S
Company
Springernature
Location
Berlin, Germany
Employment type
Full-time
Seniority
Director
Primary category
Investment Management
Posted date
1 Apr 2026
Valid through
31 May 2026
Head of Portfolio management Excellence
Springer Nature opens the doors to discovery for researchers, educators, clinicians and other professionals. Every day, around the globe, our imprints, books, journals, platforms and technology solutions reach millions of people. For over 175 years our brands and imprints have been a trusted source of knowledge to these communities and today, more than ever, we see it as our responsibility to ensure that fundamental knowledge can be found, verified, understood and used by our communities – enabling them to improve outcomes, make progress, and benefit the generations that follow.
We are looking for a skilled and passionate Head of Portfolio Management Excellence to join our Portfolio & Governance Office department within Springer Nature Technology. We aim to enable value acceleration across the Springer Nature portfolios for our business and our customers while ensuring a healthy and future-proof technical ecosystem - all at maximum quality and minimum risk.
You will be joining a distributed cross-functional team with different nationalities, backgrounds and experience levels. All team members collaborate to deliver optimal results for our customers, our business and our colleagues, and we are working to create a culture that encourages new ideas and innovation but within the boundaries of the company guidelines that best suit the vision and strategy that Springer Nature has defined.
The Portfolio Management Excellence Lead is accountable for building, embedding, and continuously evolving strong Portfolio Management capabilities across the organisation. While the Portfolio & Project Office is highly mature in Project and Programme Management, this role addresses a critical gap in strategic portfolio leadership.
The role ensures that the full portfolio of initiatives is actively shaped, optimised, and governed to maximise strategic value, investment effectiveness, and delivery outcomes. This includes portfolio-level insights, health and value assessments, prioritisation, rationalisation, and continuous improvement of portfolio management and portfolio governance practices.
A critical aspect of the role is to scale portfolio management beyond a technology-only lens. This includes evolving from a primarily annual strategy and planning cycle towards an annual business review and quarterly business review (QBR) rhythm, enabling more dynamic prioritisation, investment steering, and outcome-based discussions across technology and business stakeholders. The intent is to introduce a lightweight, scaled, and pragmatic portfolio cadence (inspired by, but not constrained by, scaled agile principles) that improves adaptability without introducing unnecessary process overhead.
The role acts as the strategic owner of Portfolio Management – setting standards, defining data and metrics, enabling decision-making at executive level, and evolving the operating model, tooling, and talent ecosystem required to run a high-performing portfolio.
Own and lead the end-to-end Portfolio Management capability across the organisation.
Translate enterprise, business, and IT strategy into a coherent, balanced, and prioritised portfolio.
Evolve portfolio management from a technology-centric view to an integrated business and technology investment perspective.
Design and embed portfolio cadences that support annual business reviews and quarterly business reviews (QBRs), enabling more frequent and evidence-based investment steering.
Facilitate large-scale, cross-functional ‘big room’ planning sessions, structured around QBR themes, to align priorities, surface dependencies, resolve trade-offs, and drive shared ownership across business and technology.
Actively shape portfolio composition through investment trade-offs, sequencing, and capacity-aware prioritisation.
Drive portfolio-level decision-making focused on value, outcomes, risk, and strategic alignment.
Define and own the portfolio data model, ensuring consistent, high-quality data across initiatives.
Establish a clear set of portfolio KPIs and success metrics (e.g. value realisation, strategic alignment, risk exposure, capacity, benefits, delivery confidence).
Develop executive-ready portfolio insights, dashboards, and narratives to support governance and investment decisions.
Continuously improve the quality, relevance, and predictive power of portfolio reporting and analytics.
Lead regular portfolio health checks across financials, value delivery, risk, dependencies, and execution confidence.
Identify underperforming, redundant, or misaligned initiatives and drive evidence-based recommendations.
Facilitate portfolio rationalisation activities, including stop / pivot / accelerate decisions.
Ensure benefits realisation and value tracking are embedded at portfolio level.
Own and continuously evolve Portfolio Management and Portfolio Governance frameworks.
Ensure governance enables speed, clarity, and accountability rather than bureaucracy.
Design and maintain clear decision rights, escalation paths, and governance cadences.
Partner closely with senior leaders and governance boards to improve the quality of portfolio discussions and decisions.
Drive continuous improvement of portfolio management processes, practices, and ways of working.
Identify and pilot innovative approaches, tools, and methodologies (e.g. outcome-based funding, lean portfolio management, scenario modelling).
Ensure portfolio practices remain fit for purpose as strategy, scale, and operating models evolve.
Own the portfolio management tooling landscape and roadmap.
Ensure tools effectively support portfolio planning, prioritisation, scenario analysis, and insight generation.
Maximise adoption and value of tooling through clear standards, guidance, and enablement.
Build and lead a Portfolio Management community of practice and champion network.
Define portfolio management roles, skills, and career pathways.
Develop learning, coaching, and capability-building initiatives to raise portfolio maturity across the organisation.
Act as a thought leader and trusted advisor on portfolio management best practices.
CIO and IT Leadership Team
Portfolio Governance Boards and Investment Committees
Finance, Strategy, and Enterprise Planning functions
PMO / Programme & Project Management leaders
Business and Technology senior stakeholders
Improved strategic alignment and value delivery across the portfolio
Clear, trusted portfolio data and executive insights
Reduced portfolio complexity and increased investment focus
Higher quality, faster portfolio decisions at governance level
Measurable uplift in portfolio management maturity
Strong engagement and capability across the portfolio management community
Significant experience in Portfolio Management within a complex, enterprise environment
Proven track record of shaping, optimising, and governing large, diverse portfolios
Strong strategic thinking combined with data-driven decision-making
Experience designing portfolio metrics, dashboards, and executive insights
Deep understanding of portfolio governance and investment decision frameworks
Ability to influence senior stakeholders and facilitate difficult trade-off discussions
Experience evolving portfolio management maturity in an organisation strong in delivery but weak at portfolio level
Exposure to Lean Portfolio Management, product-based funding, or outcome-oriented models
Experience with portfolio management tooling and analytics platforms
Background in IT, Digital, or Technology-led portfolios
Strategic, outcome-focused mindset
Confident and credible at executive level
Pragmatic change agent with a continuous improvement ethos
Strong systems thinking and ability to operate across silos
Passionate about developing people, communities, and capabilities
SN Skills Associated with the Job Profile
SN-Strategic Mindset, SN-Tech Savvy, SN-Conflict Management, SN-Financial Acumen, SN-Balances Stakeholder, SN-Communicates Effectively, SN-Goal Alignment, SN-Project Management, SN-Collaboration, SN-Governance, Risk and Compliance Management
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