UK Portfolio Office Lead

UK Portfolio Office Lead page is loaded UK Portfolio Office Leadlocations: UK, York: UK, Colchestertime type: Full timeposted on: Posted Yesterdayjob requisition id: R Job Type: Permanent Build a brilliant future with Hiscox About Hiscox UK Hiscox UK is a leading brand in the insurance market, recognised as setting the standards others try to emulate. We consistently deliver strong growth and exceptional returns, recruiting only the very best and empowering them to deliver. We are known for insuring the homes of the rich and famous through to the most innovative technology companies. Our customers are diverse and unique and are only united by our ability to provide specialist insurance tailored to their needs. The role We are seeking a strategic and experienced Portfolio Office Lead to oversee the UK Change Portfolio Management Office for Hiscox. This role is critical in shaping the strategic direction, governance, and performance of a diverse portfolio of initiatives that span the UK business unit. The Portfolio Office Lead will ensure alignment with business objectives and investment priorities, while driving benefit realisation, risk management, and continuous improvement across the transformation landscape. What you'll be doing Strategic Direction & Governance Lead the prioritisation and selection of portfolio initiatives ensuring they are aligned with organisational strategy and investment priorities, working closely with the Head of Transformation and Transformation Business Sponsor Provide strategic oversight of multiple concurrent programmes, ensuring alignment with portfolio objectives and organisational priorities Establish and maintain governance frameworks to ensure disciplined portfolio oversight Stakeholder Engagement & Influence Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders, initiative sponsors, and delivery teams across the UK business unit Act as a trusted advisor to executive leadership on portfolio performance, risks, and opportunities Facilitate cross-functional collaboration and strategic decision-making Portfolio Performance & Delivery Oversee portfolio-level planning, performance tracking, and benefit realisation Monitor and manage portfolio risks, dependencies, and interrelated initiatives Ensure transparency and control through robust reporting and analytics Resource & Capacity Planning Oversee portfolio resource planning across initiatives Lead capacity planning and allocation of project managers to priority initiatives Continuous Improvement & Capability Development Drive continuous improvement in portfolio management practices, tools, and methodologies Build and embed delivery capability across the transformation office Our must haves Proven experience in leading portfolio offices or enterprise PMOs within complex organisations, ideally within the insurance or financial services sector but not a necessity Successfully led and managed multiple large-scale programmes concurrently, ensuring strategic alignment and effective resource utilisation Strong strategic thinking and governance expertise Deep understanding of portfolio performance frameworks, risk management, and benefit tracking Experience with both Waterfall and Agile methodologies Proven experience and understanding of software delivery lifecycle Excellent communication, stakeholder engagement, and influencing skills. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, capable of working with people at all levels within and external to the business Experience managing multi-disciplinary teams and working in matrix environments. Have had exposure to distributed teams and relationship building with stakeholders Proficiency in PMO tools such as MS Project (or other project tools), JIRA, Confluence, Power BI, PowerPoint and Excel. Be creative, proactive, logical and innovative and will not just accept the status quo Be highly results driven, with the energy and determination to succeed in a very fast paced environment where the pace of response and leadership is critical to success Proficiency in MS Project, Excel, PowerPoint, Word and similar tools Our nice to haves Experience of: + working in the insurance industry + system integration implementation Relevant certifications (e.g., PMP, PRINCE2, MSP, SAFe) are nice to haves Diversity and flexible working at Hiscox At Hiscox we care about our people. We hire the best people for the job and we're committed to diversity and creating a truly inclusive culture, which we believe drives success. We also know that working life doesn't always have to in the office, and as long as it's safe to do so, we will be operating a hybrid way of working to encourage a healthy work life balance, with 2 to 3 days in the office per week. Work with amazing people and be part of a unique culture If you want to help build a brilliant future; work with amazing people; be part of a unique company culture; and, of course, enjoy great employee benefits that take care of your mental and physical wellbeing, come and join us.