Dt0013 Head of Portfolio

_Our corporate HR consulting team is not a recruitment agency, we work on a per/hour payment basis for the delivery of exceptional HR projects._

**Our client**

South African based software company focusing on electronic transaction processing, back-office administration, and retail banking solutions. They're constantly exploring new ways to expand and innovate their offering to clients, to remain market leaders in the banking and financial industry. The company is based in Gauteng.

This is a hybrid role in a software agile environment which you will be working from the office every day for the first 2-3 months. Developers will be working on and rewriting legacy systems - this will be a 50 / 50 split.

**The Role**

**What they looking for**

A Portfolio & Programme Manager that has worked and gained extensive experience in agile organisations and has successfully led, managed and delivered programmes and projects for various large corporates. We see the portfolio with programmes and projects as a collection of trains running on different tracks, yet headed to the same station, or goal with you as the Head the station conductor, directing the various project trains. We would like you to:

- Be able to build relationships at client C-Suite level as well as to be able to manage their and senior management’s expectations throughout execution.
- Demonstrate business acumen, understanding of strategy and be able to link these to the expected benefits of the programmes and projects managed.
- Align program management practices and processes with agile values such as collaboration, team autonomy and empowerment, delivering value to customers, and adapting to change in the moment.
- Bring agile and DevOps to life for teams across the programs or individual projects by tailoring programs to the specific requirements and opportunities of the business.
- Be an influential in the portfolio, programme and project management technology choices, as well as the product technology choices being made and to be made.
- Be a portfolio and programme manager that is a team builder, that starts with hiring, you are needed to drive the hiring process allowing your team to focus on project delivery.
- Act as a partner and mentor as you are adept at the fundamentals of management: one-on-one meetings, giving feedback, and coaching.
- Mentor your various change teams to bring greatness to the table: ideas, processes, risk management, communication, client services and culture. At times, the team will struggle with decisions ranging from mobilisation, planning, execution and closure activities. Adept managers know when to intervene, or let the team continue to struggle in order to learn.
- Act as a buffer between teams and C-level management.

To balance delivering artifacts, engaging with strategic decisions, managing stakeholders, and mitigating risks across the portfolio and programmes. With the ability to solve — or connect to people who can solve — and plan to mitigate any problem that impacts the strategic initiative that has to be achieved.

**The following is an expected view of accountabilities**:
**Evaluate the state of the portfolio**:

- Review and evaluate the portfolio by connecting with teams to identify any risk mitigation or improvement opportunities;
- To stay connected and engaged enough with project teams to work in lockstep towards shared goals and ensure the project managers are supported and unblocked;
- Research the external environment, and where appropriate identify and recommend external partners for the delivery of best of breed portfolio, programme and project management technologies suitable for product or service software development.

**Manage risks**
- Risk management is a key element of portfolio management. Risks include a project timeline slipping, changing requirements, or the discovery of additional stakeholders;
- Be aware of anything that could impact the progress or outcome of the programme and related projects;
- Take corrective actions to reduce or manage risks in the portfolio.

**Run the program**
- Managing budgets and resources in cooperation with project managers and other Heads of departments and other Executives;
- Supervise resource allocation and availability to assure maximum use of available resources taking into consideration customer demand versus resource availability i.e. resource and capacity management;
- Defining the operating parameters and controls;
- Maintaining the core elements of the program that set the foundation for team charters and other establishing documents.

**Engage with stakeholders**:

- Connect regularly with stakeholders to get a sense of the wider context that surrounds goals;
- Partner with stakeholders, to help guide project teams.

**Refine the operating model**
- Shape the operating model to enable how teams progress toward their goals. This can include establishing communication channels and reporting methods, identifying goals, establishing