Portfolio Lead

Location: National

Closing Date: 3rd November

Interviews: 15th November

Grade: G7

(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)

Salary: 

London: £58-847 - £66,670

National: £54,358 - £61,585

Working pattern: Full time, Part time, Flexible working.

Contract Type: Perm

Vacancy number: 80563

*We are currently offering hybrid working which includes 2 days per week in your local office. Office locations can be found HERE

The Role

We’re recruiting for a Portfolio Lead here at Justice Digital, to be part of our warm and collaborative Strategy and Operations team.

As the Portfolio Lead you will be responsible for ensuring that the portfolio of work is effectively coordinated and managed. You will work with colleagues across Justice Digital to build a clear and comprehensive portfolio that helps deliver strategy, ensuring that there is strong focus on value and delivery.  You will:

• Coordinate prioritisation of the portfolio required to deliver strategy
• Support teams in undertaking appropriate governance and delivering effectively to Justice Digital standards
• Understand the performance and risk profile of work both in delivery and in pipeline, enabling you to provide high quality visibility and insight to stakeholders  
• Act as a critical friend and advisor to the Leadership Team, supporting them with decision making and providing recommendations

You will also be expected to form an active part of our portfolio community and be willing to offer support across other areas as the need arises.  Your primary reporting line is into the Portfolio team within Strategy & Operations, though as part of being a matrix organisation you’ll also have a ‘dotted’ line into the leadership of your assigned portfolio.

To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital please take a look at our blog and our Digital and Technology strategy 2025

Key Responsibilities:

Coordinate prioritisation and shaping of the portfolio required to deliver strategy:

• Work with the portfolio leadership team to build a balanced portfolio of work that delivers strategy
• Drive effective prioritisation, and application of it to inform delivery decisions
• Work with key stakeholders to ensure initiatives are set up for success, whether through assuring shaping work done or via supporting shaping itself

Support teams in undertaking appropriate governance and delivering effectively to Justice Digital standards:

• Drive the portfolio to apply good practice standards and approaches to underpin high-quality delivery and management of change
• Ensure that concerns and issues are appropriately escalated and dealt with, able to coordinate unblocking 
• Run and participate in governance to help effective and efficient decision making and delivery
• Guide stakeholders through the application of existing methodologies, practices and techniques.  Implement improvements into the current ways of working 

Understand the performance and risk profile of work both in delivery and in pipeline, enabling you to provide high quality visibility and insight to stakeholders:

• Establish visibility and insight on performance, giving a relied upon view of whether strategy and outcomes are on track to management & central portfolio
• Build strong relationships with teams and stakeholders in order to obtain good up to date visibility and information on status and risk
• Drive a portfolio view of risk, delivery roadmaps, dependencies, and support effective management of them
• ‘Connect the dots’; join up a forward-looking picture of delivery performance and risk with other dimensions (e.g. financial, people, architectural, service) for insight and to provide constructive challenge

Act as a critical friend and advisor to the Leadership Team, supporting them with decision making and providing recommendations:

• Be a valued source of advice, information and insight to the leadership team giving them a reliable and independent picture for proactive action
• Manage stakeholder expectations and facilitate discussions about high risk and complexity.  Help maintain focus on what is most important and impactful
• Provide supportive assurance; helping initiatives to proactively recognise and address challenges
• Build effective relationships and working practices across other capabilities, including other central and support functions

If this feels like an exciting opportunity, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!

Person Specification

Essential

• Have demonstrable experience of driving portfolios of change, in both traditional and agile delivery styles
• Engages and manages stakeholders effectively, with the ability to influence and build consensus 
• Experienced in managing and appropriately applying good practice frameworks and approaches that improve performance 
• Experience in managing change in a fast paced environment 
• Experience of leading, managing or building a team

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for BPSS clearance.

We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate on the basis of culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor. 

Our values are Purpose, Humanity Openness and Togetherness. Find out more here about how we celebrate diversity and an inclusive culture in our workplace.

Benefits

• 37 hours per week and flexible working options including working from home, working part-time, job sharing, or working compressed hours.
• We are committed to nurturing our staff and provide lots of training and development opportunities with learning platforms such as: Linux Academy, O’Reilly, Pluralsight, Microsoft Learning, Civil Service Learning, GDS Academy, etc.
• 10% dedicated time to learning and development with a budget of £1000 a year per person
• Generous civil service pension based on defined benefit scheme, with employer contributions of 26-30% depending on salary.
• 25 days leave (plus bank holidays) and 1 privilege day usually taken around the Kings’ birthday. 5 additional days of leave once you have reached 5 years of service.
• Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!
• Wellbeing support including access to the Calm app. 
• Nurturing professional and interpersonal networks including those for Careers & Childcare, Gender Equality, PROUD and SPIRIT
• Bike loans up to £2500 and secure bike parking (subject to availability and location)
• Season ticket loans, childcare vouchers and eye-care vouchers.
• 5 days volunteering paid leave.
• Free membership to BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.
• Some offices may have a subsidised onsite Gym.

How to Apply

Candidates must submit a CV and supporting statement of no more than 750 words which describes how you meet the requirements set out in the Person Specification above.

In Justice Digital, we recruit using a combination of the Digital, Data and Technology Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We will assess your Experience, Technical Skills and the following Behaviours during the assessment process:

• Communicating & Influencing
• Delivery at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service
• Leadership

Your application will be reviewed against the Person Specification above by a diverse panel. 

Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a 1-hour panel interview held via video conference.

Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on your CV and supporting statement will be conducted prior to the sift.

Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for, but demonstrated the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and potentially offer you the position without the need for a further application.

A reserve list may be held for a period of up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.

Terms & Conditions

Please review our Terms & Conditions which set out the way we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact recruitment@digital.justice.gov.uk