At M&G our purpose is to give everyone real confidence to put their money to work. As an international savings and investments business with roots stretching back more than 170 years, we offer a range of financial products and services through Asset Management, Life and Wealth. All three operating segments work together to deliver attractive financial outcomes for our clients, and superior shareholder returns.Through our behaviours of telling it like it is, owning it now, and moving it forward together with care and integrity; we are creating an exceptional place to work for exceptional talent.We will consider flexible working arrangements for any of our roles and also offer work place accommodations to ensure you have what you need to effectively deliver in your role.The Role: M&G Life covers over 5 million customers with more than £300 Bn invested across all of its products and wrappers, and has an ambitious growth plan for 2025 and beyond. M&G Life operations work with a number of partners including Equiniti, Diligenta, Waystone, Paragon, Willis Towers Watson, as well as M&G Global Services supporting our in-house operation. The Commercial Portfolio Director will lead the strategic oversight, execution, and commercial performance of the Individual Life & Pensions transformation portfolio. This senior leadership role is accountable for ensuring all change initiatives are commercially viable, strategically aligned, and fully compliant with risk and regulatory requirements. Empowered by the Managing Director of Individual Life & Pensions, the Director will act as the single point of accountability for portfolio reporting, ensuring direct, unfiltered communication and insight without reliance on intermediaries. The role demands a highly self-sufficient and confident transformation leader, comfortable with ambiguity, complex stakeholder environments, and driving execution at scale.Key Responsibilities:Portfolio Leadership & ExecutionOwn the end-to-end lifecycle of the Individual Life & Pensions portfolio, ensuring initiatives are strategically aligned, commercially sound, and deliver measurable outcomes.Act as a senior change and transformation leader, embedding agile and hybrid methodologies, and ensuring high-quality execution across a large, multi-disciplinary team.Partner with Technology to shape and deliver digital and data-enabled transformation, ensuring solutions are scalable and future-ready.Risk, Regulatory & Commercial AccountabilityOwn all risk, compliance, and regulatory aspects of the portfolio, ensuring robust governance and proactive issue management.Drive commercial discipline across the portfolio, including:Development and challenge of business cases for new initiatives and product launches.Oversight of commercial reporting across new and existing products.Monitoring and optimisation of key financial and operational metrics such as flows, assets under management (AUM), cost-to-serve, persistency, and customer lifetime value.Championing the development of a robust data ecosystem to support real-time portfolio insights and decision-making.Ability to challenge product viability and commercial outcomes.Leveraging CFA-level financial analysis to support investment prioritisation, capital efficiency, and performance benchmarking.Portfolio Visibility & GovernanceStrategic Level Monitoring: Ensure the portfolio aligns with M&G’s long-term goals through strategic portfolio reviews, balanced metrics, and risk/opportunity monitoring.Orchestration Level Monitoring: Coordinate cross-project alignment, optimise resource allocation, manage dependencies, and run regular portfolio alignment meetings using integrated reporting frameworks.Delivery Level Monitoring: Oversee individual project execution, ensuring timelines, budgets, and value delivery are met, with timely issue resolution and escalation.Stakeholder Engagement & LeadershipAct as the direct 1:1 conduit to the MD of Individual Life & Pensions, ensuring clear, consistent, and transparent reporting across the entire portfolio—not filtered through individual programme leads.Build and maintain strong relationships across Finance, Technology, Risk, Compliance, and Product, influencing at executive and ExCo levels.Lead a high-performing team, fostering a culture of accountability, innovation, and continuous improvement.Navigate ambiguity with confidence, acting as a trusted advisor to the Chief Transformation Officer and senior leadership.Key Skills and Experience:Skills & ExperienceExtensive experience leading large-scale transformation portfolios in financial services, ideally within life and pensions.Proven track record of commercial delivery, including cost optimisation, revenue growth, and operational efficiency.Deep understanding of regulatory frameworks, risk management, and governance in a financial services context.Strong technology awareness, with experience delivering digital and data-enabled change.Demonstrated expertise in business case development, commercial modelling, and performance reporting.Familiarity with actuarial principles and financial modelling, including experience working with actuarial teams or holding actuarial qualifications.CFA Charter holder or equivalent financial analysis experience is highly desirable.Exceptional stakeholder management skills, with confidence influencing across complex, matrixed environments.Demonstrated ability to lead large teams and drive execution in high-pressure, ambiguous settings.Growth mindset with a relentless focus on outcomes and value creation.QualificationsDegree-level education in Business, Finance, Actuarial Science, or related field (MBA, CFA Charter holder, or actuarial qualification desirable).Professional certifications in portfolio management (e.g., MoP, PfMP), change delivery (e.g., AgilePM, SAFe), or risk management are advantageous.Key Behaviours:Brings a self-starting & adaptable approach to change, proactively identifying opportunities and responding to evolving priorities with pace, precision and purpose.Build trust by putting people at the center of decisions, fostering a collaborative and empowering environment enabling teams to thrive through delivery uncertainty and transformation.Takes ownership of outcomes, anticipates risks, and initiates solutions without waiting for direction.Apply critical thinking to assess risks and interpret data to drive evidence-based decisions to support and protect delivery of value.Demonstrate integrity in handling sensitive data, upholding trust and transparency.Work Level: Integration LeaderRecruiter: Mandy WhitlockLocation: London, Scotland, Location IndependentClosing Date: Friday 7th NovemberWe have a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture at M&G plc, underpinned by our policies and our employee-led networks who provide networking opportunities, advice and support for the diverse communities our colleagues represent. Regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, nationality, disability or long term condition, we are looking to attract, promote and retain exceptional people. We also welcome those who take part in military service and those returning from career breaks.M&G is also proud to be a , and we welcome applications from candidates with long-term health conditions, disabilities, or neuro-divergent conditions. Being a Disability Confident Leader means that candidates who meet the minimum criteria of a job, will be offered an interview if they 'opt in' to the scheme when applying.If you need assistance or an alternative means of applying for a role due to a disability or additional need, please let us know by contacting us at:
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