Strategic Portfolio Manager

SUMMARY:
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POSITION INFO:

The Strategic Portfolio Manager has accountable oversight to a portfolio of work within STI, applying industry best practices to manage the intake, scoping, planning, staffing, execution methodology, and long-term road mapping of projects within the portfolio. The position is for a highly skilled leader with a strong Strategy as well as Portfolio Management background. This role requires a deep understanding of Project, Program & Portfolio Architecture, strong leadership skills, and experience managing teams. The Strategic Portfolio Manager function will work and collaborate across various organisational functions to ensure business value is delivered per organisational strategic goals.

Program/Portfolio Management

Plan and manage the delivery of projects within an area of professional expertise, using an appropriate project management methodology to give assurance that intended outcomes are achieved. Ensure the Portfolio roadmap translates into effective work intake processes, prioritising initiatives based on strategic impact and resource availability. Serves as program and project management methodology subject matter expert, consulting within the organisation to apply industry best practices and ensure execution success.

Leadership and Direction

Communicate the actions needed to implement the function's strategy and business plan within the team; explain the relationship to the broader organisation's mission, vision and values; motivate people to commit to these and to doing extraordinary things to achieve local business goals.

Provide leadership & oversee program management, ensuring all initiatives and programs are executed efficiently, with measurable outcomes that align with business objectives. Ensure successful delivery of solutions by coordinating all delivery verticals in the organisation. Designs, delivers, and monitors execution and value realisation plans

Enterprise Business Analysis

Interpret the business need and identify solution recommendations to business problems at a business unit level. Lead the improvement efforts that are within span of control at this level. Partner with division leaders with an overall business viewpoint to identify priority impact areas. Partners with operational leadership and sponsors to ensure program and project alignment with business needs and productive working relationships.

Stakeholder Management

Develop and implement stakeholder engagement strategies and plans across the program to identify relevant stakeholders, to create mutually supportive working relationships, and to ensure that each stakeholder has an appropriate share of voice at both project and program levels.

Budgeting and Costing

Develop and/or deliver budget plans with guidance from senior colleagues. Develop and execute budgets. Determine reuse and design-to-cost strategies

Project Benefit Realisation

Develop and manage the delivery of a plan to evaluate and track business benefits and to identify actions needed to maximise these. Proactively identifies opportunities to deliver value to the organisation and works with relevant leadership and governance bodies to triage, approve, and charter programs and projects that align with enterprise strategic objectives.

Assess the benefits planning and realisation across a number of programmes or project within the portfolios to identify gaps, overlaps and conflicts and to eliminate double counting in the benefit plans of individual programmes and projects. Review post programme/ project benefits against strategic investment decision.

Project/ Program Governance

Clarify roles and responsibilities within the project team and ensure project compliance with the organisation's wider program and/or portfolio management decision-making structures and processes. Provides coordination and/or facilitation role within applicable governance forums, assisting leadership with organising programs and projects to align with enterprise strategy and objectives.

Project/ Program Team Management

Lead a medium to large project team; defines the project vision and communicates the outcomes needed along with guidance to achieve outcome, coordinates team actions on project activities; coordinates flow of additional team members on and off the team as needed; and works to build the capability of the team through training, coaching and mentoring. Capture the resource requirements of portfolios, programmes, projects and the portfolios office suit. Forecast future resource needs, based on programme/ project plans, close liaison with the relevant managers.

Portfolio Reporting and Review

Manage the project review process; provide stakeholders with accurate and relevant information and key recommendations at agreed review points to enable them to evaluate progress and agree on change. Report portfolio status board timely and accurate information focused on decision making.

Innovation Strategy, Pipeline and Roadmap

Champion an innovation stream within the innovation road map, ensuring the right resources are in place to execute on the strategy.

Project Risk and Issue Management

Manage identification of risks, issues, dependencies, and constraints associated with the project, escalating these where appropriate. Where necessary, develop, agree on, and implement solutions to overcome these.

Project Resource Management

Lead the negotiation and deployment of annual and longer-term program and project resource budgets, providing forecasts and presenting variances with narrative at appropriate review points to ensure effective utilisation.

SKILLS

Planning and Organising

Uses comprehensive knowledge and skills to work independently while providing guidance and training to others on planning, organising, prioritising and overseeing activities to efficiently meet business objectives.

Project Risk and Issue Management

Applies expertise to act as the organisational authority on identifying, assessing, prioritising and managing project-related risks.

Stakeholder Expectation Management

Works at an advanced level to identify potential stakeholders, analyse their expectations, and develop strategies for managing stakeholders and their expectations.Typically works independently and provides guidance.

Portfolio Performance Management

Works at an advanced level to develop the performance management plan, manage supply and demand, as well as manage value, issue resolution, and changes to the portfolio, all with the focus for process and performance improvement.Typically works independently and provides guidance.

Excellent Portfolio, program and project management skills with the ability to manage complex, multi-year initiatives, Solid understanding of IT systems (COTS, SAAS, PAAS, ITAAS), Process Modelling, Business Capability Modelling as well as Innovation management

Project Communications Management

Works at an advanced level to ensure timely and appropriate planning, collection, creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, management, control,  archiving, and disposition of project information.Typically works independently and provides guidance.

Project Resource Planning and Control

Works at an advanced level to identify, acquire, and manage the resources (physical and human) for the project.Typically works independently and provides guidance.

Project Governing

Works at an advanced level to identify, select, and manage the oversight of projects, programs, and portfolios, including standardised policies and procedures, escalation, decision making, change control, prioritisation, and approval processes. Typically works independently and provides guidance.

Project Portfolio Management

Works at an advanced level to develop the strategic plan, and roadmap and manage the strategic changes associated with the portfolio.Typically works independently and provides guidance.

Project Strategy Creation and Alignment

Works at an advanced level to create the project strategy, vision, and goals, and maintain them in alignment with the organisation's strategy and goals. Typically works independently and provides guidance.

Strategic Project and Program Alignment

Works at an advanced level to develop the strategic plan, and roadmap and manage the strategic changes associated with the portfolio.Typically works independently and provides guidance.

General Education

Bachelor’s degree required (Business field or Business IT) (Essential); Relevant industry certification such as PMI Project/Program/Portfolio Management Professional (PgMp) (Essential); Master’s degree preferred (MBA) (Advantageous); PfMP/P3O (Advantageous)

General Experience

At least 10 years of work experience in a project management capacity, leading multiple initiatives (Essential); At least 5 years of Portfolio management experience (Essential); Experience in setting up a strategic PMO, Portfolio Office (Advantageous)

Managerial Experience

5 or more years experience in a leadership position (Essential); Experience of planning, managing and organising resources within short / medium timescales within the overall policy framework