Senior IT Project Manager

Project – Government Services

Duration – 12 Month renewable

Remote working with occasional visits to Leatherhead.

Outside IR35 – subject to assessment.

Security – BPSS/CTC

Our client specialises in enabling clients to make informed decisions about the operational and strategic management of their estates and asset portfolios, including the external supply chain retained to deliver asset management and maintenance services.

A critical role within this team is the IT Senior Project Manager, who will report to the Programme Director, have peer relationship with Senior Transition Lead and Solution Lead, and manage the Project Coordinator.

The role is for a disciplined, tech-savvy and proactive IT Senior Project Manager whose strengths are in detailed planning, plan execution, analysis, governance, senior stakeholder management. Managing multiple workstreams, project managers, ensuring delivery of multiple parallel critical paths.

Responsibilities:

• The role holder will plan and deliver projects across workstreams, within the mobilisation Programme to fixed timelines.
• The role holder will support and drive all aspects of the project through the lifecycle, from definition through delivery to close, including schedule, budget, resource, quality, risks, issues, change and stakeholders.
• The role holder will be accountable for the use of standard project management products of plans, schedules, budgets, and reports for project delivery, ensuring transparency and accountability across projects and workstreams.
• The role holder will assist the Programme Director in Programme-level planning, reporting or governance.
• The role holder will ensure quality of detailed plans and will be responsible for ensuring the critical paths of projects and workstreams, that plans are resourced adequately with realistic effort provisions, internal and external dependencies are clearly defined and managed, critical milestones are clearly defined and met.
• The role holder will ensure the managed delivery of the detailed plans across projects and workstreams – this will include but not be limited to smoothing and float management, deconfliction, critical path burn-down.
• The role holder will govern project delivery, including stakeholder reporting, change management, and issue resolution through structured frameworks.
• The role holder will be responsible for ensuring all Products defined in the plan are managed per the configuration management and change management processes, ensuring all Products go through proper review cycles with correct stakeholders to meet plan dates.
• The role holder will identify, assess, and mitigate project risks, proactively resolving challenges to ensure smooth project delivery across projects and workstreams.
• The role holder will work with third party Clients and Vendors enabling the delivery of projects through stakeholder engagement, building relationships, and facilitation of required delivery activities across all parties, ensuring mutual critical milestones are met.
• The role holder will collaborate with cross-functional teams, including development, operations, business stakeholders, and third-party vendors, to ensure successful project execution.
• The role holder will ensure compliance with contractual obligations, industry regulations, and business policies, while continuously seeking process improvements.
• The role holder will lead lessons-learned initiatives to drive continuous improvement and innovation through the programme lifecycle.
• The role holder will assist Programme Director in Quality Gateway management, including preparing the gateway assessments and managing the gateway governance meetings, assessment issue and mitigations.
• The role holder will ensure communications and correspondence with internal teams, external suppliers, and client are frequent and support the progress of the overall plan.
• The role holder will ensure all documentation is stored and updated in the master document register as required.

Experience Requirements

• 5+ years of senior project management experience, with a strong focus on client-facing projects in industries such as IT, software development, consulting, or professional services.
• Experience of delivery in both waterfall and agile environments.
• Experience of managing large, complex (multiple critical path) plans across 12 months+ durations.
• Experience of managing multiple projects / workstreams in large complex Programme environments.
• Experience of applying analytical skills to break down complex scopes of work, arrange them in a logical sequence, identify dependencies, constraints and opportunities.
• Experience working with Agile, Scrum, and/or Waterfall methodologies, within programme environments, with the ability to tailor approaches based on project needs.
• Experience of supply-side project management.
• Knowledge and experience of the Public Sector technology programmes.
• Experience of public sector business orientated (i.e., non-technical) client stakeholders.
• Experience of working with operational teams in demanding, delivery focused environments, delivering multiple small/medium projects simultaneously, from initiation to closure.
• Experience working with multiple external PMs, building good delivery relationships to ensure mutual success.
• Capable of building a delivery mindset in project teams, including internal resources and vendors.
• Able to build collaborative and productive working relationships with vendors, clients and internal technical resource.
• Experience of working in fast-paced projects with fixed go-live dates.
• Experience in managing Service Delivery Projects, working with internal teams, third party Clients and Vendors in demanding, delivery focused environments.
• Experience of delivering projects in a Cloud-environment.
• Experience of managing project coordinator and multiple Project Managers.
• Capable of using initiative whilst understanding the tolerances and boundaries that necessitate escalation.
• Experience of impacting change to a project and its resources as it occurs.

Technical Skills/Knowledge:

• Proficient in the use of project delivery methodology, tooling and artefacts, including Planning, scope and change management, governance and RAID management.
• Capable of building Project plans, identifying resource requirements, the critical path and key tasks to fulfil the plan.
• Good written, oral, comprehension and presentational skills to enable effective communication with both internal and external stakeholders.
• A good level of knowledge of IT systems including a general knowledge of software development and software and hardware architecture, including the explain how systems work, especially to non-IT literate audiences.
• Intermediate/Advanced in Smartsheet and/or MS Project.
• Intermediate in MS Excel, including working understanding of macros and Pivot tables.
• Intermediate in MS PowerPoint.
• Some experience using Jira KANBAN or other digital KANBAN.
• Good working knowledge of software, integration and hosting technologies (Azure and IaaS virtualized).

Qualifications/Certifications Requirements:

• Educational: Desirable - Degree Educated preferably in a technical subject.
• Professional: Essential - Practitioner in a recognised PM qualification or accrediting body (PRINCE2, APM, PMI). Desirable - Certified SCRUM Master.