Portfolio Planning & Assurance Manager, Delivery Assurance - Change and Planning Directorate

As a Portfolio Planning & Assurance Manager you will play a pivotal role in delivering strategic, data-informed and independent portfolio planning and assurance services. You will be a trusted partner, enabling the Bank to achieve its strategic priorities by setting up projects and programmes for success. You will ensure the Portfolio Planning & Assurance team delivers effective portfolio management, ensuring all changes are traceable, accountable and deliver measurable benefits.

You will be responsible for monitoring projects throughout their lifecycle to ensure adherence to agreed-upon plans and standards. This role involves conducting periodic reviews, ensuring quality, managing risks, auditing compliance, facilitating learning, supporting transparency, and maintaining accountability across all project activities.

The Bank values diversity and inclusion – we want to reflect the society we serve better; we want the best people to work for us and we want our workplace to be inclusive. We value all forms of diversity, including but not limited to age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, religion and ****** orientation. One way we support diversity and inclusion is through our staff run networks.

Primary Outcomes and Accountabilities:

Delivery Assurance: Deliver independent assurance across projects and programmes, providing objective oversight, identifying risks, and ensuring alignment with governance and delivery standard
Facilitate Learning: Provide feedback to project teams to promote a culture of continuous improvement and sharing of lessons learned.
Support Transparency: Ensure leadership has a clear view of the portfolio health and progress. Identify any portfolio-wide challenges through consistent reporting.
Maintain accountability: Act as an impartial body to uphold accountability across all project and programme activities.
Support Strategy & Business Planning: ensure that activities are aligned with the overall strategic goals of the organisation.
Being a role model and ambassador for the Division, committed to the purpose of the Bank and providing a supportive, diverse and inclusive team environment
Assure projects: Monitor projects through their lifecycle to ensure adherence to agreed-upon plans and standards.
Ensure quality: Validate that the projects are delivering the expected outcomes and benefits within agreed parameters of time, cost and scope.
Risk assurance: Proactively identify and escalate risks that could compromise the success of the projects, programmes or the portfolio.
Audit compliance with standards: Verify that projects are complying with the governance frameworks, policies and standards set by the Governance & Standards team.
Role Requirements:

Minimum Criteria:

Proven experience in project management, preferably within the banking or financial services sector, with the ability to think ahead and to be innovative in meeting business needs.
Proficiency in project management software and tools with proficiency in making informed decisions and solving complex problems, often with incomplete information.
Strong experience working with or developing assurance frameworks as they apply to project and programme delivery.
Essential Criteria:

Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate complex and technical information effectively in written and oral form with a style that is moderated according to the audience.
Ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional teams, with the ability to think holistically and work collaboratively to solve business decisions
Resilience, with the ability to demonstrate resilience when delivering difficult messages or when they are met with resistance to ideas or messages
Desirable Criteria:

Experience within a similar organisation in supporting portfolio definition and executing successful delivery, understanding business priorities, supporting business change and managing successful business partnerships.
Proven experience of successful delivery of complex change in the Financial Services industry.
Experience of Planview and Oracle PPM tools