Portfolio Manager in Abingdon

The salary for this role is £77,239 (inclusive of a Specialist Allowance- £7,647). Onsite working is expected for 3 days a week; however, we actively support requests for flexible working. This role can be based at Culham, Oxfordshire. There will be travel involved across the UK.

This role requires employees to complete an online Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), including The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions and possibly a search of open source data.

Central to achieving UKAEA’s overarching mission is building the skills and capabilities needed to work in Fusion through our National Fusion Skills Programme. We are looking for a Portfolio Manager to take forward work through our £42m FOSTER (Fusion Opportunities in Skills, Training, Education, and Research) Programme. The Portfolio Manager is a visible leadership role responsible for the delivery and management of FOSTER, which comprises a portfolio of projects across four workstreams. The role also involves extensive stakeholder engagement, both internally and with delivery partners, and supporting the Head of Fusion Skills in engaging with academic institutions, government, regional authorities, non-governmental organisations, and training and apprenticeship providers. Regular travel within the UK (approx. once a month) will be required as part of this role.

The Portfolio Manager will coordinate and motivate a matrixed programme delivery team, ensure consistent application of programme design and management processes, and maintain regular reporting to the Executive Committee, the Corporate Portfolio Board, and DESNZ. The role includes leading programme-level delivery, governance, assurance, planning, risk management, budgetary management, and benefits realisation, as well as prioritising and allocating resources to ensure programme and business objectives are achieved. This portfolio includes large, complex, and high-uncertainty initiatives that are often technically challenging, politically sensitive, and require tailored approaches and methodologies to deliver successful outcomes.

If this role sounds like the right fit for you and you have excellent programme management, people management, negotiation, and communication skills, we’d love to hear from you.

Below you can find a brief overview of the accountabilities and full details can be found in the job description.

• Governance, Reporting & Assurance: Establish and maintain governance frameworks, coordinate programme reporting and analysis, provide secretariat support for senior boards, and support business case development with best practice guidance.
• PfMO Business Partner & Resource Planning: Act as the key interface with the Portfolio Management Office, ensure compliance with policies and standards, manage programme resourcing, scheduling, and allocation of finance and staff to optimise delivery.
• Leadership & People Management: Inspire and communicate vision, manage and develop staff effectively, oversee performance, workforce planning, learning and development, and support organisational decision-making within areas of expertise.

Qualifications

Essential Requirements:

• A degree and substantial experience of managing large complex portfolios (>£10M) in a technical environment.
• Experienced in developing successful teams and individuals and collaborating effectively with scientific and engineering teams.
• Qualified in any of the following: APM Chartered Project Professional, Project Leadership Programme (PLP) or MSP Practitioner.
• Strong commercial awareness with the ability to make sound economic decisions that maximise a portfolio's value.
• Demonstratable high standard of leadership, able to inspire with vision and take everyone forwards.
• Passionate about developing people and the P3M profession.

Desirable Qualifications:

• A relevant degree, or experience in industries aligned to the development of skills/building capability at a national level.
• Project Management qualifications: APM, PMQ, PRINCE2 or equivalent.

Experience:

• Previous experience at a portfolio management level, with evidence of previous portfolio and programme management outcomes.
• Previous experience in managing stakeholders of all levels.
• Previous public sector experience interfacing with governmental departments and proficient in writing and preparing Green Book compliant Business Cases also desirable.

UKAEA's mission is clean energy for all, and we welcome talented people from all backgrounds who want to help us achieve our mission. We are under-represented from some groups and so want to encourage applications in particular from women in STEM, people from Black British Caribbean and African backgrounds and from Pakistani and Bangladeshi British backgrounds. Our Executive team, supported by our 'Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion' (EDI) and Wellbeing and our EDI Networks actively promote Inclusion and takes steps to increase diversity within our organization. We reinforce best practices in recruitment and selection and evaluate approaches to remove barriers to success. UK Atomic Energy Authority is committed to being accessible. Please email if you have any questions or require help or adjustments to compete on a fair basis, for example, changes to the way we interview or share information.

Please note that vacancies are generally advertised for 4 weeks but may close earlier if we receive a large number of applications.