Summary

We’re looking for a Head of Strategic Portfolio Management to help turn ambition into collective action and lasting impact. As a senior organisation-wide leader you’ll sit at the heart of strategy execution.  
 
Working with Executive Directors, senior leaders and colleagues across the organisation, you’ll establish Enterprise Portfolio Management as a core organisational capability. You’ll create shared clarity around priorities, enabling better choices on investment and capacity, building the confidence to start, sustain, redirect or stop activity in pursuit of our strategic outcomes. 
 
You’ll bring deep technical portfolio and change leadership expertise, combined with the credibility to challenge constructively and connect strategy, people and delivery. You’ll build a culture of enterprise thinking, shared accountability and evidence-led decision making.  

Our positions are open to all, and we welcome applications from all backgrounds to support our ambitions of reflecting the communities we serve and ending unequal access. 

Salary: up to £80,000 dependant on experience. 

What it's like to work here

You’ll join the Strategy & Governance directorate at a significant point in our evolution, working at the centre of how we set priorities, make choices and mobilise our organisation around shared outcomes. You’ll have breadth and influence, partnering with Executive Directors, Senior Leaders, Portfolio Leads and colleagues across national, regional and property teams, while leading a specialist Strategic Portfolio Office based in Swindon.

You’ll work in an environment where thoughtful challenge is welcomed, relationships matter and success depends on bringing people with you through complex change.

Your contractual location will be our head office in Swindon. We use a hybrid approach to working and expect colleagues to spend 2 days of their working week at their contractual location. This can be discussed further at interview.  

What you'll be doing

Working closely with the Strategy & Governance Director, you’ll lead the Strategic Portfolio Office providing visible, organisation-wide leadership for Enterprise Portfolio Management. You'll make portfolio thinking part of how we lead, strengthening the connection between strategy and execution, creating transparency around capacity and commitments, and enabling leaders to make clear, timely and sometimes difficult choices. 
 
As a trusted adviser to senior leaders, you’ll shape the portfolio methodology, governance and prioritisation approach and turn complex information into a compelling strategic story on outcomes, benefits, risk, dependencies, investment and organisational capacity. You’ll facilitate high-quality conversations that move beyond reporting to support collective judgement, action and accountability. 
 
A central part of the role is cultural change. You’ll influence across organisational boundaries, coach leaders and Portfolio Leads and build the behaviours, confidence and capability needed for outcome-focused, matrix-based working. You’ll champion shared impact and help colleagues see and experience portfolio management not as a control process, but as an agile enabler of better decisions, stronger collaboration and greater impact. 
 
You’ll lead and develop a high-performing Strategic Portfolio Office, setting a clear vision and creating an inclusive culture of curiosity, service, learning and continuous improvement. Working in close partnership with Strategy, Finance, Planning, Performance and Digital colleagues, you’ll ensure portfolio management is integrated into the wider organisational planning and performance system and remains practical, proportionate and responsive to changing priorities.  

Who we're looking for

You'll combine deep portfolio expertise with the judgement, influence and leadership to operate credibly at the most senior levels. Whatever your background, you'll be able to apply your experience in a complex, purpose-led organisation and bring people with you. Please outline how you meet the criteria below in your application. 

• Significant experience leading and embedding Enterprise Portfolio Management as an organisation-wide approach to strategy execution in a large, complex environment. 

• A strong record of advising and influencing Executive leaders, trustees and senior decision-makers, using insight and constructive challenge to improve strategic choices. 

• Expertise in portfolio governance, strategic prioritisation, investment decision-making, benefits realisation, dependency management and organisational capacity planning. 

• Demonstrable success in leading cultural and behavioural change, building commitment to new disciplines and ways of working through influence and relationships rather than formal authority. 

• Exceptional systems thinking and judgement, with the ability to connect strategy, finance, risk, capacity and delivery and translate complexity into clear choices and recommendations. 

• Compelling communication, facilitation and storytelling skills, with the confidence to lead difficult conversations and create shared understanding across diverse perspectives. 

• Experience building organisational capability through coaching, guidance, communities of practice and practical frameworks that strengthen confidence and accountability. 

• Resourceful and inclusive leadership, with experience setting direction for a specialist team, creating the conditions for people to thrive, collaborate and continuously improve. 

The package

The National Trust has the motto ‘For everyone, for ever’ at its heart. We’re working hard to create an inclusive culture, where everyone feels they belong. It’s important that our people reflect and represent the diversity of the communities and audiences we serve. We welcome and value difference, so when we say we’re for everyone, we want everyone to be welcome in our teams too.

•Substantial pension scheme of up to 10% basic salary

•Free entry to National Trust places for you, a guest and your children (under 18)

•Rental deposit loan scheme

•Season ticket loan

•EV car lease scheme (for roles that meet the salary criteria)

•Perks at work discounts such as gym memberships, shopping discount codes, cinema discounts

•Holiday allowance up to 32 days relating to length of service, plus holiday purchase scheme, subject to meeting minimum criteria.

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