Portfolio Manager

Position description

Department: Portfolio & Investments
Reports to: Managing Director, Portfolio & Investments
Status: Full Time, Exempt
Location: Palo Alto jobs-near-me.org U.S. Remote consideration
Salary: $104,900 -$147,000
(Typically, new hires’ range is $104,900-$126,000 based on experience) 

Position Summary 

The Portfolio Manager plays a key role in the Portfolio & Investments Team, working closely with Directors to scope, source, select, and track the progress of Skoll investments. The Portfolio Manager also manages key programs within the Portfolio & Investments team, requiring collaboration both with the immediate team and across the Foundation.

The Skoll Foundation seeks a team player who is curious about the dynamics of organizational growth, scale, and impact and possesses the ability to synthesize and communicate findings clearly in written, verbal, and visual formats. Candidates should have a balance of analytical rigor and compassion for the human condition to undertake the Foundation’s mission. Demonstrated experience in the evaluation of business models, financials, and data as well as strong investigative skills and careful attention to detail are necessary in this role. Experience sourcing grant partners, assessing the impact of their work, and an overall orientation to learning that improves the team’s practices is essential to the Portfolio Manager role.

Successful candidates will have a pragmatic, flexible work style, with the willingness to jump from research to project management, from supporting a meeting to presenting key findings. The ideal candidate is a nimble generalist with the intellectual capacity and motivation to quickly grasp Skoll’s interconnected focus areas. The Portfolio Manager will primarily support the Strengthening Health Systems & Preventing Pandemics strategic priority team. The strongest candidates will have prior experience working on social sector efforts to improve public health access and delivery.

The Portfolio Manager must be resourceful and hands-on, and driven to work in a lean, results-oriented environment with a high level of integrity, humility, and discretion. A collaborative nature, sound judgment, and a good sense of humor are also important characteristics to have.

Primary Responsibilities 

Supporting Investment Practice

• Working closely with strategic priority leadership, apply Skoll’s investment framework to scope, source, select and learn from the Foundation’s investments.
• Support sourcing efforts and manage a pipeline of organizations that demonstrate social innovation and contribute to the desired systems outcomes the Foundation seeks.
• Conduct rigorous due diligence on grant opportunities, which could include desk research; interviewing issue experts, partners, and/or funders of the organization; conducting financial and governance reviews of the organization; and/or conducting site visits to understand the organization’s work through the eyes of those they serve and with the lens of social innovation and systemic change.
• Communicate balanced analysis to a variety of stakeholders and present recommendations to internal stakeholders and leadership for consideration.
• Contribute to the team’s process for monitoring progress and impact of active investments.

Partner with Awardees and Portfolio

• Manage relationships with a limited number of grantee partners with guidance from senior colleagues; co-creating a shared set of goals and plan for facilitating the partnership between Awardees/grantees and the Foundation.
• Assess how the Foundation’s time, talents, and resources can be used to advance partner progress. Partner with Skoll teams to showcase portfolio organizations and their innovations via Skoll’s strategic partnerships, research, communications, media, and signature events.
• Cultivate relationships across the impact ecosystem and make connections between Awardees/grantees and potential partners and funders.

Providing Flexible Program Management

• Contribute to the design and execution of new/improved workstreams within the Portfolio & Investments team and cross-foundation initiatives.
• Manage complex, dynamic, long-term projects and transparently track progress against key milestones, with the agility to shift milestones as needed.
• Maintain team norms and processes for using in-house knowledge management tools like Salesforce, Microsoft 360, and Asana.

Minimum Qualifications 

Candidates should have a minimum of 5-8 years of work experience. Excellent verbal and written communication skills are imperative. Demonstrated experience researching, collecting, and analyzing information across multiple sectors and industries is required. Demonstrated ability to develop learning frameworks and implement to evaluate strategic programmatic areas. A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and experience is required. Must be able to quickly learn and consistently utilize software tools like Salesforce, Asana, and Microsoft 365, Excel, and PowerPoint. Must be available for domestic and international travel.

Application instructions

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