Associate Director - PMO Manager (Life Sciences Client) in London

Colliers is a leading commercial real estate services company, providing a full range of services to real estate occupiers, developers and investors on a local, national and international basis.

Services include brokerage sales and leasing (landlord and tenant representation), real estate management, valuation, consulting, project management, project marketing and research.

We provide our services across the core sectors (office, industrial, retail and hotel) as well as many specialised property types.

The UK business is headquartered in London, with over 1300 specialists throughout 16 offices across the UK and Ireland.

Job Description

• Associate Director - PMO Manager (Life Sciences Client)
• Role Purpose

The Associate Director - PMO Manager will replace the current PMO lead on the Life Sciences account and will operate as the central point of coordination for programme governance, reporting, risk management, stakeholder engagement and project controls.

The role is designed for a senior PMO professional who can bring structure, pace, commercial judgement and high-quality client communication to a complex multi-market programme.

The successful candidate will work closely with client stakeholders, Colliers account leadership, in-country project managers, cost managers, transaction managers and specialist workstreams to ensure projects are delivered consistently in line with client governance requirements and Colliers best practice.

• What Success Looks Like
• Client stakeholders receive clear, accurate and timely reporting that supports confident decision-making.
• Project governance is consistently applied across all active clientcapital projects.
• Risks, issues, actions, decisions, dependencies and changes are visible, owned and actively managed.
• Local delivery teams understand clientprocesses and are supported through mobilisation and delivery.
• The clientfit-out standards, playbook and PMO knowledge base remain current, accessible and well controlled.
• The role strengthens Colliers client confidence and contributes to the wider development of the client account.

Key Responsibilities

• Programme governance and controls
• Lead the PMO governance model for clientcapital projects, including stage-gate reviews, approvals, meeting cadence, decision records and compliance tracking.
• Ensure all project teams operate in accordance with clientgovernance protocols, Colliers best practice and agreed service levels.
• Maintain clear project documentation, approval records, audit trails and programme control registers.
• Reporting and performance management
• Produce high-quality weekly, monthly and governance reporting for clientand Colliers stakeholders.
• Develop and maintain dashboards and trackers covering schedule, budget, milestones, risks, issues, actions and decisions.
• Coordinate reporting inputs from local project teams and challenge data quality, completeness and consistency.
• Risk, issue, action and decision management
• Own and maintain the programme RAID log, ensuring each item has an owner, due date, status and clear escalation route.
• Facilitate regular risk and issue reviews, ensuring mitigations are agreed and tracked through to closure.
• Monitor dependencies, change impacts and critical path activities across the portfolio.
• Stakeholder and meeting management
• Act as a senior day-to-day PMO contact for clientstakeholders, Colliers account leadership and local delivery teams.
• Prepare agendas, papers, governance packs, steering committee materials and professional meeting minutes.
• Track actions and decisions rigorously and ensure follow-through across client and Colliers teams.
• Mobilisation and delivery support
• Support onboarding of local project managers, third-party project managers and specialist consultants.
• Coach project teams on client governance requirements, reporting protocols and delivery expectations.
• Support preparation for internal funding approvals, project reviews and client governance submissions.
• Knowledge management and continuous improvement
• Maintain clientfit-out specifications, playbook content, templates and PMO repositories.
• Identify opportunities to improve reporting, governance, controls and account delivery processes.
• Capture lessons learned and convert them into practical improvements for future clientprojects.
• Associate Director Level Requirements
• Demonstrable experience operating at Associate Director, Senior PMO Manager, Senior Programme Manager or equivalent level.
• Credibility to engage with senior client stakeholders and represent Colliers professionally in governance forums.
• Ability to lead without direct authority across multi-disciplinary teams, external consultants and in-country delivery teams.
• Strong commercial awareness, with the ability to identify risks, opportunities and account growth potential.
• Experience mentoring PMO or project management colleagues and raising standards across team delivery.
• Confidence to challenge project data, delivery assumptions and governance gaps in a constructive, client-focused way.

Essential Experience and Skills

• Minimum 5+ years experience in PMO, programme controls, programme management or project coordination within a corporate real estate, construction, workplace, fit-out or capital projects environment.
• Experience supporting complex, multi-country or multi-workstream programmes.
• Strong command of programme reporting, dashboard development, risk and issue management, action tracking and governance administration.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel and Power Point skills, with confidence producing senior stakeholder reporting packs.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to turn complex project information into concise management reporting.
• Highly organised, proactive and detail-focused, with the ability to manage competing priorities across time zones.
• Strong stakeholder management skills and confidence working with client-side teams, consultants and project delivery partners.

Desirable Experience

• Experience working with life sciences, pharmaceutical or highly governed corporate clients.
• Knowledge of corporate real estate lifecycle activities including transactions, workplace strategy, capital project delivery and operational FM interfaces.
• Experience with Power BI, Smartsheet, Microsoft Project, Share Point, Teams or similar programme management and reporting platforms.
• Relevant project management or PMO qualification such as APM, PRINCE2, PMI, MSP or equivalent.
• Candidate Profile

This role will suit a confident, structured and commercially aware PMO professional who enjoys bringing order to complex programmes.

The ideal candidate will be comfortable working with senior stakeholders, confident in reporting and governance, and motivated by delivering a consistently high-quality service to a strategic client account.

Additional Information

Please tell us what would help you take part and give enough practical detail for us to arrange it.

We will handle your request confidentially, and it will not affect how you are assessed.

We make reasonable adjustments in line with the Equality Act 2010.

At Colliers, we empower people to perform at their best.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we want every candidate to feel welcome.

If anything would help you take part in our process, such as extra time or rest breaks, step-free access, or a different interview format, please tell us in your application.

You are not expected to share a diagnosis or medical history.

Colliers is proud to be an equal opportunities employer.

We do not discriminate based on age; disability; gender; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race (including colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins); religion or belief; sex; or sexual orientation.

We also value diverse experience and neurodiversity.

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