Portfolio Management Specialist

Location

Birmingham, Bristol, London, Manchester - Hybrid working 3 days in the office, 2 wherever. 

Why This Job Matters:

The Portfolio Management Specialist role partners with Senior Managers in Portfolio Management to plan and deliver customer outcomes, drive high performance, and coordinate interdependencies across our Centres of Expertise, HR Services teams, and business-aligned People & Culture teams.

This role is critical to establishing the Strategic Portfolio Planning (SPP) team and will work in an agile way to support the prioritisation and management of the HR portfolio. Responsibilities include gathering inputs from a wide range of stakeholders, monitoring progress and key metrics, and ensuring ongoing alignment across teams.
 

What you'll be doing

•Coordinates portfolio planning processes, including the management of annual, quarterly, monthly, and ad-hoc planning cycles and communications, in collaboration with Senior Managers in Portfolio Management.
•Oversees portfolio refinement, prioritisation, and governance processes against agreed evaluation criteria, identifying and escalating capacity management impacts when necessary.
•Builds and maintains strong relationships with key stakeholders, supporting Senior Managers in aligning interdependencies and trade-offs across P&C teams, and preparing for ad-hoc portfolio reviews.
•Tracks and reports overall central portfolio progress to the HR Strategy, Portfolio & Performance Director, Chief P&C Officer, and PCLT, aligned with OKRs and budgets.
•Leverages data and analytics to enhance portfolio communications, driving effective storytelling, clarity, and transparency of deliverables and ways of working across the broader P&C function.
•Identifies, analyses, and escalates portfolio risks and opportunities, providing practical recommendations and maintaining the overall portfolio risks and issues log.
•Develops technical tools to automate and streamline portfolio workflows, including analytics, data, and reporting across P&C functions.
•Reviews and maintains portfolio frameworks to ensure consistent methodologies and tools are in place, including Knowledge Hub administration to support sustainable ways of working.

The skills you'll need to succeed

•Demonstrates knowledge of business strategy and the drivers of organisational performance, including people-related performance levers and financial literacy (e.g. business KPIs, business cases).
•Uses data insights to navigate competing priorities, make difficult trade-offs, and deliver clear, reasoned recommendations—or decisions (as per Delegation of Authority)—on what should be prioritised or discontinued.
•Applies a human-centred approach to diagnose problems and identify value-adding solutions within constrained resource and budget environments.
•Acts as a trusted advisor, building strong relationships and driving business performance through deep understanding of business needs and commercial context.
•Inspires stakeholders by clearly articulating what can or will be achieved, manages expectations effectively, and communicates required actions and timelines with clarity.
•Synthesises benefits and costs at both unit and portfolio levels to secure resources, justify budgets, and balance trade-offs.
•Analyses risks and opportunities, identifies patterns, and provides practical recommendations to inform strategic actions.
•Designs and iterates efficient, scalable processes that align with business objectives and improve overall productivity.
•Proactively seeks opportunities to develop new and existing skills, with a strong commitment to continuous learning and self-reflection.
•Harnesses diverse perspectives and promotes inclusive thinking to strengthen the effectiveness of teams, policies, practices, and products.

Benefits

•10% on target bonus 
•Private Health Care
•Car Allowance
•BT Pension scheme, minimum 5% Employee contribution, BT contribution 10%
•From January 2025, equal family leave:  receive 18 weeks at full pay, 8 weeks at half pay and 26 weeks at the statutory rate. It’s for all parents, no matter how your family is made up.
•Enhanced women’s health support: including help with menopause symptoms, cancer screenings, period care and more.
•25 days annual leave (not including bank holidays), increasing with service
•24/7 private virtual GP appointments for UK colleagues
•2 weeks carer’s leave 
•World-class training and development opportunities
•Option to join BT Shares Saving schemes.