Portfolio Manager

Job summary

At The National Lottery Community Fund (The Fund), we are driven by our strategy ‘It starts with community’ and its four community-led missions, as well as our commitment to tackling poverty, discrimination and disadvantage through an equity-based approach.

This is an exciting opportunity to join the UK Portfolio at an ambitious moment of shaping the next phase of our strategy. We are looking for two experienced managers to join us for two fixed term Portfolio Manager roles (12-month FTC and FTC until 31 March 2027) who will form part of a team of around 40 in total.

The UK Portfolio supports the ambitions and potential of communities across the UK. We focus on scaling projects with a UK-wide benefit, through significant investments and partnerships, which enable systems-level change for communities. Our funding is intended to complement the work of other country portfolios: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Job description

Our Portfolio Managers support the delivery of the UK Portfolio strategy through managing the design and delivery of funding programmes, helping shape and deliver new partnerships and investments, as well as managing our team of Funding Officers. You will be one of 10 Portfolio Managers and report to one of our senior team, working closely with them to deliver the UK Portfolio strategy now and as we move into the next phase.

Our current work includes:

• TheUK Fund: offers long term funding to support organisations to scale proven work and approaches against two main themes: connected communities and youth voice. Funded projects consistently focus on systems change, community power and voice.
• Climate Action Fund: supports UK-wide ambitious, partnership-led approaches to climate and environmental challenges, bringing together organisations to deliver long-term change at scale.
• Working in partnership with others: Examples include Communities for Children, focused on tackling child poverty, Together for Families, supporting early intervention for children and families. We are also developing new areas of work that explore the opportunities and implications of emerging technologies including artificial intelligence.

Role Expectations

We are looking for experienced managers who are confident in managing and developing others, managing performance and adept at managing a varied workload from across our funding lifecycle to new funding investments and partnerships.

You will first and foremost be a people manager, with the skills and experience of navigating operational delivery from budgets, resourcing and risk, for example, to ensuring quality delivery of our work and supporting a culture that enables people to thrive.

You could be working across any of our programmes and developing areas of work but an interest in our current funding programmes and areas of development is essential. If you have a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing communities across the UK, these roles are for you.

All managers will have blended roles that combine people and some operational responsibilities, as well as involvement in developing areas of work. The variety of responsibilities could include:

• Line managing and developing Funding Officers, supporting performance, wellbeing and ensuring their continuous development and professional growth
• Ensuring operational excellence through resource and operational management: including across our funding programmes and partnerships, including managing budgets, risk and reporting
• Overseeing the end-to-end funding programme process: including monitoring programme performance, assuring the quality of funding recommendations and decisions and ensuring a high-quality and consistent experience for customers and stakeholders.
• Contributing to the development of new funding approaches, partnerships and investment opportunities.
• Working closely with teams and colleagues across The Fund to ensure our work is connected into and adds value.
• Championing The Fund's values and behaviours, promoting inclusion, collaboration and continuous improvement.

You will need to work collectively and very closely with the other managers each day as to how responsibilities and workstream leads are agreed and managed.

We're looking for people with practical experience of the funding and grant-making environment, who can bring their sound judgement relating to this to the team. You will also bring strong analytical, project and stakeholder and relationship management skills, alongside the ability to be adaptable and comfortably work at pace.

You’ll be joining a dynamic and welcoming geographically dispersed team, working with hugely important and fascinating projects that are responding to and addressing a wide range of topics across the Fund’s four community-led missions.

Due to our dispersed nature as a team, it is expected that there will be occasional travel in order to connect with colleagues, stakeholders and projects. This is likely to be one to two occasions per month.

Interview details:

• Date: Week commencing 21 September
• Format: Online
• Location: UK Wide

We have a hybrid approach to working, work pattern and location will be agreed with the successful candidate. The role can be based at any of our UK offices, these are Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Exeter, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester and Newcastle.

We will be hosting a briefing session on Wednesday 19th August at 10:00 am. This is a great opportunity to learn more about the role, gain insight into the team and key responsibilities, and ask any questions you may have. To register or ask any questions please email: [email removed]

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact: [email removed]. For any recruitment related questions, please email us: [email removed]

Person specification

How to apply:

Upload your CV in word format and write a supporting statement (1000 words) with the following criteria, we will use this to score your application.

Essential Criteria

• Experience of either grant-making / funding work or managing programmes that fit with those of the UK Portfolio.
• Experience in leading and motivating people and teams (including remote teams), role modelling a culture of inclusion.
• Strong project management and organisational skills, including budget and risk management.
• Strong communication, interpersonal, influencing and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to build trust and effective relationships across a range of audiences.
• Strong ability to apply critical analysis and consider strategic implications in your work, thinking about how things impact the whole