Program Manager, IT Baggage Portfolio

Program Manager, IT Baggage Portfolio

Location: Etobicoke (3 days onsite)
Duration: Expected 6-month 

Position Summary
Reporting to the Manager, Technology Delivery (Baggage), the Program Manager will provide oversight and coordination across the Baggage Portfolio for Technology Delivery. This role will support Project Managers in the successful delivery of multiple concurrent initiatives by driving consistent project execution, schedule adherence, portfolio governance, resource prioritization, stakeholder alignment, inter-project dependency management, and risk management.
The Program Manager will act as an escalation point for project delivery issues and will work closely with Project Managers, the Project Coordinator, solution/OT architects, and vendors, to ensure projects remain aligned with business priorities, resource capacity, budget expectations, and operational constraints.

Key Responsibilities
Portfolio Governance & Delivery Oversight (30%)

• Provide day-to-day oversight of the baggage project portfolio and support Project Managers in project execution.
• Review project plans, schedules, budgets, RAID logs, status reports, business cases, and other project artifacts for completeness and quality.
• Ensure adherence to PMO methodologies, governance requirements, and project management standards.
• Monitor project progress and identify risks, issues, dependencies, and resource constraints across the portfolio.
• Support preparation of executive updates, governance presentations, and portfolio reporting.

Escalation Management & Risk Resolution (20%)

• Act as the primary escalation point for project delivery challenges impacting schedule, scope, budget, quality, or stakeholder expectations.
• Facilitate issue resolution, as needed, between business stakeholders, vendors, operations teams, and project delivery teams.
• Drive timely decisions and coordinate mitigation plans for critical risks and dependencies.
• Escalate significant concerns to leadership with recommended corrective actions.

Resource Planning & Workload Prioritization (20%)

• Work with Project Managers to ensure resources are focused on the highest-priority initiatives.
• Monitor portfolio resource utilization and capacity across multiple projects.
• Assist with balancing competing demands, project schedules, operational support requirements, and urgent business priorities.

Financial & Resource Chargeback Oversight (10%)

• Partner with the Project Coordinator to review resource allocations and labour tracking.
• Ensure resources are charging time only to approved projects and activities.
• Validate project forecasting assumptions and resource consumption against approved budgets.
• Identify discrepancies and work with Project Managers to implement corrective actions.

Project Coordination & Communications (10%)

• Attend project meetings as required to support project teams and provide delivery oversight.
• Review meeting minutes, action items, decisions, and follow-up activities to ensure accountability.
• Support planning and coordination of major project milestones, implementations, cutovers, and operational readiness activities.

Portfolio Calendar & Operational Readiness Management (10%)

• Maintain the portfolio activity calendar, including key project milestones, change freezes, IT server patching/network activities, outages, commissioning and testing activities, and project deployments.
• Ensure stakeholders receive advance notification of upcoming activities that may impact operations or project delivery.
• Coordinate with Baggage Operations, Maintenance, IT Operations, vendors, Operational Readiness (ORAT), and the Interface Control Group (ICG) to maintain awareness and readiness for scheduled activities.
• Liaise with the ICG to conduct project impact assessments prior to project implementation.
• Identify scheduling conflicts and resource constraints that could impact successful execution.

Qualifications
Education

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Engineering, Business Administration, Project Management, or a related field.
• PMP certification preferred.
• PMP, Agile, or equivalent certifications considered an asset.

Experience

• 8+ years of experience leading IT projects, programs, or portfolios.
• Experience managing multiple concurrent technology projects in complex operational environments.
• Experience coordinating vendors, contractors, and cross-functional technical teams.
• Experience with portfolio governance, resource management, financial tracking, and executive reporting.
• Airport, transportation, critical infrastructure, or baggage handling systems experience strongly preferred.

Key Competencies

• Program and portfolio management
• Escalation and issue resolution
• Resource capacity planning
• Stakeholder management
• Financial and budget oversight
• Risk and dependency management
• Vendor management
• Executive communication and reporting
• Project governance and quality assurance
• Strong organizational and leadership skills

Success Measures

• Projects remain on track and key risks are proactively managed.
• Resource allocation aligns with business priorities.
• Project documentation meets governance standards.
• Escalations are addressed quickly and effectively.
• Portfolio calendar is accurate, current, and well communicated.
• Stakeholders have clear visibility into upcoming activities and operational impacts.
• Project Managers receive adequate support to maximize delivery performance.