Head of Portfolio Office

About the role

Saffery Trust, a director-led private client firm established in Guernsey in 1977, is recruiting a Head of Portfolio Office on a fixed-term basis. This is a hands-on role supporting the delivery of three strategic group-wide initiatives (IC4, IC6 and IC9), helping to establish and run the portfolio office function with effective governance, reporting and delivery. The contract runs three months, then month by month up to a maximum of six months, full time for the first two weeks and then three days per week.

Key responsibilities

• Run the STO day to day according to the written framework, keeping a section-by-section log of where the document works, is silent or is wrong.
• In the first fortnight, rework and agree the three pilot Initiative Cards with their Executive Sponsors, covering benefits, hours, costs, external help, milestones and definition of done.
• Maintain the single portfolio view: consolidated status reports, milestone chart and risk, assumption, issue and dependency log, so all forums use the same numbers.
• Prepare and issue the monthly portfolio pack for the Committee acting as Steering Committee, record decisions and actions and drive them to closure.
• Run weekly working groups for the three initiatives, track progress, chase actions, escalate unresolved issues and support practical project work such as requirements, supplier follow-up and acceptance preparation.
• Agree starting positions and benefit measures with sponsors and Finance, and record the model costs of running the initiatives.
• Deliver the familiarisation and sponsor briefing, coach an internal counterpart to run the next cycle unaided, and prepare the quarterly Board report for the Managing Director.
• By the end of the contract, deliver a written verdict on the framework and a handover pack for the internal owner.

Required profile

• Experience running a portfolio office, PMO or transformation office in regulated financial services; trust, fiduciary, fund administration or wealth management strongly preferred.
• Experience setting up or resetting governance (steering committee, initiative business cases, benefits tracking) from a written framework in a small firm.
• Hands-on approach: writing packs and reports personally and doing practical project work when needed.
• Credible with directors and boards, able to hold senior sponsors to account.
• Track record of handing over to internal staff rather than creating dependency, with interim or fixed-term references for outcome-based work.
• Knowledge of AML and regulatory change in a GFSC environment is an advantage.

Required skills

• Ideally one of: PRINCE2, MSP, MoP, P3O, APM ChPP or PMI PfMP (not essential).
• Project and portfolio management expertise.

What we offer

• A competitive salary.
• Flexible working and dress-for-your-day policy.
• E-bikes free for staff use and green initiatives.
• Regular sports and social events and opportunities to support local charities.