Pipeline & Front Door Manager - Permanent

Background
The client believes in making Britain more connected, so we can all lead smarter, greener lives. We're a relatively young company, with a very mature assignment. Our universal, secure network will be in 30 million homes and businesses. That'll make it the largest network in Britain. The scope of what we do and what's in our roadmap is much further reaching than what the business was originally established to deliver.
The client is at a pivotal point of transformation, looking to enhance its operational efficiency and strategic execution. Our EPMO (Enterprise Portfolio Management Office) is at the heart of this change, driving the development and implementation of best practices across the organisation. We seek a dynamic and versatile Pipeline and Front Door Manager to help us through this exciting journey of growth and innovation.

The Role
Change will play a critical role in enabling the organisation to achieve its strategic ambitions. With an ever-increasing pace and evolving customer needs, the business needs to ensure that its product and change portfolio is delivered effectively and efficiently. As a result a new Enterprise Portfolio Management capability is being established to plan, monitor, assure and report on delivery of all initiatives across the business.
The Enterprise Portfolio Management Office will be responsible for improving the strategic alignment and value for money of the change portfolio. It will ensure that: all change activity aligns to strategic objectives; there is transparency and clarity around change portfolio prioritisation, delivery and outcomes; there is increased focus on the outcome and value of change; delivery standardisation (in the form of best practice procedures, tools, techniques & methodologies) is driven into the organisation where it makes sense for there to be greater consistency and scalability; a capable change delivery community is created to enable greater sharing of best practices. It will also help drive the transition of the organisation to a greater product mindset and outcome-based organisation.
The EPMO additionally provides the objective 'single source of truth' view of delivery performance for the portfolio and leads the management / resolution of cross-programme risks, issues and points of contention to maximise effectiveness of change implementation. It also acts as the central custodian for information and knowledge management.

The Pipeline & Front Door Manager will operate a robust pipeline process for evaluating, selecting and prioritising projects / programmes for entry through the Front Door on to the Enterprise Portfolio.
Reporting to the Head of Enterprise Planning, this role will be based in London or Manchester with travel to the other office being a pre-requisite. The role will require a minimum of 8 days a month in the office.

Key Accountabilities
* Manage / operate the Pipeline and Front Door process, working closely with Portfolio Business Partners to identify new portfolio initiatives for consideration.
* Ensure that documents / business cases for each initiative wanting to go through the Front Door are prepared to the right standard to enable leadership to make an informed decision on inclusion and prioritisation.
* Work with a range of stakeholders within the EPMO and the wider business to ensure that all initiatives meet established criteria before entering the portfolio.
* Drive the ongoing maintenance of the Front Door process to ensure it remains efficient, relevant, aligned to EPMO objectives, and responds to any changing business needs.
* Drive and facilitate cross-Functional engagement across pipeline planning activities.
* Support the production and maintenance of the Enterprise Plan, working closely with the Enterprise Planning Manager to ensure alignment.
* Support the production and maintenance of the Resource Plan, working closely with the Portfolio Resource Planning Manager to ensure alignment.

Skills and Experience
* Portfolio Entry / Assessment Experience - Demonstrable experience in operating portfolio entry processes or similar work reception processes in a fast paced, complex environment.
* Portfolio Management Expertise - Strong understanding of portfolio management methodologies, tools and best practices.
* Business Case Expertise - Experience of business case analysis and strategic evaluation.
* Analytical Mindset - Attention to detail with strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
* Flexibility - Adaptable and able to manage multiple priorities in a dynamic environment.
* Product Mindset - Experience operating in a product-driven and outcome-based organisation.
* Collaboration - Excellent relationship development and management skills with the confidence to effectively challenge others where appropriate, including ExCo and SLT level.
* Stakeholder Management - Ability to manage a complex set of stakeholder interactions, both internal and external, and resolve conflicting priorities if required.
* Change Management - Ability to influence, shape and drive improvement initiatives and lead / deliver successful change in large, fast-paced and complex programme environments with multiple internal and external stakeholder groups.
* Effective Communication - Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with an ability to rapidly interpret complex technical information and provide clear, concise insight and reporting that drives effective leadership decision making.
* Resilience - Strong initiative and drive, self-motivated with an aptitude to work well under pressure and with low supervision.

Qualifications
* Batchelor's Degree in a relevant field OR equivalent professional experience in a related field.
* Industry recognised Portfolio management certification preferred (e.g. MoP - Management of Portfolios).

Unfortunately due to the high volume of applicants we won't be able to respond to everyone.