• Capacity and readiness issues are surfaced before they impact delivery. 
• Portfolio governance drives timely decisions and clear accountability. 
• Strategic initiatives are integrated into a unified portfolio view. 
• Teams improve commitment reliability, delivery predictability, and flow efficiency over time. 
• Stakeholders experience greater alignment and faster decision-making with minimal reporting overhead. 
• Automation and AI improve operational efficiency, scalability, and insight quality.

Our Benefits:  

Full-time employees can take advantage of health coverage, paid parental leave, generous paid time-off and holidays, quarterly self-care days off, and stock options. We’ll make sure you have the equipment and support you need to work and connect with your teams, at home or in one of our offices. 

We have a growth mindset culture that is represented in all that we do, from onboarding through to numerous learning and development initiatives including access to our LinkedIn Learning platform. Employee well-being is also top of mind for us. We host quarterly wellness education sessions to encourage self care and personal growth. From wellness days to ERG-hosted events, we celebrate and energize all 6sense employees and their backgrounds. 

Equal Opportunity Employer:  

6sense is an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employers. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status. If you require reasonable accommodation in completing this application, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please direct your inquiries to [email protected].  

We are aware of recruiting impersonation attemptsthat are not affiliated with 6sense in any way. All email communications from 6sensewill originate from the @6sense.com domain. We will not initially contact you via text message and will never request payments. If you are uncertain whether you have been contacted by an official 6sense employee, reach out to [email protected]