Senior Portfolio Analyst Lead

A1 Personnel; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

27 days annual leave

Additional five days leave

Season-ticket loan

Cycle-to-work loan

Enhanced family leave

Employee wellbeing support

On-site facilities

Discounted services

Job summary

A1 Personnel is recruiting a Senior Portfolio Analyst Lead for one of the world’s leading universities. The role leads a six-person PMO team and delivers senior-level, evidence-based views across a large project portfolio.

Initial in-person presence in Central London five days a week, followed by hybrid work with a minimum of two office days per week. You will interrogate data, challenge assumptions and provide concise recommendations to senior leaders.

Qualifications

• Senior-level PMO or portfolio-management experience.
• Experience overseeing performance across a large and complex portfolio of projects.
• Strong record of using data to identify risks, trends and delivery problems.
• Experience managing, developing and improving team performance.
• Ability to set expectations and lead by example.

Responsibilities

• Lead, develop and motivate a team of analysts and project support professionals.
• Set clear expectations and ensure high-quality outputs.
• Analyse information across a large portfolio to identify risks, delays and cost pressures.
• Identify patterns and connections beyond individual projects.
• Question incomplete or optimistic information and test assumptions.
• Produce clear reports, dashboards and recommendations for senior decision-makers.
• Ensure project information is accurate, current and useful.
• Identify early warning signs and escalate concerns before problems worsen.
• Challenge project managers and stakeholders constructively when needed.
• Monitor adherence to approval, reporting and control processes.
• Improve reporting methods, working practices and team performance.
• Take responsibility for issues through to resolution.
• Create a well-organised, dependable team for senior leadership oversight.

Skills

PMO leadership

Portfolio management

Data analysis

Stakeholder management

Leadership

Communication

Problem solving

Tools

Excel

Power BI

Job description

A1 Personnel is recruiting a Senior Portfolio Analyst Lead for one of the world’s leading universities.

This is a senior leadership position within a Portfolio Management Office overseeing a large and complex range of building, maintenance and improvement projects.

The successful candidate will lead a team of approximately six people, comprising three analysts and three project support professionals. You will bring the team together, raise performance and take full ownership of the quality, accuracy and usefulness of its work.

This is not a role for someone who simply gathers information and produces monthly reports. We need an experienced PMO professional who can interrogate data, challenge assumptions and identify where problems are likely to develop before they affect delivery.

The role

You will provide senior leaders with a clear, accurate and evidence-based view of performance across the complete project portfolio.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Leading, developing and motivating a team of analysts and project support professionals.
• Setting clear expectations and ensuring consistently high-quality outputs.
• Analysing information across a large portfolio of projects to identify emerging risks, delays, cost pressures and wider performance issues.
• Recognising patterns, trends and connections that may not be apparent when projects are viewed individually.
• Questioning information that appears incomplete, inconsistent or overly optimistic.
• Testing assumptions and following the evidence until you are satisfied that the true position is understood.
• Producing clear reports, dashboards and recommendations for senior decision-makers.
• Ensuring project information is accurate, current and useful.
• Identifying early warning signs and making sure concerns are escalated before they become serious problems.
• Challenging project managers and senior stakeholders constructively when the available evidence does not support the reported position.
• Monitoring whether projects are following the required approval, reporting and control processes.
• Improving reporting methods, working practices and team performance.
• Taking responsibility for issues and following them through to a satisfactory conclusion.
• Creating a well-organised, dependable team that allows the senior manager to step back from day-to-day supervision.

About you

You will already have substantial experience operating at a senior level within a PMO or portfolio-management environment.

It is essential that your experience covers an entire portfolio of projects rather than one individual project or programme.

You will need:

• Senior-level PMO or portfolio-management experience.
• Experience overseeing performance across a large and complex portfolio of projects.
• A strong record of using data to identify risks, trends, weaknesses and potential delivery problems.
• Experience managing, developing and improving the performance of a team.
• The confidence to set expectations, hold people accountable and lead by example.
• Experience working within a large, highly structured organisation in which responsibility is shared across numerous teams and senior stakeholders.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving ability.
• The curiosity and professional scepticism to verify information rather than accept it at face value.
• The ability to distinguish between genuine progress and overly positive reporting.
• Strong Excel, Power BI and reporting-system experience.
• The ability to turn complicated information into clear and practical recommendations.
• Excellent communication, influencing and stakeholder-management skills.
• A recognised project, programme or portfolio-management qualification or equivalent professional training.

Experience in higher education is not required. Relevant backgrounds could include infrastructure, construction, property, transport, healthcare, government, utilities or another large and highly complex organisation.

Direct estates or construction experience would be beneficial, but the quality and scale of your portfolio leadership experience are more important.

The person we are looking for

You will be someone who gets things done and accepts responsibility for delivering the required result.

You will not wait for problems to become obvious or assume that reported information must be correct. You will examine the evidence, ask difficult but appropriate questions and make sure emerging issues are addressed.

You will combine a questioning and analytical mindset with a constructive leadership style. You must be able to challenge people without damaging relationships, bring different teams together and create an environment in which accuracy, accountability and high performance are expected.

Working arrangements

For the first month, you will be expected to work in the Central London office five days per week. This will allow you to understand the portfolio, build relationships and establish yourself with the team.

Following this initial period, hybrid working is available, with a normal minimum of two office days per week.

However, this is a visible leadership position. You must be prepared to attend the office more frequently whenever required to support the team, address performance issues or meet the needs of the portfolio.

The benefits package includes:

• 27 days’ annual leave.
• The opportunity to purchase five additional days’ annual leave.
• Season-ticket and cycle-to-work loans.
• Enhanced family leave.
• Employee assistance and wellbeing support.
• Access to on-site facilities and discounted services.

If you are an experienced portfolio PMO leader who combines strong people management with the ability to uncover problems through data, we would like to hear from you.