About RM
At RM we provide technology and resources to the education sector, supporting schools, teachers and learners, with one goal, to improve education outcomes worldwide. What we do helps all levels of the industry, from preschool to higher education and professional qualification, our customers include schools, examination boards, central governments and other professional institutions. We have a clear purpose to enrich the lives of learners worldwide. 

To better reflect the society that we serve, we’re committed to building a diverse workforce and creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for all. To achieve this, we create teams of talented people from different backgrounds and experiences and strive to be a business where our people can bring their whole selves to work. 

RM Assessment

The Assessment division provides industry-leading digital assessment products and services to examination boards, government departments and professional organisations across the globe.  In addition to building on its significant UK market presence, RM is expanding internationally with customers worldwide, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Singapore and the Caribbean. This success demands ongoing product development, innovative use of technology and major service evolution.

Our award-winning portfolio of products and services delivers digital assessment solutions for organisations globally in the general qualification, professional qualification, and higher education sectors. Our products carry out hundreds of thousands of on-screen tests yearly and mark millions of paper-based scripts. We have partnered with the world’s leading awarding bodies for over a decade to deliver intuitive, secure, and reliable e-marking solutions. Every year more than a million people worldwide get the marks they deserve thanks to RM software products and services.

Job Purpose

The Portfolio Delivery Manager will be an expert in using digital technologies to deliver new products and enhance existing products using agile methodologies. With a background in technology, project, and portfolio management, they are responsible for managing a portfolio of change for one of RM’s product families.

The Portfolio Delivery Manager will form part of the product delivery leadership team for several products and will be accountable for defining and managing the portfolio plan for a product family. Working closely with Development & Operational Delivery, Product Management and Product Architecture, the Portfolio Delivery Manager will ensure that the portfolio of change aligns with our business objectives & budgets and that there are effective processes to manage new demand (features, investment, defects, and operational service), workforce capacity planning, prioritisation, reporting and escalation management.

The Portfolio Delivery Manager will collaborate with Product Teams, Architecture, Project Management & Customer Account Management to manage the successful technical delivery of initiatives and empower the teams to deliver high-quality, secure and scalable products.

Organisation Chart

Main Responsibilities

Demand and Delivery Management

• Build, manage and deliver an effective portfolio plan for an RM product family (comprising one or more RM products)
• Build and manage the delivery plan, ensuring that there is the right capacity, in the right capabilities, in the right locations, at the right time to meet the portfolio plan.
• Operate & refine RM’s Product Demand & Delivery Processes, working with Product Management to ensure that there is an effective, prioritised, and communicated product backlog.
• Support the product delivery leadership group in prioritising change within the portfolio and managing prompt escalation of issues to the product delivery portfolio board.
• Support Business Growth and Customer Account Management during new bid and change requests, ensuring customer change is sized, costed and scheduled promptly.
• Support the continuous improvement and consistent use of tools for planning, risk and issue management, resource management, reporting and governance across the product family.
• Define and actively manage the product family portfolio RAAID logs.
• Internal and external stakeholder management

Process

• Support the Strategic Portfolio Manager, helping to set and communicate processes, and embed good practice techniques, document management and standards.

Governance and Reporting

• Provide active reporting of delivery status, issues and blockers to Project Management & Customer Account Management.
• Actively measure and report on key financial metrics for the product family – including cost vs budget, business value delivery, portfolio headcount, CAPEX vs OPEX split.
• Ensure that we are getting the inputs/outputs for the product delivery governance groups (Demand Triage, Delivery Planning & Product Delivery Portfolio Board) as required and ensure consistent information is gathered.
• Actively measure, track and report on the performance of the portfolio of change for their product family against set goals and KPIs. Identify areas of improvement and recommend corrective action.
• Collate metrics and information for executive level reporting on delivery progress, resourcing, budgets.

Facts & Figures

The Portfolio Delivery Manager will work within one of Assessment’s principal product portfolios (e.g. Digital Assessment, Enterprise eMarking), to support the effective planning and delivery of a change portfolio with a budget between £2.5m to £10m per annum).

Impact & Influence

The Portfolio Delivery Manager will contribute directly to the effective delivery of the change portfolio for one of RM’s major product families and will ensure that the portfolio actively meets RM’s business goals (financial, customer growth and service quality).

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

Proven experience of:

• Managing the delivery of a complex portfolio of change for multiple bespoke products in a commercial organisation (preferably a multi-customer SaaS-based organisation)
• Working in a PMO context (preferably in an Agile environment) and implementing appropriate processes to support successful portfolio delivery.
• Working successfully with senior internal stakeholders and end-users, quickly building successful relationships and establishing credibility

You will be:

• A strong collaborative team player who works well with colleagues at all levels and from different teams in the UK, India & Australia.
• Comfortable with challenging requests or directives that lack sufficient detail, including unsubstantiated or unclear assumptions, and offering alternative options.
• Passionate about learning new skills and driving continual service improvement.
• Comfortable taking responsibility for issues, identifying effective methods to resolve those issues, and working with the right people to solve any underlying problems at pace.
• A self-starter with excellent time management and administrative skills, looking to build on their experience within a supportive and flexible organisation.
• Able to act decisively and make difficult decisions even if unpopular.
• A leader who shows and encourages a determination to achieve high standards.
• Understanding of how and where own activities and projects contribute to the organisation's financial success; able to understand and act upon the financial factors that influence the business.

You will have:

• Strong professional knowledge of project, programme and product management methods and techniques (e.g., SCRUM, Kanban, PRINCE2).
• Project/portfolio management certification
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Excellent time management skills with the ability to prioritise and multitask.
• Demonstrable drive, energy, and passion with an appetite for successfully delivering digital products.
• Outstanding interpersonal skills, a highly personable, engaging approach and a strong alignment to RM's core values: Customer success, high standards, respect for others, innovation, openness, and enjoyment at work.

Desirable experience of:

• Working with digital product delivery teams spanning multiple geographical locations, including the UK, India & Australia
• Experience using issue and project management software such as Azure Dec Ops, JIRA and MS Project

Key Relationships

Internal Relationships:

• Project Management
• Development & QA Management
• Product Management & Delivery
• Operational Management
• Propositions
• Bid Teams
• Customer Management/P&L managers

What’s in it for you? 

At RM we recently introduced My Work Blend @RM which provides office-based colleagues with multi location and hybrid working options to suit them. As well as your office base, you can spend a proportion of your time working at other locations that suit your role and your life, including home, other offices, customer sites, distribution centres or on the move. We encourage you to discuss arrangements for this role with your potential line manager during the recruitment process. We expect how we make best use of hybrid working may continue to adapt as we adjust to our new ways of working. 

RM is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all permanent and temporary staff to share this commitment. This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and all successful candidates will be subject to Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks along with other relevant employment checks. 

At RM we are committed to making the recruitment process as inclusive as possible for everyone. Should you require additional support with your application or through the interview process, please contact us at recruitment@rm.com. 

As well as a competitive salary and our core benefits package which includes private medical healthcare, life assurance and a Group Personal Pension Plan with higher contribution levels available, some roles are also eligible for a performance-related bonus. 

There are lots of voluntary benefits too. You could buy additional annual leave, join our dental plan, sign for a health assessment, or take part in our cycle to work scheme. You could even earn yourself an extra bonus for successfully recommending a friend or family member for a position within RM.