UK Parliament

Working at the UK Parliament offers a unique and rewarding career at the heart of the UK's democratic system.

With a wide range of roles available, our impartial colleagues enable the day to day running of the House of Commons, House of Lords and Joint Departments. Together, we make Parliament happen. More information on what it's like to work at the House of Commons can be found here: Be at the heart of the House of Commons - UK Parliament

Staff Benefits

In addition to your salary, we offer an attractive range of benefits including:

• 30 days' annual leave (increasing to 35 days after first full leave year).
• Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%.
• Access to training and development.
• Flexible working.
• Interest free season ticket loan and bicycle loan.

Introduction

The Finance, Portfolio and Performance (FPP) team is critical to supporting a thriving Parliamentary democracy. We play a leading role in delivering the House of Commons' Strategy through business and financial planning, monitoring performance, supporting the delivery of projects and programmes across Parliament, and promoting innovation and improvement. The business area includes a range of specialist teams including the Enterprise Portfolio Management Office (EPMO).

The EPMO is a bicameral team working across the House of Commons and House of Lords. It supports the Strategic Portfolio Board (SPB) and provides portfolio management, governance, and assurance for an exciting and complex range of projects and programmes with project lifecycle costs of over £2bn, across UK Parliament including the Portfolios of Strategic Estates (SE) (who maintain the iconic Palace of Westminster), Parliamentary Digital Service (PDS) and the Strategic Portfolio.

The Roles

We have exciting opportunities for two Senior Portfolio Managers to join our central team and support the delivery of our most critical projects and programmes.

The Senior Portfolio Manager role will manage the definition and lifecycle of a varied portfolio of projects and programmes, to enable the successful delivery of strategic objectives across the portfolio. They will be responsible for supporting the establishment, prioritisation, and performance of Parliament's portfolio of projects and programmes, with the other Senior Portfolio Managers. This role will work across the portfolio with specific responsibility for Risks and Issues management, Benefits management and lessons learned They will also contribute to other portfolio functions including assurance, assumptions, and dependency management.

Although both roles will work broadly across the portfolio, each will have a core area of focus:

• Risks management and Lessons Learned
• Benefits Management

Both roles will suit initiative-taking and highly motivated individuals with experience of monitoring the progress of large portfolios, influencing strategic decisions, and driving successful outcomes.

Some of the responsibilities for these roles include:

Core focus area: Risks and Lessons Learned

• Act as a business partner to project delivery and portfolio management teams, providing guidance and support on Risks and Issues Management, lessons learned and other portfolio management functions.
• Lead the development and implementation of an Enterprise Risk and Issue monitoring and management process.
• Embed a culture of risk management across the portfolio, liaising with local PMOs and the Corporate Governance team to encourage collaboration and good practice.

Core focus area: Benefits Management

• Act as a business partner to project delivery and portfolio management teams, providing guidance and support on Benefits Management and other portfolio management functions.
• Develop and maintain the portfolio benefits management framework, providing advice and support to PPM and Operations colleagues on benefits management.
• Coordinate and maintain an annual portfolio-level benefits realisation plan, including change control.
• Update benefits forecast to reflect approved project-level changes.

Skills and Experience

To be successful in this role you will demonstrate:

Qualifications:

• A professional qualification in Management of Risk Management (MoR), Benefits Management, International Certificate in Enterprise Risk Management, or one of the recognised portfolio/programme/project management methods e.g. Association of Project Management (APM), Management of Portfolios (MoP), Managing Successful Programmes (MSP), PRINCE2 or Leadership programme qualifications such as PLP.

Functional skills and experience - (Core focus area: Risks and Lessons Learned)

• Evidence of risk management including identification, assessment, management, tracking and reporting of risks in a complex and dynamic portfolio, programme or project environment.
• Working knowledge and practical experience of capturing and communicating lessons learned management in a complex and dynamic portfolio.
• Strong understanding of portfolio, programme, and project management principles, including an appreciation of different delivery approaches (e.g. Waterfall, Agile).

Functional skills and experience - (Core focus area: Benefits Management)

• Evidence of defining and leading the benefits management strategy to drive round value for money assessments across a complex portfolio.
• Practical experience of supporting projects and programmes to identify, quantify and track the realisation of benefits aligned to strategic objectives.
• Strong understanding and implementation of HM Treasury 'Green Book' and benefits management.

Stakeholder management

• Proven experience of strong collaboration skills, working with a wide variety of people to achieve common goals, being able to build trusted and sustainable relationships with individuals in a high-pressure and uncertain environment.

Analysis and decision-making

• Evidence of good data analysis and reporting skills, derived from a variety of sources to convey information in an accessible and straightforward way to a broad range of audiences with capability in using Excel, Visio, MS Project skills, and experience of data visualisation solutions.

Planning and organising

• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail, with experience of prioritising competing tasks and objectives to manage time and resources appropriately and responding flexibly to changing circumstances.

Diversity and inclusion

• Ability to work successfully within a team, while upholding the values of equality, diversity, and inclusion and taking ownership of allocated assignments, to deliver high quality work in collaboration with teams, communities, and diverse stakeholders.

Next Steps and Additional Information

• CV & Supporting Statement - If you would like to apply for this role, please submit your CV and covering letter with a 500 word limit.

Please indicate in your supporting statement which role you are interested in:

• Senior Portfolio Manager: Risks management and Lessons Learned
• Senior Portfolio Manager: Benefits Management

As part of the selection process, you may be asked to complete a test or prepare a presentation. Further details will be provided to shortlisted candidates.

More information on the application process can be found here: Application process - UK Parliament

More information on the role and the full criteria can be found in the Job Description.

Please note that most job offers will be made at the minimum of the salary range, other than in exceptional circumstances.

Please ensure that you anonymise your application by removing any identifiable factors from your CV or Supporting Statement.

We may close the vacancy prior to the closing date stated due to a high volume of applications.