Portfolio Growth Officer

The remit

Why this role exists

Every company reaches a point where incremental improvements are no longer enough. The portfolio now contains multiple leadership teams, brands, products and growth engines. The opportunity is no longer simply to improve one company, but to create an environment where every company becomes stronger because it is part of the wider ecosystem. The Portfolio Growth Officer exists to bring independent commercial thinking across the portfolio, identify where growth is constrained, strengthen capability, and ensure the right people, systems and strategies are in place to deliver sustainable growth.

Key areas of responsibility

Portfolio Intelligence: Build a deep understanding of every company, its commercial model, market, customer journey and growth engine.

Commercial Performance: Assess growth performance and identify the root causes behind success or underperformance.

Growth Capability: Evaluate marketing, sales and commercial capability, identifying where stronger leadership or talent is required.

Talent: Support the identification, recruitment and development of exceptional growth talent across the portfolio.

Strategic Projects: Contribute to major initiatives including AI, acquisitions, automation, analytics and new ventures.

Cross-Portfolio Learning: Ensure ideas, systems and successful initiatives are transferred across companies wherever appropriate.

Founder Advisory: Act as an independent strategic adviser, providing clear recommendations, constructive challenge and objective analysis.

You will be expected to develop a complete understanding of each business, identify its commercial constraints and opportunities, and provide objective recommendations. You will challenge assumptions, identify capability gaps, improve visibility and help ensure leadership decisions are based on evidence rather than instinct alone.

The bar

What success looks like

1.Every company has clear commercial visibility and meaningful growth metrics.
2.Growth opportunities and risks are identified early.
3.Capability gaps are understood with action plans in place.
4.High-performing talent has been recruited where needed.
5.Best practice is routinely shared across the portfolio.
6.Leadership discussions are driven by evidence, accountability and outcomes.
7.John has a trusted adviser capable of seeing the whole ecosystem while company leaders remain accountable for execution.

The person

Who you are

You have successfully grown businesses and improved commercial performance. You combine strategic thinking with operational credibility. You are equally comfortable reviewing marketing performance, questioning commercial assumptions, assessing leadership capability and making difficult recommendations. You possess the confidence to challenge respectfully and the judgement to know when to influence rather than direct.

Be clear before you apply

This is not…

—A conventional marketing leadership role.
—A role responsible for managing day-to-day campaigns.
—A position that sits above existing executive teams.
—A reporting role focused on dashboards rather than decisions.

The opportunity

Why this opportunity is different

Few roles offer the chance to influence multiple businesses while working directly with an entrepreneur building an ecosystem rather than a single company. For the right individual, this is an opportunity to shape long-term commercial performance across an ambitious and evolving portfolio.

The application

Show us how you think.

This job comes down to judgement, diagnosis and influence. So be specific: real numbers, the actual situation, what actually happened. We care how you reason through a commercial problem, not how polished your pitch is.

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Question 01What specifically attracted you to this opportunity, and why do you believe your experience is relevant to advising multiple businesses rather than leading a single one?We want the real reason, and some sign you get the difference between advising and running.

Question 02Describe the most commercially significant growth challenge you've solved.Please include:·Business size / industry·The commercial problem·How you diagnosed it·What actions you recommended·Measurable outcome

Question 03Tell us about a time you discovered that leadership believed one thing was causing poor growth, but your analysis showed something completely different. How did you reach your conclusion, and what happened next?We're interested in how you separate the assumed cause from the actual one.

Question 04This role will not manage the executive teams it advises. Tell us about a time you influenced senior leaders to change direction without having direct authority over them.Influence without authority is the core of this role. Be specific about how you did it.

Question 05Which metrics do you regularly use when assessing business performance?The ones you actually rely on, and why they tell you what others miss.

Question 06Imagine John has acquired a business doing £8m revenue. Growth has stalled for two years despite increasing marketing spend.Walk us through:·The first things you would investigate·The questions you would ask leadership·How you would determine where growth is constrained·What your first 90 days would look like

Question 07Have you worked across multiple businesses simultaneously?If so, tell us:·How many businesses·What sectors·What your role was

Question 08Tell us about a major commercial decision that didn't work. What did you learn, and what would you do differently today?How you handle a decision that went wrong tells us more than your wins.

Question 09Four companies each flag a high-priority task on the same day, and John needs you to act on one first. How do you decide?Please cover:·What information you'd want before deciding·How you'd weigh urgency against actual commercial impact·What happens to the other three while they wait·How you'd communicate the decision back to JohnWe're not looking for a triage framework. We want to see how you think under competing demands, when every fire looks like the one that matters most.

Question 10What are your salary expectations?

Question 11Notice period