Principal Portfolio Manager

About the team

Zillow’s mission is to “give people the power to unlock life’s next chapter.” The For Sale portfolio sits at the heart of that mission, encompassing Zillow’s core buyer, seller, and financing businesses.

This role sits within Product Development Operations and provides portfolio-level leadership across Zillow’s For Sale ecosystem, including Zillow Preferred Agent, Zillow Home Loans, Seller, Closing, and Insurance. Given the scale, complexity, and number of teams involved, the For Sale portfolio requires dedicated ownership to ensure investments move together as one cohesive system rather than in silos.

The Principal Portfolio Manager, For Sale is accountable for portfolio-level prioritization, coherence, and decision support across Zillow’s For Sale ecosystem.

This role ensures Zillow’s For Sale portfolio operates as one integrated system, seeing horizontally across teams and investments to connect the dots, surface gaps, and support clear strategic decisions that enable a truly integrated home buying, selling, and financing experience for movers.

As the portfolio leader in For Sale, this role translates company strategy and investment intent into a clear portfolio narrative, including portfolio level outcome framing and initiative OKRs to ensure capacity, funding, and sequencing are aligned across the business, at all times. The focus is on doing the right work, not on managing delivery. Program Managers and functional leaders own execution;

this role ensures their work remains aligned to portfolio direction, intended outcomes, and customer value.

The role partners closely with Rhythm of the Business (RoB) to align For Sale portfolio priorities with company-level planning, operating rhythms, and content-related coordination. Given that RoB operates at the company level, this role provides the dedicated, deep focus required to manage the complexity of the For Sale portfolio specifically.

This role does not set product strategy or investment direction; it ensures strategy is translated into a coherent, prioritized, and decision-ready portfolio view.

• Own the For Sale product and technology portfolio view, ensuring alignment to company strategy, customer outcomes, and business priorities.
• Support and maintain a clear For Sale portfolio 3 year outlook, reflecting agreed strategy, sequencing, and trade-offs across multiple business lines and teams.
• Provide horizontal visibility across the For Sale ecosystem by identifying cross-team dependencies, overlaps, gaps, and risks that impact strategic outcomes.
• Support prioritization and decision-making by partnering with Product, Design, Engineering, Business, and Finance leaders to evaluate trade-offs and investment choices.
• Translate portfolio intent into clarity for execution by partnering with Program Managers and delivery leaders who own timelines, milestones, and delivery plans.
• Partner closely with Rhythm of the Business (RoB) to ensure For Sale portfolio planning aligns with company-level planning, metrics, and communication rhythms.
• Enable executive decision-making by synthesizing portfolio health, progress toward outcomes, and emerging risks into clear, actionable narratives.
• Continuously improve portfolio practices, tools, and artifacts to increase clarity, alignment, and value realization across the For Sale ecosystem.

• 10+ years of experience in portfolio management, product operations, product strategy, or equivalent roles, with demonstrated ownership of large, multi-team horizontal product ecosystems.
• Proven ability to operate at a portfolio altitude, connecting strategy, investment decisions, and long-range planning to execution outcomes through others.
• Strong fluency across product, design, engineering, and business, with the ability to understand how decisions in one area impact the broader system.
• Exceptional systems thinker who naturally sees connections, dependencies, and trade-offs across teams and platforms.
• Highly effective at influencing without authority in complex, matrixed organizations.
• Experience supporting prioritization, sequencing, and investment decisions in partnership with senior…