Senior Portfolio Officer
Location: Teddington (Hybrid – typically 2 days per week on site, with flexibility to reduce to 1 day depending on business need)
Shape Change at the Heart of NPL
The Portfolio Office sits at the centre of NPL’s change agenda. We provide integrated oversight, governance, prioritisation, assurance and insight across NPL’s internal and external portfolios — enabling the right change to be delivered at the right time, in the right way, with the right support.
We are now seeking a Senior Portfolio Officer to take a visible, influential leadership role within this model. This is not a passive or purely coordinating PMO role — it is a hands on, delivery facing leadership position where your judgement, challenge and assurance directly influence outcomes.
Operating within a Hub and Spoke model, you will be:
• Based centrally within the Portfolio Office (the Hub), and
• Embedded within a major programme (a Spoke), flexing to where senior governance, assurance and decision support are most needed.
You will be expected to spend around two days per week on site in Teddington, building strong relationships and providing effective challenge face to face. This may reduce to one day per week over time, but candidates must be comfortable with hybrid working and flexibility.
What You’ll Be Doing
Lead Governance & Assurance
You will take ownership of assurance activity across programmes and projects, ensuring it is robust, proportionate and genuinely adds value.
• Lead health checks, start up reviews, stage gates and deep dive assurance activity
• Ensure governance cycles run effectively, with clear, high quality evidence presented to boards and committees
• Provide independent, constructive challenge to test readiness, controls and delivery confidence
• Capture lessons learned and embed them across the portfolio
Operate as a Senior Leader
This role requires demonstrable leadership. You’ll be expected to set direction, influence outcomes and act as a trusted authority — not simply work within existing structures.
• Act as a senior point of contact for delivery teams on PPM frameworks, standards and assurance expectations
• Provide leadership and direction to Portfolio Office colleagues when embedded in programmes
• Communicate confidently and credibly with senior sponsors, executives and board level stakeholders
• Be comfortable challenging assumptions and decisions in a constructive, evidence based way
Manage Risk, Dependencies & Value
You’ll play a key role in ensuring NPL understands where its real risks and value lie.
• Monitor and escalate major risks, issues and dependencies surfaced through governance and assurance
• Ensure RAID information is credible, consistent and aligned to agreed standards
• Provide informed commentary on benefits, outcomes and value delivery
• Champion a culture of benefits realisation and value led decision making
Provide Financial & Portfolio Insight
When embedded within programmes, you’ll support financial discipline and portfolio level insight.
• Support budget tracking, forecasting and financial inputs
• Provide analysis to inform prioritisation, sequencing and resource planning
• Contribute to evidence based decision making at portfolio level
Drive Continuous Improvement
You won’t just operate the system — you’ll improve it.
• Lead enhancements to governance frameworks, assurance approaches and portfolio processes
• Benchmark against external good practice to keep NPL’s standards credible and effective
• Actively shape how the Portfolio Office evolves as a Centre of Excellence