Project Manager

Location: Warrington, with hybrid working arrangements, 1 day a week in the office.

Role Purpose

The role holder is accountable for leading and managing customer implementation projects and/or programmes from beginning to end, directly with the customer, through a systems integrator (SI), or priming organisation. The Project Manager is accountable for the delivery, completion, and success of the project by managing customer expectations, overseeing the budget, proactively anticipating issues, and managing changes as required. Project type may vary between software delivery (primary), infrastructure or business change projects.

This company's core values are central to who they are and how they do business, and you will, therefore, be expected to collaborate positively, have a passion to succeed, be prepared to take smart risks, possess leadership qualities, be able to flex your expertise and use your strong sense of customer focus to exceed expectations.

Role Responsibilities

• Lead and manage projects from beginning to end, including project initiation, project scoping, planning, resource management and project closure with lessons learned.
• Responsible for tracking the delivery of project status, managing the project budget, and proactively managing risks and issues with the customer in advance of delivery.
• Accurately forecast both resource and revenue, profitability, margin and track resource utilisation.
• Support out-of-hour implementations as required.
• Develop full-scale project plans for all various phases, including all activities and costs, to ensure successful delivery.
• Manage resources by forecasting requirements and liaising with the Project Management team to book resources for the project duration accurately; forecast project changes and adjust resource forecasts and bookings accordingly.
• Act as the key customer point of contact, managing the customer UAT Cycle, implementation readiness and cutover to Early Life Support.
• Maintain regular and effective communication with all customers and relevant stakeholders, reporting on project status and highlighting any known or anticipated issues; engage senior management to assist with resolution when required.
• Be responsible and accountable for the delivery and/or completion of all assigned projects.
• Maintain regular communication, building relationships with the most senior levels on the customer side.
• Work closely with the Account Directors and Head of Professional Services on pre-project engagements, support account growth, and accurately forecast pipeline resource demand and revenue as part of the early stages of the sales process.
• Actively participate in pre-sales and produce project contractual documents such as Statements of Work (SOW), delivery plans and timelines, project scoping and estimation, including Ratio Tracking, support proposal creation and contract preparations.
• Set and continually lead project expectations with cross-functional team members and other stakeholders (internal or external).
• Identify, determine and assess if there is a need for additional resources and trigger the recruitment process if necessary.
• Identify and delegate tasks and responsibilities to appropriate resources.
• Facilitate the resolution of issues within the project team.
• Coach, mentor, motivate and supervise project team members and contractors, and influence them to take positive action and accountability.
• If responsible for Line Management, undertake bi-annual performance reviews for any line members.
• Cascade and enforce all policies and processes with line members and within the project team.
• Comply with the Programme Management Methodology (PMM) and Principles based on PRINCE II.
• Support a culture of learning, trust, and self-improvement.
• Identify and adapt delivery methodologies as required by each individual project (within the framework of the PMM & SDLC).
• Continuously improve through project reviews, lessons learned, and implementation of innovative improvements.
• Ensure awareness and compliance with ISO9001, ISO27001, ISO22301, and UK GDPR regulations.
• Perform any other duties as required.

Knowledge and Skills

The successful candidate must have previous experience working in a telecoms or telecoms solutions company. The successful candidate will also have the following experience:

• Commercially aware and politically astute.
• Highly customer-focused and client-facing with a solution-oriented mindset.
• Demonstrates sound judgement, able to assess situations and make sound conclusions and decisions.
• Persuasive, encouraging and motivating.
• Ability to elicit cooperation from a wide variety of sources – a strong negotiator.
• Strong interpersonal skills with a professional attitude.
• Excellent presentation and communication skills.
• Decisive and results-focused.
• Meticulous, structured with excellent attention to detail.
• Strong technical background, Telecoms industry experience.
• Adaptable, can conform to shifting priorities, demands and timelines whilst retaining control.
• Flexible during times of change, willing to go the extra mile.
• Pro-active and able to maintain the ‘bigger picture’ in all aspects of their work.

Ascent People is acting as an employment agency for this vacancy, and applications from all ages and backgrounds will be considered.