Commercial Portfolio Director

This is a hybrid working role with a requirement for frequent travel across the network and to attend our Head Office in Farringdon, London. At Royal Mail we've served our communities for over 500 years, helping to lead and transform the postal delivery market on a global scale. We're currently innovating and transforming our business for the future, and to get there, we need exceptionally talented, resilient, and driven people. The Commercial Portfolio Director role is pivotal in our ongoing transformation. We are seeking an energetic, forward-thinking, problem-solving leader to drive our transformation. The successful incumbent will manage a portfolio on behalf of an Executive Board (EB) sponsor, coordinating initiatives from strategic prioritisation to the successful delivery of outcomes and benefits in line with our 5-year strategic plan. We are looking for someone who can deliver on promises, who can collaborate with our executive team, to creatively solve problems and achieve results. The ideal candidate will be passionate, driven, and focused on ensuring consistent and effective delivery of customer quality throughout the transformation programme. If you feel this role would be for you, and you have the energy, skills and leadership to help accelerate our transformation efforts in operations, commercial and ways of working across our 140,000 strong workforce nationwide, then would love to hear from you. Reporting into the Chief Commercial Officer - This is a hybrid working role with a requirement for frequent travel across the network and to attend our Head Office in Farringdon, London. About the role Strategic Oversight and Assurance:

• Report directly to the EB sponsor and maintain a strong dotted line to the Chief Information Officer (CIO)
• Provide overall assurance and visibility of the programmes and projects within the Transformation portfolio to ensure successful delivery
• Manage a portfolio consisting of multiple complex, multi-threaded, multi-site, high-value projects, all contributing to the 5 -year strategy
Governance and Decision Support:
• Ensure governance policies and processes are in place to provide a timely and accurate view of portfolio health, supporting data-driven decision-making
• Challenge and provide interventions to programme leads as needed to ensure milestones, deliverables, and benefits align with the 3-year strategic plan
Risk Management and Escalation:
• Lead efforts to ensure alignment on portfolio-wide dependencies, risks, and issues through robust prioritisation, ongoing monitoring, and escalation to the EB sponsor and EB when necessary
• Track deviations from the plan, promptly identify, and agree on mitigation strategies
• Escalate key decision points to the EB sponsor and EB to align on required actions, celebrating and recognising successes and achievements
Stakeholder Engagement and Communication:
• Manage and engage senior stakeholders, ensuring visibility and confidence in the progress and vision of the Transformation portfolio through weekly status updates
• Develop strong senior executive relationships with the EB sponsor, CIO, and other EB members to achieve portfolio objectives
Team Leadership and Development:
• Operate within a matrix environment to shape the programme and project management teams within the portfolio, ensuring alignment with the strategic plan
• Lead, coach, and mentor team members to aid their development and increase capability and effectiveness
• Ensure portfolio resource requirements and capabilities are prioritised and sufficient to meet project deliverables
  
  To truly excel in this role, you'll possess, and be able to evidence, the skills and experience listed below:
Portfolio Management Expertise: Highly experienced in portfolio delivery, assurance, governance, and methodology, ideally within the postal industry or a similar sector Leadership in Matrix Environments: Proven track record of leading teams in a matrix environment to achieve engagement outcomes while maintaining a culture of operational excellence Results-Oriented: Demonstrated ability to drive benefits delivery at a portfolio level while meeting cost targets, with experience in reporting to an executive board Influencing and Communication Skills: Strong ability to influence senior-level stakeholders, formally and informally communicating, challenging, and driving decisions with internal and external stakeholders at all levels Strategic Prioritisation and Governance: Experience leading strategic prioritisation exercises and workshops and chairing governance and progress meetings at a portfolio level Long-Term Development: Proven history of contributing to the long-term development and improvement of organisations, including the effective development of team members

Competitive salary, plus £6,300 car allowance, healthcare, 35% annual bonus potential, 30 days annual leave plus bank holidays and a company pension scheme with highly competitive contribution rates Permanent, Full time Royal Mail Farringdon,
• Family friendly support - enhanced maternity pay, paternity leave, adoption leave and shared parental leave
• Discounts and offers - there are more than 800 offers to help you save on things like groceries, days out, holidays and your household bills.
• Supportive and generous company sick pay
• Your Wellbeing - you and your family have 24/7 access to services and tools to help you get the most out of life. From your physical and mental health to financial and social support and advice. It's free, and it's for everyone.
• Available only to perm employees
Next Steps The next stage of the selection process will be a face to face/virtual interview consisting of competency based and role specific questions. We don't expect every candidate to meet the full criteria for the role. If your experience looks a little different from the job requirements, but you feel you have the relevant skills to bring value to the role, we'd love to learn more about you. Royal Mail are proud of our diverse employee network groups and the active role they play to support belonging and encourage a positive work environment. We are firmly committed to inclusion and passionate about our people representing the communities we serve. We are happy to support your need for any adjustments during the application and hiring process. Please share the details within your application if required. We are Forces family friendly and a Gold signatory to the Armed Forces Covenant. We welcome applications from ex-Armed Forces personnel, reservists, veterans, cadet instructors and military spouses/partners.