Specialist Advisor, Portfolio Performance & Insight in Cardiff

Vacancy Portfolio Performance & Insight Specialist Advisor Role ID 204384 Directorate National Operations Team Portfolio Office Location Flexible Grade/Salary range 06: £42,662 - £46,662 Working pattern Full time - 37 hours per week Working hours 37.00 Contract type Permanent Welsh Language level A2 – Elementary Closing date 25/10/2026

The role

Are you passionate about turning complex data into clear insight that drives real organisational impact? As our Portfolio Performance & Insight Specialist Advisor, you'll play a pivotal role in helping Natural Resources Wales understand, monitor and improve delivery of its Corporate Plan and strategic priorities. Using your analytical expertise, you'll transform information from across the organisation into meaningful performance insights that support decision-making at the highest levels.

Working within the Portfolio Office, you'll develop and enhance performance reporting, dashboards and management information, helping leaders track progress, identify emerging risks and opportunities, and make evidence-based decisions. You'll collaborate with colleagues from across NRW, influencing delivery through insight, innovation and continuous improvement, while ensuring senior leaders have the information they need to achieve positive outcomes for Wales's people, places and environment.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced analyst, performance professional or portfolio specialist who enjoys solving complex challenges, working across organisational boundaries and making a visible contribution to strategic decision-making. In return, you'll have the opportunity to shape how organisational performance is measured, reported and understood across NRW.

As an organisation we support flexible working. You will be contracted to the nearest NRW office to your home and a suitable hybrid working pattern will be agreed on appointment. Any regular face to face meetings or training will be planned in advance.

Interviews willtake place on w/c 09/11/2026 through Microsoft Teams.

About us

At Natural Resources Wales (NRW), we play a vital role in protecting, managing and enhancing Wales's natural resources so they can continue to benefit people, nature and the economy for generations to come. From tackling the climate and nature emergencies to managing flood risk, improving environmental quality and supporting sustainable land and water management, our work has a lasting impact on communities across Wales.

The Portfolio Office sits at the heart of NRW's strategic delivery, providing the oversight, intelligence and assurance needed to help the organisation achieve its Corporate Plan priorities. We work across every part of NRW, bringing together information, insight and expertise to support effective decision-making and drive continuous improvement.

Joining our team means becoming part of a collaborative and supportive environment where your ideas, expertise and insight will be valued. You'll work with colleagues from across the organisation, influence strategic outcomes and contribute to work that makes a real difference to Wales's environment and future wellbeing. Whether you're helping improve the way we measure performance or providing the insight that informs key decisions, you'll be part of a team that enables NRW to deliver its ambitions with confidence.

What you will do

• Support the development, implementation and continuous improvement of portfolio performance monitoring arrangements that enable NRW to track delivery of corporate priorities, Well-being Objectives, outcomes and benefits across the Corporate Plan and associated portfolios.
• Analyse, interpret and integrate complex information from business plans, service plans, programmes, projects, risk reports, financial information and other organisational data sources to identify trends, dependencies, risks, opportunities and emerging issues.
• Develop, maintain and continuously improve portfolio reporting products, dashboards, management information and visualisations that present complex information in a clear, accessible and meaningful format for senior leaders and governance groups.
• Collate, validate and quality assure performance and delivery information from across NRW, ensuring reporting is accurate, consistent and provided within agreed governance timescales.
• Lead the production and coordination of portfolio performance reports for Executive Team, Portfolio Group, Board and other governance forums, providing analysis, insight and evidence-based recommendations to support decision making.
• Provide specialist advice and guidance to managers and colleagues on portfolio reporting, organisational performance management, benefits realisation, performance measures, data quality and business intelligence approaches.
• Undertake research and analysis into organisational performance issues and emerging best practice, producing evidence-based recommendations to inform organisational policy, performance frameworks and strategic decision making.
• Lead and deliver medium-sized projects and workstreams relating to portfolio reporting, performance management, governance and business intelligence, ensuring delivery to agreed scope, quality and timescales.
• Coordinate and influence contributions from colleagues across the organisation through a matrix management approach, fostering effective collaboration and supporting the successful delivery of corporate priorities and improvement initiatives.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of portfolio management, reporting processes, governance arrangements, business intelligence capabilities and organisational performance frameworks to enhance organisational effectiveness and delivery.
• Undertake health and safety duties and responsibilities appropriate to the post
• Be committed to Natural Resources Wales Equal Opportunities and Diversity Policy , together with an understanding of how it operates within the responsibilities of the post
• Be committed to your own developmentthrough the effective use of your personal development plan (known as Sgwrs).
• Required to take part in incident response activities.
• Any other reasonable duties requested commensurate with the grade of this role.

Your qualifications, experience, knowledge and skills

In your application and interview you will be asked to demonstrate the following skills and experience using the STAR method.

• Significant experience in performance management, portfolio management, programme governance or organisational reporting within a large and complex organisation.
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to interpret, integrate and present complex qualitative and quantitative information to support decision-making.
• Experience of developing and maintaining performance reports, dashboards and management information using tools such as Power BI, Excel or equivalent.
• Experience of identifying performance trends, risks, issues and opportunities, and translating findings into clear insight and recommendations.
• Excellent communication and report-writing skills, with the ability to present complex information clearly to a range of audiences, including senior managers and governance groups.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and facilitation skills, with experience of working collaboratively across organisational boundaries to deliver shared outcomes.
• Good knowledge of organisational planning, performance, risk and assurance processes, and how these contribute to delivery of corporate objectives and outcomes.

Welsh Language level requirements

• Essential: Level A2 - Elementary level

Welsh language levels

Please note, if you do not meet the Welsh language level requirements for this role your application will not be considered.

Additional Information

Due to the nature of the work the successful candidate must be eligible for Security Check (SC) clearance. This generally requires five years’ continuous residency in the UK. Further details on eligibility can be found on National security vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK . Offers will also be subject to a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service Check (DBS) check.

Natural Resources Wales is unable to offer visa sponsorship for this position. Although we hold a Skilled Worker visa sponsorship licence, it applies only to specific roles that meet both the eligibility criteria and salary requirements set out by the UK Government under the Skilled Worker visa route.

Benefits

This role will offer a range of benefits, including:

• Civil Service Pension Scheme offering employer contributions of 28.97% (successful internal staff will remain in their current pension scheme)
• 28 days annual leave, rising to 33 days
• generous leave entitlements for all your life needs
• commitment to professional development
• health and wellbeing benefits and support
• weekly wellbeing hour to use as you choose

See full details for all the employee benefits you will receive.

Please keep reading

We’re passionate about creating a diverse workforce and positively encourage applications from under-represented communities. We embrace equality of opportunity irrespective of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

We are committed to equal opportunities, and we guarantee interviews for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

We want to attract and retain talented and highly skilled staff, so we make sure that our pay scales remain competitive. We advertise the full pay scale on our job descriptions. Appointed candidates start at the first point of the pay scale and annual increments are paid each year.

We want our staff to grow professionally and personally. From leadership development to access to further and higher education courses, our staff have opportunities to expand their knowledge on variety of topics, stay current in their field and continue to learn as their career progresses.

We are a Bilingual organisation which complies with the Welsh Language Standards. Welsh language skills are considered an asset to NRW, and we encourage and support staff to learn, develop and use their Welsh language skills.

You are welcome to apply for any vacancy in Welsh or English, and any application submitted will be treated equally. Applications are welcome from individuals who want to work full-time, part-time, or job share.

Please note that we reserve the right to close this vacancy before the advertised closing date if we receive a high volume of applications. We encourage candidates to submit their application as early as possible and not wait until the closing date to apply.

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