Are you on board? 

The Digital and Innovation department within LNER has been created to manage a significant number of high-profile development projects required to deliver against a highly ambitious business transformation roadmap. 

As the Portfolio Operations Lead within LNER's Digital Service Model, you will be responsible for defining and owning the LNER Digital governance structure and processes as well as supporting the PMO function. 

Reporting into the Head of Digital Delivery, you will play a key role in driving continuous improvement strategies, focussing on opportunities within the existing governance approach, fostering this culture and driving Agile adoption across the directorate.  

This will ensure that all digital solutions, initiatives and projects meet the highest standards of delivery. You'll be responsible for leading and allocating project managers to projects and ensuring that the overarching portfolio and development pipeline is well resourced and being prioritized appropriately. The role will be responsible for communicating the overall health of the development portfolio, including budgetary forecasting and analysis, impact analysis, and ensuring that corrective actions are being taken at an overarching level, and risk mitigation actions are being applied whenever required. 

Your focus will be on ensuring high-quality, seamless, and efficient governance and financial management for all digital products and services, collaborating with cross-functional teams, 3rd party suppliers and driving LNER's Digital Strategy to fruition. 

Within this role you'll also be involved in; 

Portfolio Governance & Delivery Oversight 

• Lead delivery of the digital portfolio, ensuring projects meet time, budget, and quality expectations. 
• Prioritise, plan, and execute projects in line with organisational goals and the Digital Strategy. 
• Establish and enforce governance frameworks and Agile methodologies across teams. 
• Monitor portfolio health, risks, dependencies, and benefits realisation, providing clear insight for informed decision-making. 
• Quality-assure Agile planning and execution processes, driving continuous improvement. 

Strategic Leadership & Planning 

• Define and align strategic and tactical objectives with broader business goals. 
• Lead organisational change with clarity and empathy, ensuring business alignment and team buy-in. 
• Oversee scope, quality, and deliverables to ensure alignment with the Digital Strategy. 
• Manage portfolio-wide risks, issues, and delays, including financial and resource impacts. 

Financial Oversight 

• Manage and report on portfolio budgets, costs, and forecasts. 
• Assess financial impacts of changes, raise Change Control requests, and ensure delivery within budget. 
• Optimise resource allocation for maximum value and cost efficiency. 

Stakeholder Engagement 

• Act as the key liaison between executive leadership and delivery teams. 
• Provide strategic updates on portfolio performance, risks, and opportunities. 
• Collaborate with senior stakeholders to define priorities, resolve issues, and drive shared accountability. 

Continuous Improvement & Best Practice Adoption 

• Champion Agile practices and continuous improvement across digital delivery. 
• Embed standardised planning and project management frameworks across teams. 
• Enhance reporting, tools, and processes for portfolio governance and delivery consistency. 
• Ensure risk and compliance practices are built into all delivery work. 

Leadership & Team Development 

• Lead and mentor a diverse team including PMO staff and project managers. 
• Foster a culture of high performance and delivery excellence. 
• Support career pathways and Agile development in collaboration with L&D and Strategic Projects. 
• Drive change management initiatives and build internal capability. 

Driving Innovation 

• Promote new tools and methods to improve project planning and delivery. 
• Advocate for investment in innovative tools, training, and digital capability. 

Additional Responsibilities 

• Maintain a contingency competence to support continuity during service disruptions. 
• Ensure team capabilities remain current through ongoing training and development. 

What you'll need:    

• Ability to manage and lead a variety of stakeholders at all levels. 
• Experience of leading teams of varying skills and experience. 
• Experience of dealing with complex problems and creating simple solutions. 
• Project Management experience, preferably within change delivery function. 
• Strong understanding of financial analysis, cost tracking and preparation of Benefits Cases. 
• Experience of Agile transformation and ways of working essential. 
• Experience in a multitude of Agile framesworks, including SAFe, Lean, Scrum, Kanban but also direct application in a hybrid way is essential. 
• Experience in building internal Agile capability, including coaching senior stakeholders, facilitating Agile ceremonies, and introducing supporting tools (e.g., Jira, Confluence, Miro). 
• Experience of PMO best practice and flexible Governance frameworks is desirable. 
• Business focused with an air of creativity. 
• Business development and negotiation experience. 
• Strong influencing and communication skills. 
• Strong collaborative skills, team player · Strong people leadership track record. 
• Prince2 or equivalent. 

What next?          

Start your journey here - Apply now!  

What we believe:          

To be the most loved, progressive and responsible train operating company, we must make a meaningful difference – always doing what's right for our customers, our people, the communities and destinations we serve, the future of the industry we lead and the environment we cherish.  

We know that our people are the beating heart of everything we do. We are committed to creating an inclusive, engaged culture that supports everyone at every stage of their journey – and ensures that when you're at LNER, you can always be you. No wonder most people never want to leave!  

Diversity and inclusion  
We are passionate about creating a diverse and inclusive workforce, representative of the communities we serve, and are creating ways to inspire diverse talent to join LNER.  

Developing our people  
We are focused on creating a learning culture, to support our people to be the best they can be at work by providing them with the tools and resources to navigate their development and career journey.  

Health & wellbeing  
To create a culture where our people can perform at their best, the physical health and mental wellbeing of our people is of paramount importance to us. 

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Check 

If you are successful in your application and are new to the business, we will undertake a basic DBS check as part of our pre-employment checks. This only happens once we have conditionally offered you the job.  Here we check for any unspent convictions and conditional cautions under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974. If there is evidence of an unspent conviction or conditional caution, the details of these are reviewed internally by a cross functional panel on a case by case basis before a final offer of employment is issued. This however may result in any offer being withdrawn. Further information on how we collect and use this data is available on our privacy notice. 

Medical screening 

We're a safety conscious business so for all roles you'll need to pass a medical screening and a drugs and alcohol test before we send you an unconditional job offer. For our safety critical roles, you'll also need to have a safety critical medical. Our friendly, in-house Health and Wellbeing team will book a time and place to suit you. The sooner, the better, so please be flexible with your availability. Once your medical gets the thumbs up, we'll finalise any last details and look forward to you joining our team.