Associate Director, Governance Reporting and Portfolio Oversight

About us:

The IES Directorate at King’s brings together the expertise of teams engaging with communities and partners locally, national and globally. IES provides strategic leadership for the university’s engagement at home and abroad, while providing a home for a portfolio of innovative programmes that generate and measure impact and serve the communities we work with and for. IES is home to some of King’s most innovative and impact-driven programming including Sanctuary, the Afe Babalola Centre for Transnational Education, King’s Volunteering, One King’s Impact, among others, as well as our civic and place-based engagement in London, and across the world.

About the role:

The postholder will play a pivotal role in ensuring effective governance, oversight and reporting across the Directorate’s priorities and commitments. They will lead the day-to-day management of IES governance arrangements, including the Partnerships and Funding Risk Committee, supporting robust decision-making, proportionate risk management and clear accountability. They will lead a high-performing programme management and governance team working across the IES portfolio, championing best practice and continuous improvement in the delivery of strategic priorities - providing a clear view of progress across key programmes, milestones, dependencies and risks, alongside insightful reporting for senior stakeholders. The postholder will also ensure that IES’s contribution to King’s Strategy 2030 and the wider institutional agenda is clearly evidenced, communicated and understood.

This is a full-time (35 hours per week), and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

About you:

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

• Educated to degree level or equivalent experience.
• Significant experience of programme, portfolio or governance management, with a deep understanding of relevant methodologies, tools and approaches.
• Experience of bringing structure, coherence and effective oversight to a complex portfolio of programmes, partnerships or projects, including monitoring progress, dependencies, risks and issues.
• Experience of international higher education, international partnerships or working across global contexts, with an understanding of the opportunities, risks and sensitivities associated with operating across different countries and regions.
• Deep understanding and practical experience of governance, risk management and organisational decision-making, including supporting senior committees or equivalent decision-making forums.
• Strong analytical and critical-thinking skills, with the ability to interpret complex information, identify emerging risks and issues, and produce clear, actionable insight and reporting for senior stakeholders.
• Proven ability to lead and develop a high-performing team, establish effective ways of working and drive consistency, continuous improvement and delivery across multidisciplinary environments.
• Excellent written and verbal communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to build effective relationships, influence senior and external stakeholders, and communicate complex issues clearly and appropriately to different audiences. 

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working within higher education, or a comparable complex organisation, with an understanding of institutional structures, governance, academic decision-making and the wider policy and regulatory environment.
• Experience of partnership, funding or due-diligence governance, including the assessment, escalation and management of institutional or third-party risk.
• A recognised qualification or formal training in programme, project, portfolio or risk management.

Further information:

At King’s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.

We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.

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