Head of the Portfolio Management Office

UNICEF ensures more of the world’s children are vaccinated, educated and protected than any other organisation. We have done more to influence laws and policies to help protect children than anyone else. We get things done. And we’re not going to stop until the world is a safe place for all our children.

This is a great opportunity to join the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) as Head of the Portfolio Management Office (PMO). In this pivotal leadership role, you will provide strategic direction, governance and oversight of UNICEF UK’s portfolio, ensuring our most important initiatives are prioritised, sequenced and delivered effectively.

Sitting within the Strategy Directorate, the PMO acts as the organisation’s centre of excellence for portfolio management, strategic delivery, governance, assurance and financial oversight, working closely with Directors and senior leaders to enable informed decision making and successful delivery of our strategy.

We are looking for an experienced portfolio or PMO leader with a strong track record of operating at senior level in complex organisations, bringing confidence in governance, prioritisation, delivery oversight and change leadership. You will be an excellent relationship builder, comfortable influencing executive stakeholders, and able to balance strategic thinking with pragmatic delivery discipline. Experience of leading teams, embedding standards, and improving confidence, visibility and accountability across a portfolio is essential.

Please bear in mind that when you write your response to our application questions, you demonstrate your knowledge, skills, and understanding of the role requirements and how well UNICEF UK’s values and mission aligns with yours. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT to generate your answers, will automatically exclude your application from our recruitment process.

In return, we offer:

• excellent pay and benefits (including flexible working, generous annual leave and pension, big brand discounts and wellbeing tools)
• outstanding training and learning opportunities and the support to excel in your role
• impressive open plan office space and facilities on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
• an open culture and workplace with colleagues who share our values, enjoy their work and are motivated to do their utmost for children
• the opportunity to work in a leading children’s organisation making a difference to children around the world

Our application process: We use a system called "Applied" that anonymises your responses and focuses on your actual skills that are relevant to this role. This benefits you by giving you a greater chance of expressing your skills in this objective selection process.

We anticipate most colleagues will do two days a week in the office on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, East London and the rest of the time from home. We will happily discuss other flexible options to suit your circumstances.

UNICEF UK promotes equality, diversity and inclusion in our workplace. We make employment decisions by matching business needs with skills and experience of candidates, irrespective of disability (including hidden disabilities), gender, gender identity or gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation. We welcome a conversation about your flexible working requirements, personal growth, and promoting a workplace where you can be yourself and achieve success based only on your merit.

The successful candidate will be required to apply for a criminal records check. A criminal record will not necessarily bar you from working with us. This will depend on the nature of the role and the circumstances of your offences.

We only accept online applications as this saves us money, making more funds available for us to help ensure children’s rights. If you require support in completing the online form or an application form in an alternative format, please contact Supporter Care on 0300 330 5580 during office hours. If you do not hear from us within 14 days of the closing date, please assume your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion. Please note that we only provide feedback to shortlisted candidates.