Senior Principal - Portfolio Manager, Cloud Platforms

Business Introduction

GSK remains committed to achieving bold commercial ambitions for the future. By 2031, we aim to deliver £40 billion in annual sales, leveraging our existing strong performance momentum to significantly increase our positive impact on the health of billions of patients globally. Our Ahead Together strategy is centred on early intervention to prevent and alter the course of disease, thereby protecting people and supporting healthcare systems.

Our diverse portfolio consists of vaccines, specialty medicines, and general medicines.

Through continuous innovation and a dedicated focus on scientific and technical excellence, we strive to develop and launch new, groundbreaking treatments that address critical health challenges.

Job Purpose

The Portfolio Manager manages the Cloud & Hosting Platforms demand and portfolio of work, sequencing delivery against strategy, capacity and dependencies, and giving domain leaders a clear view of what is being delivered and when. The role runs lean portfolio management across Cloud, Edge and Modern Engineering platforms, steers with flow metrics and OKR progress rather than fixed plans, and tracks benefits realisation after delivery.

The role orchestrates rather than decides. It owns the portfolio process, the prioritisation framework, the reporting and the transparency, and it coaches and challenges on delivery discipline. Prioritisation calls, roadmap content and value commitments remain with the Platform Manager and the Product Owners. Enterprise portfolio consolidation sits with the Investment Planning & Performance Director, and domain cost and forecasting sit with the Tech Finance Manager.

Key Responsibilities

• Run lean portfolio management for the domain, managing incoming demand through a single route rather than several informal ones.
• Own the prioritisation framework the domain applies, so that decisions taken by the Platform Manager and Product Owners are made on a consistent basis.
• Sequence delivery against strategy, capacity and cross-platform dependencies, surfacing conflicts early enough to be resolved.
• Link every item of work in the portfolio to strategy and to domain OKRs, and track the outcome with a named metric.
• Steer the portfolio with flow metrics and OKR progress, and act on the signal rather than only reporting it.
• Provide portfolio reporting, forecasting and transparency to domain leaders and into the enterprise portfolio.
• Use AI tooling to accelerate portfolio analysis, dependency detection, forecasting and reporting, reviewing AI-assisted output before publication.
• Track benefits and value realisation after delivery, and feed what actually landed back into future prioritisation.
• Coordinate supplier and managed-service demand within the portfolio, so partner capacity is planned rather than assumed.
• Run the domain portfolio governance forums, setting agenda, evidence pack and follow-up actions.
• Coach delivery teams and Product Owners on portfolio discipline, so that transparency improves at source rather than through chasing.
• Hold the boundaries with the Platform Manager on prioritisation decisions, the Tech Finance Manager on cost and forecasting, and the Investment Planning & Performance Director on enterprise portfolio consolidation.

Education & Professional Qualifications

• Degree in a technology, engineering or business discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• Portfolio or agile certifications desirable (e.g., SAFe Lean Portfolio Management, Management of Portfolios, or a recognised agile certification).

Area of Specialisation

• Portfolio and demand management, covering intake, prioritisation frameworks, sequencing and dependency management.
• Lean portfolio practice, covering flow metrics, OKR tracking and benefits realisation.

Experience Required

• Overall 15 years and typically 6-8 years in portfolio management, PMO or delivery management, including at least two years with domain or programme-level portfolio responsibility.
• Experience in Cloud, Infrastructure & Engineering portfolio strategy and planning
• Practical experience of lean or agile portfolio management rather than traditional project portfolio reporting alone.
• Experience managing demand intake and holding a single route against pressure to bypass it.
• Track record sequencing work against capacity and dependencies, and surfacing conflicts before they became delivery failures.
• Experience steering with flow metrics and OKR progress rather than percentage complete.
• Experience tracking benefits realisation after delivery, including where benefits did not materialise.
• Exposure to AI or analytics tooling applied to portfolio analysis, forecasting or dependency detection.

Skills/Background

• Ability to hold a demand route when senior stakeholders would prefer to bypass it.
• Dependency instinct, spotting the cross-platform collision before it lands in a delivery report.
• Clear reporting that leads to a decision rather than to a discussion.
• Comfort challenging delivery teams on transparency without owning their delivery.
• Discipline in a recurring cycle, since portfolio credibility depends on consistency.
• Coaching instinct, since portfolio quality improves at source rather than through chasing.

Skills

Why GSK?

Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together.

GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade, as a successful, growing company where people can thrive. We get ahead of disease by preventing and treating it with innovation in specialty medicines and vaccines. We focus on four therapeutic areas: respiratory, immunology and inflammation; oncology; HIV; and infectious diseases - to impact health at scale.

People and patients around the world count on the medicines and vaccines we make, so we’re committed to creating an environment where our people can thrive and focus on what matters most. Our culture of being ambitious for patients, accountable for impact and doing the right thing is the foundation for how, together, we deliver for patients, shareholders and our people.

Inclusion at GSK:

As an employer committed to Inclusion, we encourage you to reach out if you need any adjustments during the recruitment process.

Please contact our Recruitment Team at [email protected] to discuss your needs.

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