The Government Property Agency is the largest property holder in government, with more than £2.1 billion in property assets and over 55% of the government’s office estate.
The role of the Head of PfMO (Portfolio Management Office) is to define and maintain the standards for Portfolio and Programme management within the Portfolio Management Function on behalf of the Portfolio & Programme Management Director.
This includes the implementation and sharing of best practices and the development and application of portfolio and programme management procedures, tools and techniques to standardise methodologies and realise economies.
The Head of PfMO provides expert guidance, support, and insight on the portfolio of projects, and acts as the source of all information and metrics. The role is expected to have an expert understanding of the best practice guides which include and is not limited to Management of Portfolios (MoP), P3O, Management of Risk (MoR) and Managing Successful Programmes (MSP).
Key Responsibilities:
Delivery and leadership – Lead the PfMO to support in the delivery of business cases benefits and outcomes.
Champion the use of best practice project management standards and processes.
Business case – Support the Portfolio & Programme Management Director in developing business cases with input from specialists as necessary.
Budget – Working with the PfM team and the Strategic partners to develop and agree on budgets for projects and/or programmes and forecast actual costs against them.
Resources – Manage the PfMO team and support the Portfolio Director in the identification, recruitment, development, deployment, and reassignment of resources throughout the portfolio and the lifecycle of the projects.
Stakeholder management – Advise the Portfolio Director on appropriate tools and techniques for managing stakeholder relationships. Assure the Portfolio Director and the Senior Stakeholder Manager on the effectiveness of stakeholder management arrangements.
Risks and issues – Establish the processes and standards for managing risks and issues. Assure the Portfolio Director on the effectiveness of Risk and Issue management arrangements.
Governance and assurance – Ensure appropriate governance is in place and arrange external reviews e.g. Gateway Reviews at appropriate points in the lifecycle of all the portfolio’s projects.
Monitor the effectiveness of controls and ensure that recommendations from external reviews are acted upon.
Change management – Establish and implement protocols to change the scope of projects and/or programmes and update configuration documents as required.
Project performance and controls – Establish and operate project controls on behalf of the Portfolio & Programme Management Director, reporting on all progress and status to appropriate bodies. Identify common capabilities and opportunities for linking up, re-using and sharing of methods and resources between projects and programmes. Ensure learning from experience is disseminated across the organisation.
Guidance and support – Identify, develop and share best practice management processes, tools and templates and benchmarks against industry standards. Provides direction and guidance to the project team.
Person specification
Essential criteria:
Experience in delivering a large real estate portfolio.
The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of running a Portfolio Office or PMO running high value and complex programmes/projects, or who is able to demonstrate that they can deliver individual projects in the capacity of Project Manager, or as a Workstream leader on a large project.
They will be an excellent communicator - able to write succinctly and persuasively, adapting the writing style for briefings and papers based on the intended audience, as well as speak with conviction and authority about areas they are responsible for.
They will be adept at building excellent working relationships at all levels of an organisation, and be a credible leader of people with the ability to get the best out their staff and have a genuine commitment to their development.
The successful candidate will have attained at least 1 of the following qualifications/memberships (or be able to demonstrate an equivalent):
- Managing Successful Programmes Practitioner
- P3O Practitioner
- Management of Risk Practitioner
- Management of Portfolios Practitioner
Desirable criteria:
MCIOB
MRICS
PRINCE2 Practitioner
Agile Project Management Practitioner
Managing Successful Programmes Advanced Practitioner
APM Chartered Project Professional
Project Leadership Programme
APM Project Management Qualification
APMG International Project Planning and Control Foundation
APMG International Project Planning and Control Practitioner
Leading and Managing Project Workstream
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme
Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident .