Senior Portfolio Officer

About the Role

The Portfolio Office sits at the heart of NPL’s change agenda, providing integrated oversight, governance, prioritisation, assurance and insight across NPL’s internal and external portfolios. It operates as a strategic Centre of Excellence for Programme and Project delivery, enabling the right change to be delivered at the right time, in the right way, with the right support.

We are seeking a Senior Portfolio Officer to play a pivotal leadership role within this model. Operating within a Hub-and-Spoke structure , the role may be based centrally within the Portfolio Office Hub or embedded within a major programme as a Spoke, flexing to where senior governance, assurance and decision support is most needed.

This is a senior delivery-facing role, responsible for ensuring governance cycles operate effectively, assurance activity is robust and proportionate, and senior stakeholders are supported with high-quality evidence to enable confident decision-making. The role also drives continuous improvement across portfolio frameworks, standards and ways of working.

Key responsibilities

Governance & Assurance

• Lead assurance activity including health checks, start-up reviews and stage gates.
• Ensure governance cadence is maintained, with high-quality evidence presented to boards and committees.
• Provide independent oversight and constructive challenge to test delivery readiness, quality and control.
• Capture and embed lessons learned across the portfolio.

Leadership & Communication

• Act as a senior point of contact for delivery teams on the application of PPM frameworks and assurance standards.
• Provide leadership and direction to Portfolio Office colleagues when embedded within programmes.
• Communicate confidently with senior stakeholders on programme, portfolio and delivery status.

Risk, Dependency & Value Management

• Monitor major risks, issues and dependencies identified through assurance and governance activity.
• Ensure RAID information is robust, aligned to standards and escalated appropriately.
• Provide informed commentary on value and benefits delivery, promoting a culture of benefits realisation.

Financial Planning & Portfolio Insight

• Support budget tracking, forecasting and financial inputs when embedded within programmes.
• Provide analysis to inform sequencing, prioritisation and resource planning decisions.

Portfolio Planning & Continuous Improvement

• Provide evidence-based input to portfolio prioritisation and planning discussions.
• Lead improvements to governance frameworks, assurance approaches and portfolio processes.
• Benchmark against external good practice to ensure NPL’s standards remain credible and effective.

About You

Essential

• Significant experience operating in a senior PMO, Portfolio Office or assurance role within complex delivery environments.
• Strong understanding of portfolio, programme and project governance and assurance.
• Proven ability to engage, influence and challenge senior stakeholders with confidence.
• Excellent analytical, communication and judgement skills.

Highly desirable

• Experience operating within a hub-and-spoke or Centre of Excellence model.
• Background in complex, multi-stakeholder organisations or public sector environments.
• Professional qualification or equivalent experience in programme, project or portfolio management (e.g. APM, MSP, P3O).
• Experience of supporting portfolio prioritisation and benefits-led decision-making.

We actively recruit citizens of all backgrounds, but the nature of our work in specific departments means that nationality, residency and security requirements can be more tightly defined than others. You will be asked about this throughout the recruitment process. To work at NPL, you will need to obtain BPSS security clearance.

Please note: Applications will be reviewed, and interviews conducted throughout the duration of this advert therefore we may at any time bring the closing date forward. We encourage all interested applicants to apply as soon as possible.

About Us

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is a world-leading centre of excellence that provides cutting-edge measurement science, engineering and technology to underpin prosperity and quality of life in the UK. Find out more about what it is like working here - The measure of us - Overview