Head of Portfolio Management

Government Recruitment Service; Chadderton; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A public sector agency is seeking an experienced Head of Portfolio Management to lead the oversight and successful delivery of key portfolios, programs, and projects. This leadership position involves developing strategic direction, ensuring alignment with organizational goals, and managing resources effectively. Key responsibilities include maintaining portfolio vision, coordinating planning, and fostering continuous improvement. The role comes with competitive benefits like substantial pension contributions and flexible working options, contributing to a supportive work-life balance.

Benefits

28.97% employer pension contribution

25 days annual leave plus bank holidays

Flexible working options

Qualifications

• Experience in portfolio management within complex organizations.
• Strong leadership and communication skills.
• Ability to coordinate planning and reporting.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain portfolio vision and strategy.
• Oversee the delivery of portfolios, managing milestones and dependencies.
• Provide assurance on progress, risks, and dependencies.

Skills

Portfolio management

Strategic leadership

Evidence-based decision making

Continuous improvement

Job description

Do you thrive in complex organisations where effective portfolio management is key?

Can you coordinate planning and reporting to keep programmes moving smoothly?

Would you bring strong delivery-method knowledge to help shape how we work?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

A pivotal leadership role that shapes the department’s entire change agenda, ensuring the most important initiatives are prioritised and delivered to support national priorities.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) helps keep Britain moving, safely and sustainably. We do this by helping people through a lifetime of safe and sustainable journeys, helping them keep their vehicles safe to drive, and protecting them from unsafe drivers and vehicles.

We’re working hard to:

• Make roads safer
• Improve services for our customers
• Make road transport greener and healthier
• Harness the potential of technology and data
• Grow and level up the economy

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays a privilege day for the King’s birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at DVSA.

The Head of Portfolio Management provides strategic leadership and direction for the oversight, coordination and successful delivery of a collection of Portfolios, Programmes and Projects that underpin departmental or business-area priorities. The role is responsible for establishing a clear, integrated view of all change activity, ensuring that investments are aligned to organisational strategy and deliver measurable benefits.

They oversee the prioritisation of initiatives, making evidence-based decisions on resource allocation to ensure the right projects are funded and delivered at the right time. Working closely with senior leaders, programme teams and corporate functions, they provide assurance on progress, risks and dependencies, enabling informed decision-making across the organisation.

The postholder also drives continuous improvement in portfolio management capability, embedding strong governance, promoting best practice, and ensuring that delivery approaches remain consistent with government standards and priorities.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

• Developing and maintaining the Portfolio vision and strategy aligned with DVSA’s business plan.
• Coordinating the Portfolio plan, identifying constraints and dependencies.
• Ensuring the portfolio and its service provision evolves in response to strategic, policy, and environmental changes.
• Continuous Improvement of the Value Framework and any other methodologies used to size and prioritise work.
• Overseeing the delivery of the Portfolio(s), developing and maintaining the key milestones, backlogs and dependencies, ensuring that.

Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills they need. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public.

For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only – whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.