Senior Portfolio Manager (Maternity Cover)

About us

The Earthshot Prize is the world's most impactful and prestigious environmental award. At the heart of our mission is a simple equation: Urgency + Optimism = Action. Inspired by President John F. Kennedy's moonshot challenge, the Earthshot Prize mobilises a decade of action for the planet. We identify, celebrate, and back ambitious climate leadership from every corner of the globe - from Indigenous communities to city leaders, entrepreneurs to governments. We focus on five key Earthshots: Clean Our Air, Fix Our Climate, Revive Our Oceans, Build a Waste Free World and Protect and Restore Nature. Each year we select a group of 15 finalists and award 5 £1 million each to help advance or replicate their work and recognise their achievement and potential.

About the job

The Senior Portfolio Manager sits within the Prize and Impact team, providing targeted support to help accelerate Earthshot Prize finalists and winners' efforts to reach scale. You will work directly with a small number of finalists in our annual cohort to understand and shape their growth strategies, seek opportunities to leverage the Prize's spotlight platform and unique network of partners, and help make those plans a reality. This will involve cultivating a network of relationships with corporates, investors and policy makers who will be instrumental in helping our finalists scale. You will also support the creation of curated roundtables, networking events, reporting tools and other assets that help our portfolio of finalists take advantage of growth opportunities. The role is essential in ensuring that finalists achieve exponential impact through leveraging the Prize's unique platform and unprecedented global network.

Key Responsibilities Finalist Strategy & Advisory

• Build trusted, high impact partnerships with finalists, developing ambitious and actionable strategies that accelerate their impact and maximise the unique value of the Earthshot Prize platform and network.
• Diagnose growth opportunities and co create financial, operational and strategic solutions to enable finalists to scale effectively.
• Provide ongoing advisory support, including regular check ins, troubleshooting, programme guidance and structured tracking of needs and progress.
• Balance multiple finalist relationships simultaneously, defining clear deliverables, timelines and resource requirements.

Network Activation & Partner Engagement

• Leverage and expand the Earthshot Prize network to build tailored communities of support around each finalist.
• Facilitate introductions, off take opportunities, stakeholder engagement and curated events that drive measurable value.
• Develop and leverage relationships with high value investors, funders, corporate buyers and strategic partners to unlock capital, commercial opportunities and collaboration for finalists.
• Coordinate closely with Storytelling and Events teams to align outreach, communications and engagement activities.
• Represent the Earthshot Prize credibly in external forums, strengthening its reputation as the leading global environmental prize.

Impact Tracking, Reporting & Continuous Improvement

• Track and measure finalists' progress against scaling strategies, ensuring insights inform impact reporting and wider organisational strategy.
• Monitor and evaluate engagement effectiveness, identifying best practices and opportunities to enhance support.
• Maintain CRM systems, data integrity and structured reporting (including board and stakeholder updates).
• Develop and refine processes, templates and tools to improve portfolio management, data utilisation and operational excellence.
• Provide strategic input into Prize & Impact strategy, including selection considerations such as investability and scalability.

Candidate Criteria

• Empathy and self awareness - a constant learner, open to coaching and feedback.
• Experience working closely with start ups, scale ups, NGO initiatives or government innovation teams.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, a proactive, can do attitude and demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects at once in a fast changing and complex environment.
• High level of professionalism, confidentiality and judgment.
• Exceptional relationship building, verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to effectively interface with and influence employees at all levels of the organisation.
• Bachelor's degree and 5+ years of experience in a fast paced, dynamic environment - bonus points for accelerator, start up and global organisation experience.

Benefits

• Annual leave - 25 days plus any statutory bank/public holidays. Holiday year runs from 1 April to 31 March.
• Pension - full auto enrolment contribution of 8 % after 3 months. You can choose to contribute or not.
• Life Assurance / Death in Service - 4 salary from day one.
• Critical Illness Cover - 2 salary from day one.
• Private Medical Insurance - access to private healthcare; company covers cost of insurance, with option to add family.
• Employee Assistance Programme - 24/7 access to counselling sessions, online tools and resources via BUPA.
• Family leave - maternity/adoption pay and leave for 6 months full pay, paternity/non pregnant parent pay and leave for 3 months full pay after 3 months service.