Head of Infrastructure Portfolio

Head of Infrastructure Portfolio (Director Level)
Banking & Financial Services
London (Hybrid) Up to 160,000 + Bonus + Benefits

Are you a senior portfolio leader ready to take ownership of a major technology infrastructure change agenda within a global financial institution?

This is a rare opportunity to lead the Infrastructure Portfolio for a leading global banking group, directing a multi-million-pound book of investment and change projects, managing a team of consultants and contractors, and reporting directly into senior technology and Head Office stakeholders. You'll have real authority to shape delivery, influence executive decision-making, and drive the "do-ability" of a complex, high-profile portfolio.

If you thrive on governance, stakeholder engagement, and getting large-scale change over the line - this is your next move.

What you'll be doing

• Plan, direct and govern the Infrastructure investment portfolio end-to-end, owning the delivery roadmap, critical path and prioritisation decisions across projects and programmes.
• Manage delegated authority from senior Head Office stakeholders (via the CIO), driving delivery on behalf of the Accountable Executive and reporting into EMEA ExCo, Delivery Forum and portfolio committees.
• Own portfolio governance: baseline control (budget, scope, benefits, timeline), change approval, risk/issue management, business case sign-off and project closure.
• Lead, recruit and develop a team of circa 13 consultants/contractors, plus matrix-manage wider project delivery staff.
• Manage investment budgets, cost forecasting and financial control, ensuring accurate, golden-source reporting to stakeholders and oversight committees.
• Set and maintain quality standards across all portfolio artefacts, ensuring compliance with project delivery policy, controls (including SOX) and regulatory requirements.
• Manage vendors, consultants and contractors, and work with procurement to ensure cost-effective, well-governed delivery.
• Provide oversight across major infrastructure and technology transformation programmes - spanning data centre migration, network transformation, cloud migration, and end user compute (EUC) modernisation such as VDI, Microsoft 365 (M365) deployment, Windows/OS migration, endpoint and device deployment, and email/Exchange upgrades.

What you'll bring

• 10-15+ years' proven track record delivering programmes and projects within financial services, financial institutions or comparable large-scale technology/infrastructure organisations, to time and budget.
• Genuine portfolio management experience - not just programme or project delivery - including prioritisation and trade-off, resource allocation, roadmap and dependency management across a large, complex book of work.
• Hands-on experience of major infrastructure transformation, such as data centre migration, network transformation, cloud migration, and end user compute (EUC) platform modernisation - for example VDI, Microsoft 365 (M365) deployment, Windows/OS upgrades, endpoint and device deployment, or Exchange/email platform upgrades.
• Strong financial management skills, including capex/opex management, budget planning and forecasting, and understanding of IFRS or local GAAP standards.
• Demonstrable experience managing multiple senior stakeholders, with first-hand knowledge of banking or financial services products, and executive/steering committee reporting experience.
• Line management or matrix management experience, with strong coaching and leadership skills.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence and report at C-suite/CIO level.
• Desirable: annual/multi-year planning cycle experience, knowledge of banking regulations and regulatory project delivery, vendor/consultancy contract negotiation, and experience delivering through both waterfall and agile (SDLC/PDLC) methodologies.

Ready to lead?

If this sounds like your next challenge, apply now or get in touch for a confidential conversation about the role.

If you've held any of these roles or used these technologies/skills, this role could be a great fit:
Head of Infrastructure Portfolio, Portfolio Director, Head of Technology Portfolio, Portfolio Manager, Senior…