Director of Portfolio, Workforce Skills Transformation

Job Description

About PearsonAt Pearson, were committed to a world thats always learning and to our talented team who makes it all possible. From bringing lectures vividly to life to turning textbooks into laptop lessons, we are always re-examining the way people learn best, whetherits one child in our own backyard or an education community across the globe. We are bold thinkers and standout innovators who motivate each other to explore new frontiers in an environment that supports and inspires us to always be better. By pushing theboundaries of technologyand each other to surpass these boundarieswe create seeds of learning that become the catalyst for the worlds innovations, personal and global, large and small.Our PurposeOur objective is that in five years, Pearson will be one of the major players in the workforce development market, reaching tens of millions of enterprise and individual learners globally, generating more than £1bn in revenue and growing rapidly, with thepotential to reach many multiples of that revenue in the years to come. The Workforce Skills business division will be the driving force in realizing this ambition.About the RoleWe are looking for an experienced Director of Portfolio Management for our Workforce Skills business division. This critical delivery role provides a compelling opportunity to be part of a team focused on the portfolio that will drive growth strategies,transformation, and WFS offerings. Our vision, strategy, innovation and outcomes will fundamentally improve the value and currency of skills and learning for individual learners and employees, and partnerships and institutions, all contributing towards a widerecosystem with employers and consumers.ResponsibilitiesThe Director of Portfolio Management reports to the VP Transformation, Portfolio and planning, and is accountable for the portfolio, governing processes, operational reporting, and management of portfolio enablers including finance, resourcing and procurement.This is a completely new role, giving the candidate to design and mobile a new way of working that combines large corporate ways of working with a start-up mentality.Portfolio Definition

• Portfolio definition - Establish a Divisional portfolio that provides transparency into our pipeline of work, and enables prioritisation and decisions to be made on investment, resourcing and strategy alignment
• Targets and Measures - Facilitate the set up and maintenance of divisional level KPIs and OKRs, in line with our strategy and annual goalssetting standards and best practices for definition, and supporting leaders in the definition and target setting
• Governance set up a governance and reporting around the divisional level portfolio, OKR and KPI status, including financial, resource approval, to operate with agility and devolved decision making where possible
• Processset best practice around all Portfolio Management components, cascading the changes to the Division and facilitating all change management
• Continuous improvementdefine a maturity roadmap for portfolio management processes, working towards automated and optimised ways of working, with the right tools, people, processes and data.

Implementation and operations

• Strategic alignmentcontinually assess alignment of the portfolio to the strategy, by working closely with strategy leads
• Data insightsEffectively use metrics and data visualization to report progress and support data-driven decision-making at the team or organization level
• Reportingown all the preparation and executive summaries for each reporting cycle required across the portfolio
• Business planning - partner with finance to create operating plans as required by the CFO and lead quarterly planning sessions as required with LT.
• Controlimplement any required policy and controls to ensure transparency on the portfolio enablers, such as supplier statements of work, purchase orders
• Process Transformationimplement new ways of working that transforms waterfall processes to be aligned to agile and start up mentality, bringing speed and agility
• Risk Managementlead on audit and risk management assessment of the Division, working with the corporate teams in Pearson
• Project management - develop and implement project management methodologies and best practices to build on your teams skills and capabilities; act as a community lead for the project management discipline
• Knowledge Managementsupport all resources in the Division with the skills and knowledge needed to manage their project and components of the portfolio (e.g. Oracle setup and reporting)
• Continuous improvementachieve continuous improvement targets across portfolio processes including procurement, resource management; measured by quarter and reported against a baseline

Required Knowledge and ExperienceRelated work experience

• Proven experience of setting up and operating a large portfolio officebest practice
• Extensive knowledge of processes and systems needed to deliver portfolio capabilities and services
• Demonstratable knowledge of agile and working in a start up environment, and transforming processes to agile ways of working (e.g. changing investment approvals from a business case approach to a start up approach
• Experience of analysis and application of external research impacting portfolios and business performance metrics
• Proven ability in managing third-party suppliers in an operational environment, and their impact on the value chain
• Experience of continuous improvement driving efficiencies through teams in their performance and operating model components such as tooling and ways of working
• Strong skills in process mapping to outline AS-IS/ TO-BE states
• Experience in risk management and dependencies.
• Proven track record of project delivery
• Good business acumen and understanding of organizational issues and challenges.
• Ability to work with ambiguity
• Have a practical and pragmatic approach to get things done, and drive value
• Exceptional communication skills to work with virtual teams and leader

Formal education or equivalent

Bachelors degree or equivalent

Strong academic grounding coupled with sound technical capabilities. <l