SUMMARY OF RESPONSIBILITIES
As a Lean Portfolio Manager, you will oversee the strategic alignment and product delivery between the Technology division and the organization’s portfolio of initiatives. Your primary focus will be on managing and optimizing the flow of work across multiple initiatives, ensuring that investments align with strategic objectives and deliver maximum business value. This role involves prioritizing initiatives, balancing capacity, coordinating portfolio-level decision-making, and ensuring efficient resource allocation.
You will collaborate closely with senior leadership, product managers, technical delivery managers, and engineering managers to maintain a robust, value-driven backlog for each initiative. This position requires a unique blend of technical expertise, strategic thinking, and exceptional communication skills. You will play a key role in ensuring that complex technical concepts are accurately documented and communicated clearly to all
Additionally, you will monitor portfolio performance, manage risks, and ensure that projects are delivered on time, within scope, and within budget. You will facilitate communication and collaboration across cross functional teams, provide regular updates to senior leadership, and drive continuous improvement in project management practices. Your expertise will be crucial in successfully executing complex, high-stakes projects in a dynamic and regulated environment
KEY AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITIES
Define and Communicate Vision: Articulate the portfolio’s vision, goals, and roadmap, ensuring alignment with business strategies and organizational objectives. Collaborate with Stakeholders: Engage stakeholders to gather input, assess market trends, and identify opportunities for innovation. 2. Strong Communication and Stakeholder Management
Effective Communication: Translate technical concepts into clear, actionable insights for nontechnical stakeholders through strong written and verbal communication. Stakeholder Transparency: Keep all stakeholders, including senior management, informed of progress, risks, and decisions to build trust and ensure alignment. Communication Planning: Develop and execute clear communication plans, providing regular updates to keep stakeholders engaged throughout the project lifecycle. Technical Information Distillation: Participate in technical meetings, capture detailed information, and communicate key points to broader audiences. 3. Solid Documentation Skills
Maintain Documentation Standards: Establish and enforce documentation standards for all project materials to ensure consistency, accuracy, and accessibility. Organize Project Documents: Ensure all project documents are up-to-date, organized, and securely stored. Presentation Preparation: Create and deliver concise presentations for senior leadership, summarizing project status, risks, and opportunities. Visual Data Representation: Develop visual project data representations, such as Gantt charts and dashboards, to clearly convey project status to stakeholders. Tailored Presentations: Customize presentations for different audiences, ensuring complex technical details are understandable for non-technical stakeholders. Develop Documentation Templates: Create and manage templates and guidelines to ensure consistency across project documentation. Meeting Documentation: Document key points, decisions, and action items from meetings, ensuring follow-up actions are tracked and completed.
Prioritize Initiatives: Prioritize Technology initiatives based on value, risk, and strategic alignment. Optimize Resource Allocation: Allocate resources and funding to optimize portfolio investments and align with business goals. Budget Planning Participation: Contribute to annual budget planning and coordinate with stakeholders to consolidate costing for submission.
Facilitate Planning Events: Lead portfolio-level planning events, ensuring alignment and synchronization of initiatives within Technology. Manage Portfolio Backlog: Track progress, monitor portfolio performance, and manage the portfolio backlog. Leverage Agile Methodologies: Apply Agile methodologies tailored to business and project needs.
Lean Governance: Provide Lean governance for the portfolio, managing risks, tracking performance, and making informed investment decisions. Ensure Compliance: Ensure portfolio compliance with organizational policies, standards, and regulatory requirements. 7. Stakeholder Management
Stakeholder Engagement: Engage with key stakeholders, including engineering teams, commercial, product, operations, marketing, and external partners, to align on product goals and priorities. Primary Contact: Act as the main point of contact for internal and external stakeholders, effectively communicating the product vision and progress. Collaborative Delivery: Work with stakeholders to ensure understanding, alignment, and successful delivery of initiatives. 8. Cultural Fit and Adaptability
Cultural Alignment: Demonstrate cultural fit with the organization, showing a commitment to participant-centricity, innovation, and cross-divisional collaboration. Adaptability: Thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, showing flexibility to adapt to changing priorities and challenges
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field. An advanced degree in Business Administration, Lean Portfolio Management, Product Management, or a related field can provide a deeper understanding of strategic management and leadership. Experience in leading cross-functional teams, including software engineering teams, audit, compliance, commercial, marketing and operations, to deliver complex products. Strong skills in managing stakeholders, including senior management, customers, and external partners, with the ability to communicate complex ideas clearly and persuasively. Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts into clear, actionable insights for non-technical stakeholders. Demonstrated ability to understand complex technical discussions, including software architecture, development processes, and technical infrastructure. Demonstrated ability to produce accurate, detailed, and comprehensive documentation that is clear, concise, and easily accessible to stakeholders.
Minimum 7 years in Portfolio / PMO/ Project Management: Extensive experience managing technical products, preferably within the financial technology or payments industry, is crucial. The candidate should have a proven track record of leading successful product launches. Proficiency in using portfolio management tools like Jira, or similar, ensuring that documentation is integrated with portfolio tracking and reporting systems. Strong ability to establish and uphold documentation standards across the portfolio, ensuring consistency and quality Ability to clearly articulate and present complex ideas and processes in writing and verbally, ensuring that all stakeholders understand the portfolio’s status, decisions, and documentation. Proven experience in managing communication with a wide range of stakeholders, including senior leadership, technical teams, and external partners, ensuring that documentation supports transparency and collaboration. Ability to analyze data and use insights to inform documentation and portfolio decisions, ensuring that documentation reflects the most accurate and relevant information 
