Project Planning Manager - Portfolio Governance

London

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As Portfolio Governance and Planning Manager, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring the FT's portfolio of change initiatives is governed, prioritised and planned effectively. Working within Portfolio and Programmes, you will lead the governance processes that assess proposed initiatives for strategic alignment, value creation, cost, risk and feasibility before investment decisions are made.

Acting as the gateway between idea generation and execution, you will enable informed, data-driven decision-making, balancing organisational priorities, capacity and investment to maximise business value. You will work closely with senior stakeholders across Product, Technology, Editorial, Data, Commercial and Corporate functions to drive transparent governance and effective portfolio planning.

• Lead portfolio intake and demand management processes, facilitating reviews of new initiatives and identifying duplication, consolidation opportunities and appropriate delivery pathways.
• Partner with stakeholders to shape and refine proposals, ensuring sufficient information is available for evaluation and prioritisation.
• Ensure initiatives are consistently assessed against governance standards, impact criteria and investment requirements.
• Challenge business cases, assumptions and benefit forecasts to support evidence-based investment decisions.
• Highlight risks, dependencies, opportunity costs, trade-offs and capacity impacts to enable transparent prioritisation.
• Manage the quality and completeness of submissions to governance forums for senior leadership review.
• Lead portfolio capacity planning, maintaining visibility of demand, resource utilisation and delivery constraints.
• Support quarterly and annual planning cycles with robust analysis and prioritisation recommendations.
• Produce governance reporting, monitor delivery against approved business cases and provide actionable portfolio insights.
• Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders, promoting collaboration, accountability and effective portfolio governance.
• Drive continuous improvement by embedding best practice portfolio management, lean governance and outcome-based investment approaches.
• Support the automation and enhancement of portfolio management tools, reporting and governance frameworks.

• Proven experience leading enterprise portfolio management, PMO/VMO leadership or strategic programme governance.
• Strong understanding of technology change and the ability to bring together expertise from multiple technical teams to assess investment opportunities.
• Excellent financial acumen with experience evaluating investment value, benefits and return on investment.
• Experience working within complex, matrixed organisations.
• Outstanding facilitation, communication and stakeholder management skills, including engagement with senior leaders.
• Ability to translate strategic objectives into practical prioritisation frameworks and governance processes.
• Strong…