Portfolio & PMO Director - NPD, Innovation & Commercialisation - Morgan McKinley

• Job Title: Portfolio & PMO Director - NPD, Innovation & Commercialisation
• Organisation: Global Consumer Healthcare Leader
• Location: Vauxhall, London (Hybrid: 2 days/week onsite)
• Salary: £125,000 - £130,000 base salary (potential for negotiation) + 10% Bonus
• Position Type: Permanent

The Opportunity: Drive the Engine, Don't Just Track the Process

Are you a commercially minded, high-ownership portfolio leader who thrives in execution driven environments? Do you view project portfolios through the lens of a business owner rather than a process purist?

We are searching for a Portfolio & PMO Director to serve as the strategic integrator for our global consumer healthcare leader client. This isn't a passive, administrative corporate transformation role, this is the delivery engine of a fast-paced multinational. Reporting directly to the Global Head of Portfolio & PMO, you will own the category's portfolio strategy, build high-performing project teams and aggressively drive pipelines from concept to sustainable commercial market success.

We are looking for a commercial "mini General Manager", an assertive, data-backed leader who knows how to optimise a stage gate framework to protect business value and accelerate speed-to-market.

Key Accountabilities

• Strategic Portfolio Integration: Plan, model and optimise the portfolio to hit hard commercial category targets. Deliver executive-ready insights, trade-off scenario analyses and risk mitigations directly to the Category Leadership Team.
• Resource Optimisation & Forward Planning: Lead annual cross-functional resource budgeting, anticipating capability gaps and capacity constraints to ensure high-priority projects are flawlessly staffed.
• PMO Leadership & Talent Cultivation: Lead, coach and scale a team of high-performing Project Managers, embedding a culture of decision discipline, master data integrity and pipeline velocity.
• VP-Level Strategic Influence: Partner with Category VPs and functional heads, acting as a robust escalation point and confidently challenging business case logic using clear financial and supply chain data.

The Profile We Are Looking For

• Tier-1 Matrix Pedigree: A proven track record within highly sophisticated, fast-moving consumer environments (e.g. PepsiCo, Haleon, GSK, Nestlé, Mondelez, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt, Unilever).
• Global/Multi-Market Scale: Extensive experience managing complex, cross-border innovation and product commercialisation portfolios spanning multiple regional markets.
• Pragmatic Stage-Gate Mastery: Deep fluency in stage gate governance structures. You must be someone who knows how to flex and adapt a framework to protect delivery pace, never using rigid compliance checklists as an excuse to stall momentum.
• Commercial and Financial Weight: Exceptional business acumen. You must be comfortable managing project variables against P&L health, margin protection, cost-of-goods-sold (COGS), NPV and operational line capacities.
• Assertive Leadership Style: High executive presence, clear communication skills and the resilience to stand your ground and drive cross-functional accountability across competing priorities