Senior Officer, Transformation Portfolio Management at Save the Children

Role purpose

The Senior Officer, Transformation Portfolio Management is a key member of the Portfolio Management Office (PMO) team. The role holder will act as the PMO business partner for a sub-set of the projects within the Transformation Portfolio and is responsible for portfolio-wide activity including dashboards and reporting, governance support, tooling and document management. 

The role drives the development and adoption of good practice, and coaches Project Managers and Project Leads in the application of the Transformation Delivery Lifecycle, PMO controls and project management tooling to their projects.

Principal Accountabilities

• Tooling: Support in the training and coaching of Project Managers and Project Leads in the use of project management tooling, including the application of project management best practice using the tooling. Manage and maintain project management tooling guidance, and identify and implement opportunities for continuous improvement in use of tooling
• Dashboards & Reporting: Manage and maintain PMO dashboards and reporting at both project/initiative and portfolio levels, produce regular PMO reporting and dashboards, support projects to develop project-specific dashboards and reporting, and identify and implement opportunities for continuous improvement
• Change Request Management: Ensure standard change control procedures and impact assessments are applied, and develop and maintain change request guidance and best practice. Provide a key connection between IT, Transformation Delivery and PMO to ensure clear ownership and accountability for delivery against change requests, oversee the tracking of Transformation Delivery & IT change requests and follow-on actions, and escalate, intervene and facilitate decision-making as needed
• Document Management: Manage and maintain all PMO documentation and repositories, including PMO best practice, ensuring all content is well structured and up to date. Coordinate inputs to documentation owned and managed by PMO and implement continuous improvement in document management
• Portfolio Management: Support the Head of Transformation Portfolio Management in portfolio-level management, including management of the integrated plan and portfolio RAID. Maintain awareness of key portfolio-level risks and issues and support projects to identify scenarios for mitigating risks or dealing with issues
• Support the design and production of internal communications materials related to Transformation Delivery initiatives and PMO. Tasks include drafting newsletters, providing information from reporting and dashboards, and formatting documents to align with Save the Children’s branding. Support quality assurance and project health checks across the portfolio as required
• Support the embedding of planning and project management standards across the portfolio, support resourcing management processes as required, support the definition and maintenance of guidance and best practice for planning, risks & issues and resourcing management, and escalate, intervene and facilitate decision-making as needed
• Governance: Support in the preparation, facilitation and follow-up for key governance forums including Transformation Steering Groups, and manage PMO-owned forums such as Portfolio Progress Meetings, including developing and managing guidance and all preparation and follow-up. Guide projects in the preparation of high-quality stage gate and other approval documents.
• Develop strong, positive relationships with all relevant stakeholders across the Transformation Delivery portfolio

Experience and Skills

Essential

• Knowledge of project, programme and portfolio management practices, standards and methodologies

      Considerable experience in a PMO role, ideally in a programme or portfolio management office

• Experience in the use of project and portfolio management tools and experience of supporting tools and good practice adoption
• A proactive and solutions-orientated approach, excellent problem-solving skills, and the ability to identify and implement solutions

      Able to build strong relationships within the organisation and influence others

• Flexible and pragmatic attitude to work, happy to support others to achieve team goals, with the ability to work at pace while maintaining high quality standards
• Excellent communication skills, fluent in written and spoken English
• Confident user of standard Microsoft applications, including MS Project, Excel, PowerPoint and SharePoint
• Ability to work to tight deadlines with strong attention to detail
• Maintain a calm disposition and positive outlook particularly when working under pressure

Desirable

• Self- motivated with ability to work autonomously
• Commitment to the mission, vision and values of Save the Children
• Non-profit sector knowledge/experience (especially international development projects)
• Second language – French, Spanish or Arabic

Education and Qualifications 

Essential

• Educated to degree level or equivalent work experience. 
• Understanding of a structured project methodology (e.g. PRINCE2) or accredited project management training (APM or PMI), including experience leading a project using such a methodology.

Desirable

• PRINCE2 or Project Management Professional (PMP) qualification desirable