GBS Portfolio Director

Job Title: GBS Portfolio Director

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Introduction to role:Are you ready to turn strategy into realised value by orchestrating a single, outcome-led portfolio that accelerates our 2030 ambition? Can you connect strategy, transformation and operations to make disciplined, transparent decisions that direct funding and delivery to what matters most for patients and the business?

Based in Lisbon and reporting to the Senior Director, GBS Portfolio, you will shape the strategic direction, governance and operational standards that align a complex, global portfolio to enterprise priorities. You will be the link between ambition and execution, ensuring investments, priorities, risks and benefits are visible and managed with pace and discipline.

Your work will enable faster, clearer decisions on digital, automation and AI-enabled change, ensuring initiatives land effectively in operations and deliver sustained outcomes. By creating a single source of truth and embedding robust benefits tracking, you will build confidence in delivery and help unlock the next wave of value that ultimately supports life-changing medicines reaching patients.

Accountabilities:

• Portfolio Strategy & Roadmap: Define and maintain an outcome-led portfolio roadmap aligned to enterprise strategy, GBS priorities and delivery of GBS Bold Ambition 2030. Continually assess portfolio composition and recommend re-prioritisation, acceleration, pause or stop so investment stays focused on the highest-value outcomes.
• Integrated Governance & Prioritisation: Co-own the end-to-end portfolio governance framework with the GBS Governance Director, including common intake, prioritisation criteria, decision forums and stage gates. Drive rigorous yet agile governance where initiatives are evaluated by value, risk, strategic fit and digital readiness so funding and resources flow to the highest priorities, with oversight tailored for digital, automation and AI-enabled change.
• Planning & Dependency Management: Maintain a single integrated view of portfolio plans across all programmes and projects. Proactively identify inter-dependencies, constraints, shared resources and enterprise change capacity; use scenario planning and evidence-based trade-offs to dynamically re-prioritise, sequence and shape scope to maximise overall portfolio impact.
• Performance Tracking & Value Realisation: Establish robust benefits management with Finance. Quantify and track value, validate that savings and improvements are realised in the business, and evolve investment and benefits frameworks for digital, automation and AI initiatives. Intervene early when milestones or benefits are at risk and ensure transparent reporting from investment to outcome.
• Single Source of Truth Reporting: Provide authoritative portfolio reporting and analytics that consolidate progress, spend, risks, issues, capacity signals and value measures into executive-ready insights. Use leading indicators and scenario-based analysis to inform decisions and build trust in delivery.
• Risk & Change Management: Lead portfolio-level risk management to identify systemic risks, cross-cutting dependencies, readiness issues and capacity bottlenecks, coordinating mitigations. Oversee portfolio change control and support operational readiness and transition into BAU with Transformation and Service Leaders to sustain benefits.
• Continuous Improvement of Portfolio Practices: Continuously refine the portfolio management framework, embedding lessons learned, independent assurance, health checks and structured retrospectives. Apply Lean and Agile principles to PMO operations and digitise processes, leveraging automation to increase pace, consistency and insight.
• People & Capability Leadership: Build, lead and develop the portfolio team and the broader community of project and programme professionals. Set the capability bar, coach delivery leaders, raise practitioner standards and partner with HR on a structured PM career path.
• Tools, Standards & Assurance: Own the GBS PPM toolset and reporting platform. Set standards for projects, programmes and portfolios, including stage-gates, RAID, benefits cases and assurance. Run independent portfolio assurance and post-implementation reviews to drive learning back into delivery.
• Partner & Vendor Governance: Govern delivery from strategic systems integrators, consultancies and BPO partners, ensuring outcomes, commercials and quality are managed at portfolio level.

Essential Skills/Experience:

• Extensive Transformation Portfolio Experience: 10+ years leading large-scale, multi-year transformation portfolios or enterprise PMOs in a global shared services, operations, or technology context. Proven track record of delivering significant business value (e.g. major cost savings or service improvements) and managing a complex mix of projects from concept to benefit realisation.
• Strategic & Financial Acumen: Demonstrated ability to translate strategic goals into an actionable portfolio of initiatives, and to enable or make critical prioritisation decisions using data and business insight. Strong financial literacy – capable of shaping business cases, managing funding, and validating benefits with Finance.
• Governance, Planning & Delivery Expertise: Deep knowledge of strategic portfolio governance practices and project/programme management methodologies across waterfall, agile, hybrid and product-led delivery. Skilled in integrated planning, dependency management, capacity balancing, risk assessment and structured problem-solving to keep a complex portfolio on track, while evolving ways of working to remain lightweight, scalable and effective.
• Stakeholder Management & Influence: Exceptional relationship-building and communication skills, including at executive level. Adept at influencing without formal authority, navigating conflicting priorities, and driving consensus. Able to challenge constructively, shape investment and prioritisation decisions, and simplify complex information into a compelling narrative for executives, functional experts and delivery teams.
• Change Leadership, Digital Fluency & Collaboration: Experience fostering a culture of transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement. Comfortable leading through ambiguity and change, with a pragmatic, human-centric approach to driving adoption of new ways of working across teams. Confident operating in a digital transformation environment and comfortable with AI, automation and emerging technologies, with the ability to shape portfolio processes, governance and investment thinking so they are fit for automation and AI-enabled initiatives.
• GBS / Shared Services Context: Experience leading a PMO in a global shared services, GBS, or BPO environment — including multi-hub delivery and engagement with internal service-tower customers.
• Qualifications: Degree-level qualification (MBA or equivalent preferred). Recognised programme/portfolio certification such as PgMP, MSP Practitioner, MoP, P3O or SAFe.

Desirable Skills/Experience:- Lean / Six Sigma exposure desirable.

When we put unexpected teams in the same room, we unleash bold thinking with the power to inspire life-changing medicines. In-person working gives us the platform we need to connect, work at pace and challenge perceptions. That's why we work, on average, a minimum of three days per week from the office. But that doesn't mean we're not flexible. We balance the expectation of being in the office while respecting individual flexibility. Join us in our unique and ambitious world.

Why AstraZeneca?Here, scientific ambition meets practical delivery. You will work with cutting-edge technology and data in an environment that brings unexpected teams together to unlock bold ideas, all in service of getting life-changing medicines to patients faster. We value kindness alongside ambition, combine disciplined execution with curiosity, and equip you with strong tools, investment and collaborative partners so your decisions translate directly into measurable impact for patients, our business and society.

Are you ready to apply?Lead the orchestration of a bold, digital-first portfolio from Lisbon and turn strategy into sustained outcomes that matter for millions—step forward and shape what comes next.

Date Posted

11-Jun-2026

Closing Date

17-Jun-2026

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity.  We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills.  We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.  We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics.  We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorisation and employment eligibility verification requirements.