PMO Specialist

The Portfolio Lead: PMO Specialist is the operational partner to Product, Engineering and Delivery leadership for an assigned portfolio. The role turns strategic priorities and roadmaps into realistic, funded and measurable delivery plans, giving leaders confidence that commitments are achievable, sustainable and focused on value.
The role connects Portfolio planning, Financial management, FinOps, Workforce and capacity, Delivery insight, Governance, Dependencies, Quality and continuous improvement. It provides a trusted view of portfolio health and supports timely, evidence-based decisions. Although embedded within a portfolio, the role operates as part of the wider Delivery Operations and PMO community. It adopts common BT standards, tooling, data definitions and governance approaches, and contributes learning back into the community rather than creating local practices in isolation.

Portfolio planning and strategic alignment

• Partner with Product Managers, Engineering Leaders and Delivery Leads to translate strategic objectives and roadmaps into executable portfolio plans.
• Coordinate quarterly, monthly and ongoing portfolio planning, integrating demand, capacity, funding, dependencies and delivery readiness.
• Provide scenario analysis and recommendations to support prioritisation, sequencing and investment trade-offs.
• Maintain an evidence-based view of commitments, milestones, outcomes and delivery confidence.
• Provide complete, timely and evidence-based portfolio inputs into unit-level planning, reporting and assurance, using agreed definitions, standards and reporting cycles.

Financial Insight, Investment Traceability and FinOps

• Maintain an integrated view of portfolio investment, financial forecasts and actual expenditure, using Finance-owned information to connect financial performance with delivery progress and expected outcomes.
• Embed FinOps practices so cloud cost, consumption and value are considered in planning, prioritisation and delivery decisions.
• Monitor material cost trends, forecast variance, commitments and optimisation opportunities, ensuring accountable owners understand the insight and act.
• Coordinate reviews and follow-up where expenditure or forecast performance is outside agreed expectations.
• Ensure new demand, proofs of concept and material scope changes identify funding, cloud-cost implications and ongoing run-cost impact before commitment.
• Support consistent cost allocation, tagging, chargeback and showback, escalating data-quality or ownership gaps.

Delivery performance, insight and forecasting

• Establish measures covering outcomes, value, predictability, flow, quality and delivery health.
• Turn complex portfolio data into concise insight, options and recommendations for senior decision-makers.
• Maintain delivery forecasts and identify trends, constraints and opportunities early.
• Focus reporting on changes, exceptions, risks, decisions and outcomes rather than routine activity.

Capacity, workforce and partner planning

• Maintain a portfolio view of demand, capacity, skills and constraints across employees, partners and suppliers.
• Coordinate capacity and scenario planning to identify gaps, bottlenecks and required interventions.
• Facilitate prioritisation when demand exceeds capacity and provide forward-looking workforce insight.

Risk, dependency, quality and assurance

• Coordinate cross-team, cross-programme and cross-portfolio risks, issues and dependencies.
• Work with accountable owners on mitigation, resolution and escalation.
• Provide proportionate assurance that plans are realistic, funded, governed and supported by delivery evidence.
• Champion quality through visibility of technical debt, defects, rework, reliability and operational readiness.

PMO standards, governance and tooling

• Operate as a member of the wider Delivery Operations and PMO community, not as a standalone portfolio function.
• Apply agreed BT delivery standards, PMO controls, planning methods, data definitions, governance cadences and reporting practices.
• Maintain a single source of truth for commitments, milestones, dependencies, risks, financial insight and delivery confidence using agreed tooling.
• Design proportionate governance that provides transparency and control without unnecessary overhead.
• Share learning, support peer assurance and improve consistency across portfolios.

• Commercial thinker : Connects delivery choices to investment, cost, consumption, value and sustainable outcomes.
• Portfolio planning : Integrates strategy, demand, funding, capacity and dependencies into realistic scenarios.
• Data and insight : Creates a trusted performance view and translates complexity into clear recommendations.
• Governance and assurance : Applies proportionate controls, standards and escalation while protecting pace.
• Collaborative partner : Builds alignment across Product, Engineering, Delivery, Finance, Architecture, Commercial and Assurance.
• Solution-focused achiever : Resolves obstacles and maintains momentum in ambiguity.
• Improvement focus : Coordinates sustainable improvements across teams and portfolios.
• Digital fluency : Uses Jira, Confluence, Power BI, or equivalent portfolio tools.

• Significant experience in portfolio management, PMO, delivery operations, programme delivery or a comparable complex environment.
• Experience across multiple Product, Engineering and Delivery teams with significant dependencies and competing priorities.
• Practical experience of planning, forecasting, capacity management and delivery insight.
• Experience managing or assuring financial information, forecasts, portfolio costs or related commercial controls.
• Experience applying governance, reporting and data standards across multiple teams.
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders through clear, evidence-based insight.
• Strong facilitation, stakeholder management, analytical and problem-solving experience.
• Product operating models and Lean Portfolio Management.
• FinOps in cloud-enabled portfolios.
• SAFe RTE, portfolio, programme or equivalent accreditation.
• Building or improving PMO or Delivery Operations capability.
• Jira, Confluence, Power BI, Azure DevOps or equivalent tooling.