About The Springer Nature Group
Springer Nature opens the doors to discovery for researchers, educators, clinicians and other professionals. Every day, around the globe, our imprints, books, journals, platforms and technology solutions reach millions of people. For over 175 years our brands and imprints have been a trusted source of knowledge to these communities and today, more than ever, we see it as our responsibility to ensure that fundamental knowledge can be found, verified, understood and used by our communities – enabling them to improve outcomes, make progress, and benefit the generations that follow.
Role Title
Head of Portfolio Management Excellence
About The Role
We are looking for a skilled and passionate Head of Portfolio Management Excellence to join our Portfolio & Governance Office department within Springer Nature Technology. We aim to enable value acceleration across the Springer Nature portfolios for our business and our customers while ensuring a healthy and future-proof technical ecosystem – all at maximum quality and minimum risk.
You will be joining a distributed cross‑functional team with different nationalities, backgrounds and experience levels. All team members collaborate to deliver optimal results for our customers, our business and our colleagues, and we are working to create a culture that encourages new ideas and innovation but within the boundaries of the company guidelines that best suit the vision and strategy that Springer Nature has defined.
The Portfolio Management Excellence Lead is accountable for building, embedding, and continuously evolving strong Portfolio Management capabilities across the organisation. While the Portfolio & Project Office is highly mature in Project and Programme Management, this role addresses a critical gap in strategic portfolio leadership.
The role ensures that the full portfolio of initiatives is actively shaped, optimised, and governed to maximise strategic value, investment effectiveness, and delivery outcomes. This includes portfolio‑level insights, health and value assessments, prioritisation, rationalisation, and continuous improvement of portfolio management and portfolio governance practices.
A critical aspect of the role is to scale portfolio management beyond a technology‑only lens. This includes evolving from a primarily annual strategy and planning cycle towards an annual business review and quarterly business review (QBR) rhythm, enabling more dynamic prioritisation, investment steering, and outcome‑based discussions across technology and business stakeholders. The intent is to introduce a lightweight, scaled, and pragmatic portfolio cadence (inspired by, but not constrained by, scaled agile principles) that improves adaptability without introducing unnecessary process overhead.
The role acts as the strategic owner of Portfolio Management – setting standards, defining data and metrics, enabling decision‑making at executive level, and evolving the operating model, tooling, and talent ecosystem required to run a high‑performing portfolio.
Key Accountabilities
Strategic Portfolio Management
* Own and lead the end‑to‑end Portfolio Management capability across the organisation.
* Translate enterprise, business, and IT strategy into a coherent, balanced, and prioritised portfolio.
* Evolve portfolio management from a technology‑centric view to an integrated business and technology investment perspective.
* Design and embed portfolio cadences that support annual business reviews and quarterly business reviews (QBRs), enabling more frequent and evidence‑based investment steering.
* Facilitate large‑scale, cross‑functional ‘big room’ planning sessions, structured around QBR themes, to align priorities, surface dependencies, resolve trade‑offs, and drive shared ownership across business and technology.
* Actively shape portfolio composition through investment trade‑offs, sequencing, and capacity‑aware prioritisation.
* Drive portfolio‑level decision‑making focused on value, outcomes, risk, and strategic alignment.
Portfolio Insights, Data & Metrics
* Define and own the portfolio data model, ensuring consistent, high‑quality data across initiatives.
* Establish a clear set of portfolio KPIs and success metrics (e.g. value realisation, strategic alignment, risk exposure, capacity, benefits, delivery confidence).
* Develop executive‑ready portfolio insights, dashboards, and narratives to support governance and investment decisions.
* Continuously improve the quality, relevance, and predictive power of portfolio reporting and analytics.
Portfolio Health & Rationalisation
* Lead regular portfolio health checks across financials, value delivery, risk, dependencies, and execution confidence.
* Identify underperforming, redundant, or misaligned initiatives and drive evidence‑based recommendations.
* Facilitate portfolio rationalisation activities, including stop / pivot / accelerate decisions.
* Ensure benefits realisation and value tracking are embedded at portfolio level.
Portfolio Governance Excellence
* Own and continuously evolve Portfolio Management and Portfolio Governance frameworks.
* Ensure governance enables speed, clarity, and accountability rather than bureaucracy.
* Design and maintain clear decision rights, escalation paths, and governance cadences.
* Partner closely with senior leaders and governance boards to improve the quality of portfolio discussions and decisions.
Continuous Optimisation & Innovation
* Drive continuous improvement of portfolio management processes, practices, and ways of working.
* Identify and pilot innovative approaches, tools, and methodologies (e.g. outcome‑based funding, lean portfolio management, scenario modelling).
* Ensure portfolio practices remain fit for purpose as strategy, scale, and operating models evolve.
Tooling & Enablement
* Own the portfolio management tooling landscape and roadmap.
* Ensure tools effectively support portfolio planning, prioritisation, scenario analysis, and insight generation.
* Maximise adoption and value of tooling through clear standards, guidance, and enablement.
Capability, Community & Career Framework
* Build and lead a Portfolio Management community of practice and champion network.
* Define portfolio management roles, skills, and career pathways.
* Develop learning, coaching, and capability‑building initiatives to raise portfolio maturity across the organisation.
* Act as a thought leader and trusted advisor on portfolio management best practices.
Key Relationships
* CIO and IT Leadership Team
* Portfolio Governance Boards and Investment Committees
* Finance, Strategy, and Enterprise Planning functions
* PMO / Programme & Project Management leaders
* Business and Technology senior stakeholders
Success Measures
* Improved strategic alignment and value delivery across the portfolio
* Clear, trusted portfolio data and executive insights
* Reduced portfolio complexity and increased investment focus
* Higher quality, faster portfolio decisions at governance level
* Measurable uplift in portfolio management maturity
* Strong engagement and capability across the portfolio management community
About You
Skills & Experience
Essential
* Significant experience in Portfolio Management within a complex, enterprise environment
* Proven track record of shaping, optimising, and governing large, diverse portfolios
* Strong strategic thinking combined with data‑driven decision‑making
* Experience designing portfolio metrics, dashboards, and executive insights
* Deep understanding of portfolio governance and investment decision frameworks
* Ability to influence senior stakeholders and facilitate difficult trade‑off discussions.
Desirable
* Experience evolving portfolio management maturity in an organisation strong in delivery but weak at portfolio level
* Exposure to Lean Portfolio Management, product‑based funding, or outcome‑oriented models
* Experience with portfolio management tooling and analytics platforms
* Background in IT, Digital, or Technology‑led portfolios
Leadership & Behaviours
* Strategic, outcome‑focused mindset
* Confident and credible at executive level
* Pragmatic change agent with a continuous improvement ethos
* Strong systems thinking and ability to operate across silos
* Passionate about developing people, communities, and capabilities.
SN Skills Associated With The Job Profile
SN-Strategic Mindset, SN-Tech Savvy, SN-Conflict Management, SN-Financial Acumen, SN-Balances Stakeholder, SN-Communicates Effectively, SN-Goal Alignment, SN-Project Management, SN-Collaboration, SN-Governance, Risk and Compliance Management
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