Portfolio Manager Jobs

About The Position

Requirements

• A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• A minimum of eight (8) years of demonstrated success in developing, accelerating, measuring, and influencing growth of innovative organizations or a proven ability to develop new and equivalent skills.
• Demonstrated experience researching, collecting, and analyzing information across multiple sectors and industries
• Demonstrated ability to develop learning frameworks and implement to evaluate strategic programmatic areas.
• Proven ability to evaluate an investment opportunity or business case, or other due diligence related work.
• Knowledge of a wide variety of investment tools, including grants and program-related or mission-related investments, as well as debt and equity as applied in an impact context.
• Proven ability to build effective partnerships and networks internally and externally.
• Time living and working in other countries or outside of one’s community of origin.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills are imperative.
• Agile learner and rapid adapter to software tools including but not limited to Salesforce, Asana, and Microsoft 365, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Must be available for domestic and international travel.
• Able to work on-site Tuesday through Thursday in the District of Columbia.

Nice To Haves

• 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 leading 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 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.
• The ideal candidate brings strategic agility and a genuine comfort with the dynamic nature of donor-led philanthropy, adapting fluidly as priorities evolve without losing operational rigor.
• A collaborative nature, sound judgment, and a good sense of humor are also important characteristics to have.

Responsibilities

• Under the direction of a Managing Director, Portfolio Managers scope and/or refine issue area strategies. To inform Skoll’s approach, they will conduct desk research, attend conferences, and hold meetings with partners, peer funders, and other experts.
• Present findings and recommendations on strategic approach to the Managing Director, Chief Program Officer and other stakeholders.
• Independently source and manage a pipeline of organizations well-aligned with the investment strategy and develop opportunities for investment.
• Conduct rigorous due diligence for the Skoll Award for Social Innovation, and other investment opportunities, including interviewing issue experts, partners and/or funders of the organization; conducting financial and governance reviews; 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.
• Define the highest impact investment tools to use, from grants to program-related investments (e.g., structured debt, equity, and other investment vehicles).
• Within a strategic priority workstream, lead relationships with Skoll Awardees/grantees and partners; 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 their progress. Through partnership, understand, analyze, and share how organizations are achieving impact and develop strategies to scale and share that impact.
• Cultivate relationships across the priority ecosystem and make connections between grantees and potential partners and funders.
• Coordinate with internal teams to bring awareness to critical global issues and the work of the social innovators in your portfolio.
• Serve as a credible, global spokesperson for social innovation and the Skoll Foundation’s strategy and mission.
• In partnership with the appropriate teams, showcase portfolio impact via strategic partnerships, media, research, communications, and events.
• Work with portfolio partners to develop milestones and ongoing metrics to measure and communicate impact.
• Identify patterns within the portfolio and use those patterns to define opportunities to assist individual organizations.
• Develop and implement best practices to understand and further the impact from the strategic priority and Skoll Award portfolios and regularly communicate results internally and externally.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Flexible Time Off (FTO)
• 10% employer 403(b) retirement contribution with no vesting period
• 11 paid holidays plus a monthly wellness day
• Annual health and wellness reimbursement
• 2:1 employee gift matching program
• Anniversary grants to the nonprofit of your choice at career milestones