Lead Digital Portfolio Manager

at  Department for Work and Pensions

JOB SUMMARY

Do you have experience in being at the forefront in leading a programme or portfolio management office?
Do you want to lead on some of the biggest digital transformation in the UK currently?
Are you an inspiring, engaging and enigmatic leader?
If so, apply for our Lead Digital Portfolio Manager role.
DWP Digital is transforming DWP’s services by unlocking the potential of leading edge technologies and ways of working. With our partners, we are focused on building and running innovative digital technology solutions that meet and respond to the changing needs and expectations of millions of people. We want to make it quicker, easier and less costly for DWP’s customers to get the support they need.
Portfolio Management is key within the department in ensuring that decisions surrounding the timing, structure, and prioritisation of projects & programmes, are correctly planned and managed.

JOB DESCRIPTION

As a Lead Digital Portfolio Manager, you will have a deep understanding of and be able to promote, the strategic and organisational plans for Digital, including in depth knowledge of a Director’s Business Plan and broad understanding of Digital’s Strategic aims and objectives.
You will have excellent organisation skills and attention to detail, with the ability to prioritise and manage multiple streams of activity including drafting board level papers, analysing complex information reporting on delivery, whilst ensuring a complex portfolio of projects is on track, helping to embed the use of tooling and management information to spot planning and delivery risks, escalating to senior leadership across the department where necessary.
You will professionally manage stakeholders including leading senior Board and Director level meetings, setting agendas for Board level meetings, tracking issues to be addressed, overseeing delivery of Board decisions and actions and taking ownership of all aspects of reporting, using multiple data sets and ensuring a common understanding of the status of delivery, risks and issues.
You will lead your team in ensuring your Digital portfolio delivers optimal outcomes, specifically in contributing to the department’s aims, whilst delivering on its Digital Strategy. You will set standards for delivery, assurance and financial planning processes, identifying KPIs and OKRs to determine whether the scope of the Digital Portfolio is being delivered within funding constraints. Optimisation will be through analysis, learning, assessment and experience, leveraging tooling as required to deliver efficient outcomes.
You will develop and implement mechanisms to assure delivery of a broad Digital portfolio, leading in tracking and governing delivery, as well as ensuring the use of effective controls, unblocking and escalating issues up to Board level, mitigating risks and tracking dependencies. This will involve maintaining a holistic view of your portfolio, identifying delivery blockers relating to specific projects and programmes, identifying risks and issues and ensuring proportionate change and assurance controls are in place and being adhered to.
You will work with the business management team to support financial planning for your portfolio, ensuring that SLT approval is achieved prior to any investment decisions or commercial approvals.
You will review impacts to forecasts resulting from changing functional demand, working with Finance Business partners and Product Owners to understand the latest delivery forecasts and to address productivity challenges.
You will act as an SME in supporting teams to ensure compliance with governance and controls, creating governance roadmaps to safeguard effective delivery, scrutiny and accountability ensuring where delivery is at risk, actions are in place to mitigate.
You will lead in managing new work demand, advising and/or producing appropriate planning strategies, whilst taking ownership for identifying and prioritising new work that aligns to the department’s digital strategy, working across the department and with service teams in selecting projects based on a reliable assessment of the value that they will bring.
You will be a leader in the Digital Portfolio Management Job Family, committed to building the practice community and their capability, identifying appropriate training and setting the standards and frameworks for your team. You will forge links with other Lead Digital Portfolio Managers and also form close alliances across organisational boundaries, e.g. Departmental Governance, to learn and share best practices.

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Digital
Governance
Information Technology
Planning
Project Delivery
Strategy