Portfolio Assistant

Cancer Research Uk; Cambourne; On-site; GBP 26,000 - 32,000; Full time

Job summary

Cancer Research Horizons is seeking a proactive Portfolio Assistant to join the TI portfolio team, coordinating governance, reporting and portfolio management activities that support cancer treatment development. You will work closely with cross-functional teams to ensure timely delivery of materials and smooth meeting operations.

Ideal candidates are highly organised, detail-oriented and capable of independent work, with experience in office tools.

Qualifications

• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail.
• Experience in a project, programme or portfolio administration.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office 365 including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint and Teams.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Ability to work independently on defined activities.
• Ability to maintain accurate records and handle information.
• Proactive in supporting colleagues and resolving routine admin issues.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate portfolio/project meeting support including agendas, packs and attendee communications.
• Organise timely delivery of presentation materials and manage contributor timelines.
• Maintain consistent portfolio documents and templates, and prepare reports and materials.
• Support data collection and routine portfolio reporting using templates.
• Triage helpdesk requests and identify process improvements.
• Assist with ad hoc duties across the portfolio team.

Skills

Organisational skills

Administrative experience

Microsoft Office 365

Written communication

Independent working

Record keeping

Proactive support

Tools

Office 365

Job description

At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer

We are looking for a proactive and organised Portfolio Assistant to join our portfolio team at Cancer Research Horizons. This is an exciting opportunity to join Cancer Research Horizons (CRH) at a time of significant innovation and growth

As Portfolio Assistant, you'll be at the heart of our Therapeutic Innovation (TI) portfolio team, helping to coordinate governance, reporting and portfolio management activities that support the development of ground-breaking cancer treatments. If you're highly organised, detail-oriented and enjoy working collaboratively across teams, this role offers the chance to make a meaningful impact and develop skills across portfolio management.

About Cancer Research Horizons

As the world’s biggest medical research charity, we’ve helped bring eleven new cancer drugs to market. However, there is still an urgent need to bring more effective treatments to patients faster.

We have recently developed a new approach to driving therapeutic innovation through the creation of Cancer Research Horizons (CRH). We have brought together Cancer Research UK’s established drug discovery teams under one organisation and leadership team, combining our unique pipeline of cancer biology expertise and access to CRUK’s world-class academic network, cutting edge technology platforms and clinical expertise to 1) Bring new treatments to patients faster and 2) Tackle the biggest challenges in discovering cancer drugs by seeking out more radical ideas and embracing risk in our bid to achieve success.

Based at sites in Cambridge, the CRUK Scotland Institute in Glasgow, and Newcastle University, you’ll be joining over 180 staff from both industrial and academic backgrounds, all dedicated to bringing forward the day we cure cancer and making real life impact.

What will you be doing?

Portfolio/Project Meeting support

• Share agendas & meeting packs and manage attendee communications.
• Organise deadlines to receive and collate presentation materials from contributors.
• Work with Portfolio Lead to manage meeting invite lists
• Co-ordinate with operations teams to manage scheduling and permissions.
• Circulate meeting outputs & produce summaries of outstanding actions.

Document & Information Management

• Ensure portfolio documents are stored consistently and can be easily located.
• Manage consistency for portfolio & project documents with current templates.
• Support preparation and formatting of reports, presentations and meeting materials.
• Support implementation of new templates, trackers and ways of working.

Support portfolio tracking and reporting

• Co-ordinate data collection for portfolio reporting.
• Generate routine reports and status updates using agreed templates.
• Support maintenance of accuracy and completeness of portfolio information.
• Handle routine portfolio administration activities and triage helpdesk requests.
• Identify opportunities to improve administrative processes.
• Ad hoc duties as required

What are we looking for?

Key Technical Skills, Knowledge, Experience and Behaviours:

• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail
• Previous administrative experience, ideally in a project, programme or portfolio environment
• Proficient in Microsoft Office 365, including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint and Teams.
• Excellent written communication skills
• Ability to work independently on clearly defined activities while seeking guidance when appropriate
• Ability to maintain accurate records and handle information appropriately.
• Proactive approach to supporting colleagues and resolving routine administrative issues.

Desirable

• Experience supporting project or portfolio governance activities.
• Experience working within a scientific, research, healthcare or biotechnology environment.
• Experience maintaining trackers, action logs or structured project information.
• Experience with project or portfolio management systems.

Our organisation values are designed to guide all that we do.

Bold: Act with ambition, courage and determination

Credible: Act with rigour and professionalism

Human: Act to have a positive impact on people

Together: Act inclusively and collaboratively

We’re looking for people who can believe in and embody these organisation values and can use them to drive forward progress against our mission to beat cancer.

What will I gain?

We create a working environment that supports your wellbeing and provide a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools. Our policies and processes enable you to improve your work-life balance, take positive steps in your career and achieve your personal wellbeing goals.