Interim Portfolio Assurance Lead

Interim Portfolio Assurance Lead 3-month contract Competitive rate Inside IR35

This role sits within a portfolio team of a central government trade department, which leads work on project delivery across its major projects portfolio leading on project planning, assurance, investment appraisal, prioritisation, reporting, resourcing and capability building. The role we are offering within the Portfolio Office provide an excellent opportunity to work on a day to day basis with key central government programmes/projects across the department and externally with other government departments.

We are looking for an energetic, agile, resilient individual with good understanding of project delivery and who understands the challenges and ambiguity of working in government at a time of EU Exit. They will need to help hit the ground running and help to develop and implement key portfolio processes efficiently in a fast paced and complex environment. They need excellent administrative skills. Main Tasks/Outcomes: Project planning – Assisting portfolio planning and dependency management to ensure all projects have delivery plans in place. Challenge and test project assumptions to ensure that plans are realistic and achievable.

Main Tasks/Outcomes:

• Application of Assurance Standards – Responsible for helping to ensure that projects or activities have appropriate levels of assurance for the complexity of the project. Following local guidance on types of assurance activities and recording them in management documents as required.
• Assurance planning – Responsible for leading a number of assurance activities across either one or several projects. Ensures that agreed actions are implemented, and that any lessons learned are applied to future change initiatives.
• Assurance reporting – Leads the timely and accurate reporting of integrated assurance plans and milestones to support departmental or board level assurance activities.
• Portfolio capability, resourcing and maturity – Aid in health checks, to ensure portfolio is delivering with the right capability and maturing to the required level. Aid with the resourcing model to deliver the schedule of work.
• Knowledge & information management – Implement knowledge and information process. Advise the project on correct processes and lead the lessons learned process.  

Person Specification: 

• Visible leadership and take the lead on their assigned work areas with minimal supervision in a fast paced environment in a newly established team
• Collaboration and influencing skills as the resultant products will only be achieved by working with various projects and programmes to provide good quality and timely inputs from stakeholders
• They can work with ambiguity. Until a number of key decisions are made, the framework and context for the UK’s exiting of the EU is not certain but actions and decisions need to be taken now to ensure we are ready for a variety of outcomes.  Once those decisions are made, We will need to move quickly to ensure we are ready to implement the outcomes as required.  

Typical Qualifications:

PRINCE2 Practitioner
APM Project Management Qualification
APM Practioner qualification