Lean Portfolio Manager

Join us as a Lean Portfolio Manager at Barclays, where you will play a pivotal role in shaping and guiding portfolio strategy from vision through to delivery. You will ensure strategic intent flows consistently across activities, enabling value‑based portfolio decisions through clear, pre‑established decision criteria. You will establish and maintain robust metrics and value‑tracking mechanisms to provide stakeholders with transparent, real‑time portfolio insights. The role will involve implementing Lean governance standards, managing capacity allocation, and driving continuous improvement across delivery. Working in close partnership with Business and Technology leadership, you will foster shared ownership, align priorities, and embed consistent ways of working to maximise value delivery across the portfolio.

To be successful as a Lean Portfolio Manager, you should have:

• Proven experience in portfolio prioritisation, balancing strategic value, risk, and delivery capacity

• Great risk awareness and control mindset, with experience managing risk and controls at portfolio level

• Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and engagement skills, with the ability to influence across multiple levels of the organisation

• Demonstrated experience liaising with senior leadership up to Executive Committee (ExCo) level

• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to turn complex information into clear, concise briefing materials

• An Agile mindset, with experience working in Agile environments and an understanding of Barclays UK Ways of Working

• Solid data management and data manipulation capabilities

• Advanced Excel skills and proficiency across the full Microsoft Office suite, particularly for analysis, reporting, and executive presentations

• Experience using Jira and related Agile delivery tools

• High‑degree competencies in analysis, judgement, and decision‑making

• Solid finance awareness, including experience working with or supporting financial products and investment cases

• Ability to align strategy with execution through data‑driven insights and portfolio governance

Some other highly valued skills may include:

• SAFe Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) accreditation or equivalent certification

• SAFe/Agile Product Management or Product Owner certification

• Demonstrated experience in Product Management within an Agile or SAFe environment

• Experience as a SAFe Release Train Engineer (RTE) or solid understanding of the RTE role and responsibilities

• Background in Business Management support with a focus on Portfolio Management

• Proven ability to align strategy, investment funding, and execution across portfolios

• Experience managing value streams, roadmaps, and prioritisation in complex, matrixed organizations

You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.

This role can be based in either Knutsford, London, Glasgow or Northampton.

Purpose of the role

To support the portfolio management team in the delivery of successful projects, while ensuring that portfolio management processes and practices are aligned with controls and governance standards and that projects are aligned with the organization's strategic objectives. 

Accountabilities

• Facilitate portfolio prioritisation, ensuring the portfolio is compliant with the established control framework, including oversight of controls and standards.
• Support the effective governance of the portfolio, helping establish and operate effective Portfolio Governance that enables quality, data driven decision making, ensuring executive reporting is fit for purpose and timely.
• Monitor portfolio performance, including tracking of programme and project progress, identification of thematic portfolio risks and issues, and reporting on portfolio status to senior management and key stakeholders.
• Facilitate the management of the portfolio Book of Work, prioritisation and dependencies of change initiatives, considering factors like resource availability, stakeholder buy-in, and potential risks.
• Oversight of change delivery to ensure alignment with relevant policies and standards, driving consistent, robust controls data; monitoring indicators of control adherence, acting to remediate any weaknesses in the controls; and identifying and implementing actions to drive greater maturity against key control indicators.
• Review, resolve, manage and escalate portfolio risks and issues, challenging where appropriate and actively supporting the resolution of variances as necessary.
• Engage and influence all stakeholders to help them to understand their responsibilities and fulfil them effectively through clear, timely communication and well facilitated portfolio management processes.
• Support an environment of effective delivery by empowering portfolio management resources, utilising data led thinking to inform decisions, leverage expertise, and drive accountability and transparency.
• Operate as a source of best practice guidance and expertise, to ensure consistent excellence around controls, and  governance (including training) is embedded across the portfolio.

Assistant Vice President Expectations

• To advise and influence decision making, contribute to policy development and take responsibility for operational effectiveness. Collaborate closely with other functions/ business divisions.
• Lead a team performing complex tasks, using well developed professional knowledge and skills to deliver on work that impacts the whole business function. Set objectives and coach employees in pursuit of those objectives, appraisal of performance relative to objectives and determination of reward outcomes
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.
• OR for an individual contributor, they will lead collaborative assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will identify new directions for assignments and/ or projects, identifying a combination of cross functional methodologies or practices to meet required outcomes.
• Consult on complex issues; providing advice to People Leaders to support the resolution of escalated issues.
• Identify ways to mitigate risk and developing new policies/procedures in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Take ownership for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work done.
• Perform work that is closely related to that of other areas, which requires understanding of how areas coordinate and contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the organisation sub-function.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategy.
• Engage in complex analysis of data from multiple sources of information, internal and external sources such as procedures and practises (in other areas, teams, companies, etc).to solve problems creatively and effectively.
• Communicate complex information. 'Complex' information could include sensitive information or information that is difficult to communicate because of its content or its audience.
• Influence or convince stakeholders to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.