Head, Transformation Portfolio Management

Save the Children International has an exciting opportunity for a Head, Transformation Portfolio Management to join our global team.

Team and Job Purpose

The Transformation Portfolio Management and Reporting (PMO) team plays a critical role in overseeing and supporting the successful delivery of the entire portfolio of Transformation initiatives. This includes ensuring a clear understanding of how projects interconnect including, managing resourcing, managing governance frameworks, and implementing controls that facilitate effective decision-making. The team manages key portfolio-level governance forums, as well as owns and maintains project management standards, guidance, and tooling, ensuring consistency and quality across all initiatives. At the project level, team monitors the progress of ongoing Transformation projects and provides assurance that they adhere to established project management methodologies. Aat the portfolio level, the PMO conducts portfolio-level analysis to identify dependencies, assess risks, and evaluate and support the overall health and trajectory of the Transformation plan.

Role purpose

This role will oversee a team of a Portfolio Manager and Officers working directly with Transformation projects to ensure they are able to meet their portfolio management commitments effectively. Key accountabilities include managing dependencies, overseeing portfolio benefits, overseeing engagement with projects to understand priorities and progress and stepping into provide hands on support where needed as well as oversight of ongoing monitoring of benefits and associated metrics. 

This role will be accountable for and oversee all elements of portfolio level reporting and will need to ensure effective engagement with key governance groups, ensuring effective engagement with individual teams to ensure these governance meetings are effectively prepared and managed. 

This will be a critical role to ensure the effective scoping and delivery of the Transformation portfolio, and the role holder will be required to work across a broad set of initiatives and activities to ensure the portfolio is setup for success and is enabled to deliver real value for children. Given the significance of the role, prior experience managing either a portfolio of projects or leading a large global and complex transformation initiative is essential.

Job Title: Head, Transformation Portfolio Management

Reports To: Director, Transformation Project Portfolio Management & Reporting

Work Pattern: Hybrid/Remote with flexible working options available 

Contract Length: Permanent

Grade: M4

Location: Any approved Save the Children International office location. For a full list of locations that Save the Children International can hire in, please visit: SCI Careers

Time Zone (that the role holder must be available to work in): Any

Right to Work: The successful candidate must possess the unrestricted right to work in their current or preferred location for the duration of employment. 

Language Requirements: English

International Travel Requirements: up to 10% 

Budget Responsibility: Indirectly supports budget of ~$10-15m 

People Management Responsibility: Number of people managed in total: 2+

Manager of a team: Yes

Team Manager (manager of multiple teams): No

Principal Accountabilities

• TDIT Formal Governance: Planning and preparation for all TDIT level governance including the Transformation Steering Group (delegated authority for Transformation oversight from the Management Committee) which includes senior leader representation from across the movement. 
• Portfolio Planning and Reporting: Lead the Transformation Portfolio Management team to effectively engage with transformation projects and ensure plans and associated reporting are delivered on time and to a high standard in line with agreed standard templates and processes. Where issues are identified ensure, these are made visible to the TDIT Management Team and there is a clear plan of action to move forwards
• Benefits and Associated Reporting including Board Level Reporting: This role will drive transformation benefits reporting to Board, CEOs and TSG. As part of this they will take the lead in defining the benefits and associated metrics essential to manage the portfolio of transformation initiatives managed by TDIT. This includes ongoing refresh to ensure they continue to be fit for purpose and ensuring the timely and quality delivery of required benefits reporting
• Portfolio Level Interdependencies Management: This role will oversee the cross-department interdependencies, ensuring initiatives are aligned with the overall portfolio strategy in terms of planning and ensure active management of responses required including being accountable for supporting responses to transformation related audits
• Management of Change Requests: Establishing / refining / maintaining the process for receiving and managing change requests that come from across the organisation, ensuring these are effectively triaged to enable prioritisation and impacting as required
• Partner with wider TDIT Leaders: To ensure effectively delivery of the TDIT agenda, with a specific focus on Transformation initiatives and change requests. Examples could include supporting the Transformation Development team to manage key interventions in projects required because of issues identified through Portfolio reporting or working with IT to impact change requests received relating to existing IT systems 

Experience and Skills

Essential

1. Responsibility for managing a complex portfolio of transformation initiatives or at a minimum experience of leading a global transformation initiative as a Project Lead or equivalent
2. Demonstrated experience working with and leading engagements with global stakeholders across different levels of the organisation from a broad range of contexts. Demonstrable experience of acting as a ‘business partner’ to functional areas e.g. Supply Chain, Finance etc. Experience engaging with complex stakeholder groups and leading engagements with key governance bodies
3. Experience effectively overseeing the management of budgets and being able to adapt to changes where required 
4. Demonstrated experience leading large and complex transformation projects across a range of different project types including experience of industry project management standards and holding project management teams accountable to those standards
5. Ability to oversee and provide hands on support where needed to resolve complex project issues, with a balance of pragmatism and rigour
6. Experience setting up new initiatives including initial scoping and business cases and setting up and working with project governance structures
7. Experience delivering interventions to support the resolution of issues
8. Demonstrable coaching skills to help build the capabilities of others in the area of Project and Change Management
9. Experience of working in a fast-paced environment with high levels of change and quick turnaround times, whilst delivering to the highest standards. Commitment to Save the Children

Desirable

• Prior experience in challenging geographies that include less developed areas in the Middle East, Africa and Asia
• Non-profit sector knowledge/experience
• Proficiency in a second core language of Save the Children (French, Spanish, Portuguese or Arabic

Education and Qualifications 

Essential

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience

Desirable

• Understanding of a structured Project methodology (e.g. PRINCE2) or accredited Project Management training (APM or PMI) including experience leading a project using such a methodology

Working at Save the Children International

Save the Children is the world's leading organisation for children, employing ~25,000 staff. We save children's lives. We fight for their rights. We help them fulfil their potential. Through our work in 116 countries, we put the most deprived and marginalised children first.

We know that great people make a great organisation, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children. We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive environment where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.

The work here is challenging but is also immensely rewarding. At Save the Children, you will be in good company, working with talented, like-minded individuals who are determined to ensure that all children survive, learn, and are protected. Your contribution will help ensure children's voices are heard at the highest levels, and that we achieve our global strategy, Ambition for Children 2030, and reach every last child.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Equal Opportunities

DEI is core to our vision, values and global strategy. Save the Children is committed to creating a truly diverse, equitable and inclusive organisation, and one which will support us in our vision to ensure every child attains the right to survival, protection, development, and participation.

We are committed to equal employment opportunities, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, colour, ethnic origin, nationality, disability, marital or civil partnership status, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, caring or parental responsibilities, age, or beliefs and religion. We are committed to diversifying our staff to better represent the communities we serve and actively welcome underrepresented groups to apply.

Reasonable adjustments will be made should any candidate invited to interview require this.

Application Information

Please attach a copy of your CV and cover letter with your application. A full copy of the role profile can be found here via the job listing. It is recommended that you save a copy of the role profile as it will no longer be available after the advert closes.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and the job advert may be closed earlier than advertised subject to the volume of suitable applicants. Please submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.

Due to the high volume of applications we receive, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Candidates who are successfully shortlisted should expect to hear from 

Our recruitment process:

1. Application review by our recruiting team based on your CV and cover letter
2. Two-stage competency-based interviews with the hiring team
3. Some recruitment may include an additional assessment or case study stage, or a third stage interview
4. If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment, followed by your contract subject to passing background checks

We need to keep children and adults safe so our selection process includes rigorous background checks and reflects our commitment to the protection of children and adults from abuse. All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our Code of Conduct and all policies and procedures relating to Anti-harassment, Health and Safety, Safeguarding, and DEI and Equal Opportunities.

Save the Children does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process.