Head of Dept (incl. functional direction from the Operations Director)
Contract Type
Full-time, 12 Month Fixed Term
Hours of Work
Hybrid arrangement, based in Cardiff office three or more day per week / 37.5 hours per week
c.£38,000 per year
About Learna
Learna delivers flexible online postgraduate education to healthcare professionals worldwide. Our portfolio includes more than fifty specialist programmes, designed and delivered by experienced clinicians and educators. We are expanding our offering in line with evolving healthcare needs while maintaining a strong focus on quality, learner experience, and operational discipline.
Job Description
Learna runs a growing number of projects across technology and AI, premises, quality, student operations and other areas, with multiple projects live at any one time. Each project is owned and delivered by its project owner, project manager and sponsor. The Project Portfolio Coordinator works across all of them, so that the portfolio is tracked, reported and joined up, and teams have a clear, current view of everything that's happening.
The Operations Director sets the portfolio framework, and either the CEO or the Operations Director chairs the Project Portfolio Board. The Project Portfolio Coordinator owns and runs the coordination process within that framework to keep stakeholders and the Exec updated.
This is a new role, starting in November 2026 or as close to it as possible.
What this role does not do
The Project Portfolio Coordinator does not ordinarily own, manage or deliver projects; these sit with their project owners, managers and sponsors. However, sometimes the Project Portfolio Coordinator may also manage individual projects, as required by the Operations Director. Decisions on which projects go ahead and how they are prioritised are made by the executive team.
Key working relationships
Operations Director; CEO and executive team; Heads of department; project owners, project managers and sponsors across technology, operations, quality and medical teams.
Key Responsibilities
Portfolio tracking and coordination
- Maintain a single, up-to-date view of all projects in the portfolio, including status, timelines, key milestones and significant risks.
- Track progress across all projects, and follow up with project owners and managers on updates and agreed actions.
- Identify dependencies between projects and flag them early to the project owners concerned and to the Operations Director.
- Prepare the agenda and papers for the regular Project Portfolio Board, based on project status with direction from the Operations Director.
- Run the readiness process before each board, so that project updates arrive on time and in a consistent format.
- Record decisions and actions from the board, and follow them up afterwards.
Project initiation
- Check project initiation documents for completeness and consistency before they go to the board, covering scope, stakeholders, risks and mitigations, budget and timelines.
- Work with project owners to fill any gaps, and make sure new projects are launched and set up correctly in Jira and a portfolio tracker.
Standards and support
- Maintain the portfolio templates, trackers and reporting formats, and make sure they are used consistently.
- Provide practical guidance to colleagues who run projects alongside their day jobs on using the templates and reporting processes.
Key Requirements
- You will have solid experience of coordinating multiple projects or working in a Project Management Office (PMO), and a track record of owning work end to end.
- Experience of preparing progress reporting or papers for senior leaders or a board.
- Experience of maintaining RAID logs (risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies) or similar project controls and supporting mitigations for risks.
- Confidence in following up with senior colleagues, politely and persistently, to get updates and actions completed.
- Comfortable working across technical and non-technical teams, and not thrown by technical language, without needing to be technical yourself.
- Confident user of Jira or a similar project management tool.
- Highly organised, with strong attention to detail and clear written communication.
- Experience of being involved in projects as a team member, contributor or stakeholder.
How We Work at Learna
- Collaboration – we work together and build inclusive teams.
- Respect – we trust and empower people to make decisions and succeed.
- Empowerment – we take ownership, learn, and support one another.
- Dedication – we are committed and strive for excellence.
- Outcomes - we focus on impact, delivering quality, innovation, and meaningful results.
- Electric car scheme
- Bike to Work scheme
- Occupational Health support
- 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
- Flexible and hybrid working arrangements
- 33 days' holiday (inclusive of bank holidays)
- Auto-enrolment pension with employer contributions
- Free hot and cold beverages in the office
- Secure, free office parking
- Continuous learning and development opportunities
- Regular social, well-being, and fundraising events
Equal Opportunities and Safeguarding
We welcome applications from all backgrounds and communities. We are committed to building an inclusive workplace and running fair, consistent processes. Offers are subject to right-to-work and background checks appropriate to the role. Personal data is handled in line with GDPR.
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