Executive Director, Project Portfolio Governance Lead

Responsibilities

Portfolio Governance & Oversight

• Lead governance of the bank’s strategic transformation portfolio, providing Executive Management and governance committees with a clear, objective and forward-looking view of portfolio performance.
• Establish and maintain the portfolio governance framework covering initiation, prioritisation, funding, mobilisation, execution, stage gates, change control and closure.
• Ensure initiatives have clear outcomes, accountable executives, sponsors, governance, credible plans, resources and success measures; provide constructive challenge where these are insufficient.
• Ensure governance forums are decision- and action-oriented, with clear escalation, ownership and resolution of material issues.

Portfolio Management & Prioritisation

• Maintain an integrated view across strategic, regulatory, technology, operational and business change and support senior management in prioritising investment and organisational capacity.
• Identify competing priorities, resource contention, interdependencies and concentration risks; recommend sequencing, acceleration, remediation, pause or termination where appropriate.

Delivery Standards & Assurance

• Define practical, risk-based minimum standards for business cases, mobilisation, integrated planning, RAID, financials, resources, dependencies, scope/change, vendors, benefits, implementation readiness and closure.
• Establish a consistent project health methodology and conduct or commission targeted health reviews of strategically important or challenged programmes.
• Identify initiatives requiring management intervention and lead or support recovery and stabilisation of critical programmes.

Executive Reporting & Management Information

• Own executive portfolio reporting covering delivery confidence, milestones, financial performance, risks, dependencies, resources, benefits and decisions required.
• Develop forward-looking indicators that expose emerging delivery risk before milestones are missed; ensure reporting provides insight and recommendations rather than aggregated status.

Financial, Investment & Benefits Governance

• Ensure credible investment forecasts, expenditure controls and benefit assumptions; challenge material variances and forecast accuracy with Finance and programme leadership.
• Strengthen accountability for measurable business outcomes and benefits, including post-implementation tracking and transparency where expected outcomes are not realised.

Risk, Controls & Regulatory Alignment

• Ensure transformation activity operates within the bank’s risk and control frameworks and that material programme risks are appropriately identified, governed and evidenced.
• Partner with Risk, Compliance, Finance, Technology, Operations and Internal Audit; support regulatory and audit reviews relating to transformation execution and governance.

Resource & Capacity Management

• Establish portfolio-level visibility of programme and project resource demand, capacity constraints and critical capability gaps.
• Work with business and functional leadership to resolve resource conflicts and ensure priority initiatives are appropriately staffed.

Leadership & Capability Development

• Lead and develop Programme Management, Project Management and Business Analysis capability, with clear role definitions, competency expectations and career pathways.
• Coach senior delivery leaders in executive communication, planning, risk management, stakeholder management and recovery of challenged programmes.
• Build a culture of ownership, transparency, constructive challenge, early escalation, delivery discipline and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Approximately 15+ years’ experience in banking, financial services, consulting or large-scale transformation environments, including significant senior leadership of complex programmes and portfolios.
• Strong understanding of banking technology, operations, transformation and regulated delivery environments.
• Experience establishing or leading an enterprise Transformation Office, Strategic Change Office, EPMO or equivalent.
• Demonstrated experience with complex multi-year, multi-business and multi-jurisdiction programmes, including financial management, delivery assurance and portfolio governance.
• Credibility presenting to Executive Committees and senior governance forums and the ability to challenge senior stakeholders constructively.
• Demonstrated experience identifying and recovering challenged programmes and building capability across Programme Managers, Project Managers and Business Analysts.
• Formal qualifications such as MSP, PMP, PRINCE2 or equivalent are advantageous; demonstrated delivery leadership is more important.