Associate Director, Governance Reporting and Portfolio Oversight

King's College London; Greater London; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

King’s College London is seeking a senior governance and programme management professional to lead the IES Directorate’s governance arrangements and reporting. You will manage a team delivering governance for partnerships and funding, ensuring robust risk management and decisive oversight across the portfolio.

You will play a key role in aligning the IES work with King's Strategy 2030, providing clear progress updates and actionable insights to senior stakeholders, while championing continuous

Qualifications

• Educated to degree level or equivalent experience.
• Significant experience of programme, portfolio or governance management, with a deep understanding of relevant methodologies, tools and approaches.
• Experience of bringing structure, coherence and effective oversight to a complex portfolio of programmes, partnerships or projects, including monitoring progress, dependencies, risks and issues.
• Experience of international higher education, international partnerships or working across global contexts, with an understanding of the opportunities, risks and sensitivities associated with operating across different countries and regions.
• Deep understanding and practical experience of governance, risk management and organisational decision-making, including supporting senior committees or equivalent decision-making forums.
• Strong analytical and critical-thinking skills, with the ability to interpret complex information, identify emerging risks and issues, and produce clear, actionable insight and reporting for senior stakeholders.
• Proven ability to lead and develop a high‑performing team, establish effective ways of working and drive consistency, continuous improvement and delivery across multidisciplinary environments.
• Excellent written and verbal communication and stakeholder‑management skills, with the ability to build effective relationships, influence senior and external stakeholders, and communicate complex issues clearly and appropriately to different audiences.

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day governance management for the Directorate and its priorities.
• Head a programme management and governance team across the IES portfolio.
• Provide insightful reporting for senior stakeholders and drive continuous improvement.
• Ensure IES contributions align with King's Strategy 2030 and institutional agenda.

Skills

Governance management

Programme management

Portfolio management

Stakeholder engagement

Risk management

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

MS Office

Reporting tools

Job description

About us

The IES Directorate at King's brings together the expertise of teams engaging with communities and partners locally, national and globally. IES provides strategic leadership for the university's engagement at home and abroad, while providing a home for a portfolio of innovative programmes that generate and measure impact and serve the communities we work with and for. IES is home to some of King's most innovative and impact-driven programming including Sanctuary, the Afe Babalola Centre for Transnational Education, King's Volunteering, One King's Impact, among others, as well as our civic and place-based engagement in London, and across the world.

About the role

The postholder will play a pivotal role in ensuring effective governance, oversight and reporting across the Directorate's priorities and commitments. They will lead the day-to-day management of IES governance arrangements, including the Partnerships and Funding Risk Committee, supporting robust decision-making, proportionate risk management and clear accountability. They will lead a high-performing programme management and governance team working across the IES portfolio, championing best practice and continuous improvement in the delivery of strategic priorities - providing a clear view of progress across key programmes, milestones, dependencies and risks, alongside insightful reporting for senior stakeholders. The postholder will also ensure that IES's contribution to King's Strategy 2030 and the wider institutional agenda is clearly evidenced, communicated and understood.

This is a full time (35 hours per week), and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Educated to degree level or equivalent experience.
2. Significant experience of programme, portfolio or governance management, with a deep understanding of relevant methodologies, tools and approaches.
3. Experience of bringing structure, coherence and effective oversight to a complex portfolio of programmes, partnerships or projects, including monitoring progress, dependencies, risks and issues.
4. Experience of international higher education, international partnerships or working across global contexts, with an understanding of the opportunities, risks and sensitivities associated with operating across different countries and regions.
5. Deep understanding and practical experience of governance, risk management and organisational decision-making, including supporting senior committees or equivalent decision-making forums.
6. Strong analytical and critical-thinking skills, with the ability to interpret complex information, identify emerging risks and issues, and produce clear, actionable insight and reporting for senior stakeholders.
7. Proven ability to lead and develop a high‑performing team, establish effective ways of working and drive consistency, continuous improvement and delivery across multidisciplinary environments.
8. Excellent written and verbal communication and stakeholder‑management skills, with the ability to build effective relationships, influence senior and external stakeholders, and communicate complex issues clearly and appropriately to different audiences.

Desirable criteria

1. Experience of working within higher education, or a comparable complex organisation, with an understanding of institutional structures, governance, academic decision‑making and the wider policy and regulatory environment.
2. Experience of partnership, funding or due‑diligence governance, including the assessment, escalation and management of institutional or third‑party risk.
3. A recognised qualification or formal training in programme, project, portfolio or risk management.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further information

At King's, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.

The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.

When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King's guidance.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving rapidly, and we recognise its growing role in professional work. Applicants may use AI tools to support preparation of their application, for example to research the role or structure written responses. However, applications must reflect the applicant's own work and experience. AI tools should not be used during interviews or assessment activities unless this has been agreed in advance as a reasonable adjustment. Further guidance on the use of AI in recruitment can be found here .

We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.