Portfolio Lead
| Posting date: | 08 July 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £54,470 to £67,090 per year |
| Additional salary information: | National: £54,470 - £61,000, London: £59,900 - £67,090. |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 21 July 2025 |
| Location: | Preston |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 389274/10 |
Summary
Are you an effective and engaging communicator?
If so, we are seeking experienced, highly motivated Portfolio Leads to join our Project Delivery Team within the Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA) and would love to hear from you!
APHA is a brilliant place to work where our people feel valued, have a voice and can be their authentic selves. We value difference and diversity, because it will help us be more innovative and make better decisions.
We are dedicated to being an inclusive employer, offering equitable opportunities for all individuals. Our goal is to build a diverse workforce, and we hope to attract applications from all backgrounds and underrepresented groups.
We are looking for 2 motivated individuals to play a pivotal role in supporting the implementation and embedding of the APHA Sustainable Futures Strategy which sets out our vision for the future. You will play a pivotal role in supporting the implementation of and embedding the APHA Sustainable Futures Strategy setting out its vision for the future. A key part of this vision is for APHA to become an organisation that is enabled and strengthened by its use of data that will ensure its ability to identify and respond to new and emerging threats, to manage risk and to deploy our people and resources effectively and sustainably.
As a Portfolio Lead you will be responsible for leading a collection of programmes or projects that contribute to the delivery of departmental or business area objectives. You are primarily responsible for the prioritisation and effective allocation of resources across the portfolio to ensure optimal delivery of departmental/business strategic objectives in line with Government priorities.
You will be required to carry out duties that commensurate with the grade and purpose of the role including, but not limited to, the following:
- Project pipeline – Works with business areas to identify and categorise new projects for a decision on entry to the portfolio and provides regular updates on pipeline to Innovate Board.
- Governance and reporting – Establish clear governance framework and reporting regime aligned to Management of Portfolios best practice. Co-ordinate reporting from projects and provide analysis of performance at portfolio level for review by governance bodies. Provide secretariat support for senior governance boards.
- People and leadership – Communicate and build commitment to a shared vision and sense of purpose. Support business areas to take decisions independently and take the lead in their area of expertise.
- Planning, scheduling and resourcing – Maintain portfolio delivery map and critical path to monitor project progress. Recognise and track interdependencies across change projects. Recommend how financial and other resources be allocated across change initiatives to optimise the organisation’s return on investment. Develop strategies to address resource gaps.
- Risk and opportunity management – Identify and monitor portfolio risks (threats and opportunities), planning and implementing responses to them and responding to other issues impacting the portfolio.
- Stakeholder management – Map stakeholder interest and influence to determine priorities for engagement and communication. Communicate regularly and obtain input on issues such as means of communication. Engage in debate to resolve issues and differences between stakeholders and to challenge assumptions.
- Benefits management – Support the business to develop mechanisms for measuring benefits. Establish ownership and responsibility within the business for benefit realisation. Review business cases regularly to assess progress towards benefits realisation.
Strategy and Planning
- Contribute to the development and implementation of business and project plans which support the delivery of APHA’s strategic ambitions and priorities, are challenging and fit for purpose.
- Ensure all project management related activities are delivered in accordance with policy, business plans and performance targets and support the delivery of continuous improvement, efficiency, and value for money.
Leadership and Managing Change
- Provide passionate, transparent, and accountable leadership for a multidisciplinary / diverse team.
- Role model and embed the necessary cultural changes required for the Agency to thrive, implement new ways of working making the most effective use of technology across the agency.
- Build, develop and maintain a team of project managers and provide day to day line management to direct reports.
- Promote diversity, inclusion and equality of opportunity, respecting difference, and external experience.
Service Delivery
- Provide strong and visible leadership to the portfolio of projects they are leading on including coaching and mentoring support to team members, as required.
- Manage the performance, resource, and budget of the projects they are working on ensuring that individual, team and business objectives and targets are delivered to the required standards.
- Proactively manage the performance, conduct and attendance of members of the projects they are working on, review performance on a regular basis and implement performance improvement and development initiatives, as required.
- Ensure that all APHA people policies and procedures are deployed consistently and fairly.
- Ensure appropriate governance and project management arrangements are in place and establish metrics to measure success.
- Embed safe working practices, identify and address any health and safety concerns and support others to understand and fulfil their responsibility for the health, safety and wellbeing of themselves of others.
- Monitor current and future risk and ensuring that appropriate plans are in place to manage / mitigate risks identified.
Stakeholder Engagement / Management
- Build strong and collaborative relationships across the agency and organisational boundaries.
- Proactively manage customer / stakeholder expectations and influence behaviours in order to achieve shared goals.
- Actively build and maintain networks within live programmes and projects to share best practice, highlight areas of learning and achieve progress on shared objectives.
- Work with managers within APHA to raise awareness of portfolio benefits.
- Build and maintain effective relationships with APHA and Defra Corporate Service teams, ensuring efficient and responsive service delivery to meet operational needs, as required.
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