Enterprise Portfolio Management Lead in Bristol

National Highways has an exciting opportunity for an Enterprise Portfolio Management (EPM) Lead to play a key role in aligning Digital Services investment, demand and delivery with organisational strategy and priorities. The role sits at the centre of strategy, performance and delivery, providing an enterprise-wide view of the portfolio and enabling informed, joined-up decision-making.

You will lead portfolio, demand and resource management across business-as-usual activities, programmes and projects, building and prioritising the IT backlog in line with strategic objectives and capacity. Working closely with senior leaders and delivery teams, you will ensure work is properly governed, resourced and financed, intervening where required to protect benefits and outcomes.

One of the key deliverables of this role will be to own, develop and lead the quarterly planning process, ensuring clear prioritisation, transparency of trade-offs, and alignment between strategic intent, funding and delivery capacity. The role also champions continuous improvement, embedding best practice, introducing appropriate tools and ways of working, and driving a forward-looking, efficient and transparent portfolio management function.

Our technology estate is broad, diverse and continuously evolving. You will work across everything from internal business platforms to the systems that manage physical assets and keep England's road network operating safely and reliably. This is an opportunity to develop solutions that have a real-world impact for millions of people.

Please note this position can be based from any of our UK offices however travel to other offices to attend team meetings will be required.

• Lead Enterprise Portfolio Management (EPM) across business-as-usual activities, programmes and projects, providing oversight of demand, capacity and resources to ensure delivery is aligned to organisational and Digital Services Strategy.
• Establish a forward-looking portfolio function, anticipating demand and optimising the use of resources to support strategic priorities, including ownership and leadership of the quarterly planning and prioritisation process, and maintaining a balanced, sustainable delivery pipeline.
• Ensure effective governance of programmes and projects, including alignment to the Digital Services Strategy, financial and resource assurance, benefits realisation, and intervention where delivery risks or business case benefits cannot be met, supporting the targeted 80/20 planned versus reactive demand model.
• Work closely with operational delivery leaders and senior stakeholders across the directorate to align cross-functional activities, identify opportunities for enterprise-wide technology change, and provide leadership for the delivery of those change initiatives.
• Drive continuous improvement in portfolio, service and capacity management, keeping abreast of industry best practice, setting policy and standards, embedding efficient ways of working, and providing direction on the use of appropriate tools, methodologies and justified new investments.
• Provide strong people and financial leadership, managing and developing the EPM team to deliver portfolio operations and business process improvement, while owning team budgets, forecasts and cost management to ensure effective and transparent use of resources.

About you:

• Significant experience operating in complex IT programme and portfolio environments, leading high-risk and high-value initiatives, prioritising demand and resources based on strategic intent and return on investment, and ensuring effective governance across the full delivery lifecycle including designing and leading structured quarterly planning cycles that bring clarity, alignment and accountability.
• Proven ability to lead and facilitate discussions with senior stakeholders, including Heads of Service, Digital Services leadership teams and executive audiences, confidently accepting challenge, providing constructive challenge in return, and bringing clarity to complex or constrained situations.
• Demonstrates strong knowledge of current technologies used to build and operate digital services, with the ability to understand technical plans, service design and delivery activities sufficiently to enable informed, evidence-based decision-making at pace.
• Degree-qualified (preferably in Technology, Engineering or a mathematical discipline), or holds a recognised project or programme management accreditation, or equivalent professional experience gained through leading complex digital and technology portfolios.
• A confident and credible leader who leads from the front, successfully implementing change across teams and functions, applying lean, continuous improvement and lifecycle-based approaches, and creating an environment where teams are supported to perform, improve and deliver sustainable outcomes.

About us:

Here at National Highways, we manage and improve England's motorways and major A roads, helping our customers have safer, smoother and more reliable journeys. Our priorities are safety, customers and delivery, and at the core of this, are our values of passion, integrity, safety, teamwork and ownership.

The Digital Services Directorate is helping to reshape the way National Highways operates by delivering digital, data, and technology services across all areas, from frontline to back office, in a modern and efficient manner. Our vision is to develop integrated information and technology that empowers our colleagues and provides real-time information to our customers, as well as integrating with intelligent vehicle and transport systems as they evolve, to enhance journey safety and reliability.

Current employees will be appointed in accordance with our established pay policy. We are committed to creating a diverse environment and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.