Associate Director, IT Portfolio & Demand Management

Associate Director, IT Portfolio & Demand Management Full-time Work Format: Hybrid Harvard Job Function: Information Technology Union: 00 - Non Union, Exempt or Temporary Salary Grade: 059 Department: Information Technology FLSA Status: Exempt Company Description By working at Harvard University, you join a vibrant community that advances Harvard's world-changing mission in meaningful ways, inspires innovation and collaboration, and builds skills and expertise. We are dedicated to creating a diverse and welcoming environment where everyone can thrive. Why join the Harvard Kennedy School? The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is one of 12 graduate and professional schools at the university. Harvard Kennedy School’s mission is to improve public policy and leadership so people can live in societies that are more safe, free, just, and sustainably prosperous. By combining cutting-edge research, the teaching of outstanding students, and direct interaction with practitioners, we have an impact on solving public problems that no other institution can match. When you work at Harvard Kennedy School, you make a difference.

The Associate Director, IT Portfolio & Demand Management leads Harvard Kennedy School IT's (HKSIT) department-wide portfolio governance, demand-management, and quarterly planning practices. Working closely with the CIO, Director of Strategy & Innovation, and HKSIT leadership, the role translates School and departmental priorities into an integrated portfolio spanning strategic initiatives, projects, major operational commitments, service improvements, and approved institutional demand. Across this portfolio, commitments are clearly defined with accountable owners, expected outcomes, target dates, dependencies, capacity decisions, and regular executive review. The Associate Director maintains the authoritative view of HKSIT’s material active and proposed work, establishes consistent standards for planning and status reporting, identifies stalled or at-risk commitments, and ensures unresolved issues are brought forward for timely leadership action. The role facilitates decisions about what should start, stop, pause, continue, or be deferred as priorities and organizational capacity change. This position serves as a strategic integrator across planning, operations, governance, stakeholder engagement, and delivery. It helps HKSIT engage earlier in institutional conversations so that business needs, desired experiences, expected outcomes, and alternatives are understood before an organizational or technology solution is selected. By connecting early demand and institutional planning with execution, operational support, and outcome review, the role helps leadership understand tradeoffs, remove impediments, and keep commitments aligned with School priorities and available capacity. Through this work, the Associate Director helps HKSIT focus its capacity on the highest-value priorities, execute consistently, and solve the right problems for the School before determining the most appropriate solution. This is a senior leadership position without direct reports. The Associate Director operates through influence, facilitation, organizational judgment, transparent management processes, and executive escalation. Functional leaders and initiative owners retain accountability for delivery, staffing, and results; the Associate Director ensures that material commitments do not remain ownerless, invisible, indefinitely delayed, or disconnected from a leadership decision.

The Associate Director operates within a clearly defined governance structure that balances strategic oversight, portfolio management, and delivery accountability. The HKSIT Senior Leadership Team establishes strategic direction, aligns enterprise priorities, approves significant resource tradeoffs, and holds leaders accountable for results. The Associate Director translates that direction into an integrated