Senior Director, Project Management Office

Job Title: Senior Director, Project Management Office

Location: Hyderabad

The Senior Director of PMO is a high-impact leadership role responsible for the strategic oversight, governance, milestone discipline, and execution excellence of Cubic Transportation Systems’ global program portfolio. This role establishes enterprise-wide standards, methodologies, quality gates, and milestone rigor required to deliver complex, multimilliondollar transportation infrastructure and technology programs.

The Senior Director will lead a team of Senior Program Managers and specialized PMO staff, ensuring all initiatives—typically ranging from $15M to over $100M—are executed with predictable delivery, zero critical milestone slippage, controlled risk exposure, and continuous improvement in quality and margin performance.

Key Responsibilities

1. Governance, Strategic Alignment & Milestone Discipline

Define and implement a standardized enterprise PMO framework incorporating Agile, Waterfall, and Lean Six Sigma methodologies, ensuring consistency across regions and programs.

Establish and govern Category 1, Category 2, and Category 3 milestone frameworks.

Own the technical gate and milestone approval process, enforcing entry/exit criteria, quality evidence, and risk burn-down before milestone acceptance.

Drive single-source-of-truth milestone reporting, providing executive leadership with transparent, datadriven insights into schedule health, risks, and interdependencies.

Establish and lead the Project Intake, Prioritization, and Funding process, ensuring alignment with the Annual Operating Plan (AOP) and long-term strategic objectives.

2. Financial, Quality & Operational Excellence

Oversee enterprise-wide application of Earned Value Management (EVM), Schedule Performance Index (SPI), and Cost Performance Index (CPI) across all major programs.

Lead the Cost of Quality (COQ) and Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) governance model across the portfolio.

Proactively drive investments in prevention and appraisal activities to reduce defect escape, rework, customer penalties, and warranty exposure.

Track, analyze, and report COPQ drivers tied to milestone failures, late defect detection, and integration breakdowns.

Partner with Engineering, Quality, and Operations to embed quality-at-the-source across Cat 2 and Cat 3 milestones.

Ensure risk management and quality risk registers are integrated into the program lifecycle from bid through postdeployment support.

Drive corrective action for programs trending toward milestone slippage, margin erosion, or COPQ escalation.

Optimize PMO tools and platforms (risk portals, ERP integrations, scheduling systems) to enhance milestone predictability, quality reporting, and financial integrity.

 

3. Leadership, Talent & Execution Culture

Lead, mentor, and coach a high-performing team of Program Managers, cultivating a culture of milestone ownership, quality discipline, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Ensure Program Managers are fluent in Cat 1/2/3 milestone management, quality metrics, and COPQ/COQ decision-making.

Conduct regular program health reviews, milestone deep dives, and execution readiness assessments.

Perform capacity planning and succession planning to ensure PMO scalability.

Act as the senior escalation authority for milestone failures, quality escapes, or high-risk contractual issues.

4. Stakeholder, Customer & Contract Management

Serve as a primary interface with executive leadership and key government or transitagency customers on high-value, mission-critical programs.

Ensure 100% contractual compliance, including milestone-based payments, acceptance criteria, and service-level obligations.

Drive strategies for program expansion, margin improvement, and reduction of downstream quality costs.

Partner with Business Development, Engineering, and Operations to ensure seamless transition from bid phase through Cat 1 program mobilization.

Lead executivelevel milestone and quality discussions with customers, demonstrating control, transparency, and proactive risk management.

 

Required Qualifications

 

Experience

Minimum 20+ years in program management, including 5+ years in a senior PMO or portfolio leadership role.

Experience with large-scale, multi-year infrastructure or missioncritical technology programs.

 

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering (Electrical/Electronic preferred); MBA or advanced degree strongly preferred.

 

Certifications

Active PMP certification required.

PgMP, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, or equivalent quality certifications are highly desirable.

 

Technical & Business Acumen

Proven success managing complex system integrations, regulated environments, and multi-vendor ecosystems.

Strong understanding of quality systems, milestone-based contracts, and risk-driven execution models.

Leadership & Executive Presence

Ability to influence Csuite stakeholders, government customers, and cross-functional leaders in a highly matrixed environment.

Analytical Strength

 

Expert-level capability in financial modeling, risk quantification, milestone forecasting, and quality cost analysis.

 

Core Competencies

 

Milestone Excellence: Mastery of Cat 1, 2, and 3 milestone governance and recovery strategies.

Quality Leadership: Proactive reduction of COPQ through disciplined COQ investments and early defect prevention.

Strategic Execution: Ability to translate corporate goals into executable, quality-driven PMO roadmaps.

Resilience: Thrives in high-pressure environments with regulatory scrutiny and complex stakeholder dynamics.

Integrity & Accountability: Upholds the highest ethical standards in delivery commitments, quality outcomes, and financial stewardship.