Head of Strategic Portfolio Management

National Trust; Swindon; Hybrid; GBP 72.000 - 88.000; Vollzeit

Benefits dieser Stelle

Pension scheme

Free entry to National Trust places

Rental deposit loan

Season ticket loan

EV car lease

Perks at work discounts

Holiday allowance 32 days

Flexible working

Employee assistance programme

Free parking

Zusammenfassung

The National Trust is seeking a Head of Strategic Portfolio Management to turn ambition into action and impact at scale. Based in Swindon with hybrid working, you’ll lead enterprise portfolio management and align strategy with delivery, enabling timely, evidence-led decisions.

You will partner with Executive Directors and senior leaders to prioritise investments, manage capacity and realise strategic outcomes across the organisation.

Qualifikationen

• Experience leading Enterprise Portfolio Management across a large organisation.
• Ability to influence Executive leaders and trustees, using insight to improve strategic choices.
• Expertise in governance, prioritisation, investment decisions, benefits realisation and capacity planning.
• Proven track record delivering cultural and behavioural change through influence.

Aufgaben

• Lead the Strategic Portfolio Office providing organisation-wide leadership for Enterprise Portfolio Management.
• Strengthen the connection between strategy and execution, with transparent capacity and commitments.
• Turn complex information into a compelling strategic narrative on outcomes, benefits, risk, dependencies, investment and capacity.
• Facilitate high-quality conversations that move beyond reporting to collective judgement and accountability.
• Lead cultural change and coach Portfolio Leads to enable outcome-focused, matrix-based working.
• Ensure portfolio management is integrated into wider planning and performance systems.

Kenntnisse

Enterprise Portfolio Management

Executive stakeholder engagement

Portfolio governance

Change leadership

Strategic thinking

Communication

Jobbeschreibung

Summary

We’re looking for a Head of Strategic Portfolio Management to help turn ambition into collective action and lasting impact. As a senior organisation-wide leader you’ll sit at the heart of strategy execution.

Working with Executive Directors, senior leaders and colleagues across the organisation, you’ll establish Enterprise Portfolio Management as a core organisational capability. You’ll create shared clarity around priorities, enabling better choices on investment and capacity, building the confidence to start, sustain, redirect or stop activity in pursuit of our strategic outcomes.

You’ll bring deep technical portfolio and change leadership expertise, combined with the credibility to challenge constructively and connect strategy, people and delivery. You’ll build a culture of enterprise thinking, shared accountability and evidence-led decision making.

Our positions are open to all, and we welcome applications from all backgrounds to support our ambitions of reflecting the communities we serve and ending unequal access.

Salary: up to £80,000 dependant on experience.

What It's Like To Work Here

You’ll join the Strategy & Governance directorate at a significant point in our evolution, working at the centre of how we set priorities, make choices and mobilise our organisation around shared outcomes. You’ll have breadth and influence, partnering with Executive Directors, Senior Leaders, Portfolio Leads and colleagues across national, regional and property teams, while leading a specialist Strategic Portfolio Office based in Swindon.

You’ll work in an environment where thoughtful challenge is welcomed, relationships matter and success depends on bringing people with you through complex change.

Your contractual location will be our head office in Swindon. We use a hybrid approach to working and expect colleagues to spend 2 days of their working week at their contractual location. This can be discussed further at interview.

What You'll Be Doing

Working closely with the Strategy & Governance Director, you’ll lead the Strategic Portfolio Office providing visible, organisation-wide leadership for Enterprise Portfolio Management. You'll make portfolio thinking part of how we lead, strengthening the connection between strategy and execution, creating transparency around capacity and commitments, and enabling leaders to make clear, timely and sometimes difficult choices.

As a trusted adviser to senior leaders, you’ll shape the portfolio methodology, governance and prioritisation approach and turn complex information into a compelling strategic story on outcomes, benefits, risk, dependencies, investment and organisational capacity. You’ll facilitate high-quality conversations that move beyond reporting to support collective judgement, action and accountability.

A central part of the role is cultural change. You’ll influence across organisational boundaries, coach leaders and Portfolio Leads and build the behaviours, confidence and capability needed for outcome-focused, matrix-based working. You’ll champion shared impact and help colleagues see and experience portfolio management not as a control process, but as an agile enabler of better decisions, stronger collaboration and greater impact.

You’ll lead and develop a high-performing Strategic Portfolio Office, setting a clear vision and creating an inclusive culture of curiosity, service, learning and continuous improvement. Working in close partnership with Strategy, Finance, Planning, Performance and Digital colleagues, you’ll ensure portfolio management is integrated into the wider organisational planning and performance system and remains practical, proportionate and responsive to changing priorities.

Who We're Looking For

You’ll combine deep portfolio expertise with the judgement, influence and leadership to operate credibly at the most senior levels. Whatever your background, you'll be able to apply your experience in a complex, purpose-led organisation and bring people with you. Please outline how you meet the criteria below in your application.

• Significant experience leading and embedding Enterprise Portfolio Management as an organisation-wide approach to strategy execution in a large, complex environment.
• A strong record of advising and influencing Executive leaders, trustees and senior decision-makers, using insight and constructive challenge to improve strategic choices.
• Expertise in portfolio governance, strategic prioritisation, investment decision-making, benefits realisation, dependency management and organisational capacity planning.
• Demonstrable success in leading cultural and behavioural change, building commitment to new disciplines and ways of working through influence and relationships rather than formal authority.
• Exceptional systems thinking and judgement, with the ability to connect strategy, finance, risk, capacity and delivery and translate complexity into clear choices and recommendations.
• Compelling communication, facilitation and storytelling skills, with the confidence to lead difficult conversations and create shared understanding across diverse perspectives.
• Experience building organisational capability through coaching, guidance, communities of practice and practical frameworks that strengthen confidence and accountability.
• Resourceful and inclusive leadership, with experience setting direction for a specialist team, creating the conditions for people to thrive, collaborate and continuously improve.

The package

The National Trust has the motto ‘For everyone, for ever’ at its heart. We’re working hard to create an inclusive culture, where everyone feels they belong. It’s important that our people reflect and represent the diversity of the communities and audiences we serve. We welcome and value difference, so when we say we’re for everyone, we want everyone to be welcome in our teams too.

• Substantial pension scheme of up to 10% basic salary
• Free entry to National Trust places for you, a guest and your children (under 18)
• Rental deposit loan scheme
• Season ticket loan
• EV car lease scheme (for roles that meet the salary criteria)
• Perks at work discounts such as gym memberships, shopping discount codes, cinema discounts
• Holiday allowance up to 32 days relating to length of service, plus holiday purchase scheme, subject to meeting minimum criteria.
• Flexible working whenever possible
• Employee assistance programme
• Free parking at most Trust places

National Trust place

Heelis, Kemble Drive, Swindon, SN2 2NA

Documents

Head of Strategic Portfolio Management - F.pdf

Requirements

Compliance.Eligibility to Work in the UK

Closing Date: 15 November 2026

Interview Date: 1st interview - 3 December 2026, 2nd interview - 10 December 2026 at our Swindon (Heelis) office.

If you need any help with your application, i.e. due to technical difficulties, please call us on 0370 240 0274 or email us at [e-mail]

If you require an adjustment to the application process, for example due to disability or medical condition, please call us on 0370 240 0274 or email us at [e-mail] and we'll support you as best as we can. For examples of how, please see our supporting you page.

Equal Opportunities Statement

The National Trust celebrates diversity and is committed to creating a fair and equal society, free from discrimination. You can read more about our commitment to inclusion and diversity here.

Safeguarding Statement

The National Trust is committed to a safe recruitment processes to help the organisation attract and appoint the right staff/volunteer for the role and responsibilities as set out in the vacancy advert. We will not accept applicants who are not suitable to work with children, young people or adults at risk. If you have any questions around your suitability for this vacancy, please contact the people service centre.