Programme Manager - Modernisation & Transformation

Duration: Initial 6 month contract

Rate: Expected between £800-900 Inside IR35 but may negotiate for right experience

Working Arrangement: Willingness to consider majority remote but understanding of need to travel to site in London. Location should not compromise delivery.

We are working with a large, complex public-sector organisation that is undertaking an ambitious programme of organisation-wide modernisation and service transformation. Over recent months, the organisation has invested significantly in building its transformation capability, bringing together Project Managers, Business Analysts, Service Designers and other specialist resources. Considerable work has also been undertaken to understand where services need to transform and the opportunities for improvement. The next challenge is to bring structure, sequencing and experienced transformation leadership across this activity.

The Role: This is not a conventional Programme Manager role just focused primarily on governance, reporting and coordinating project plans. The successful individual will sit above a multidisciplinary transformation team and provide the structure, direction and delivery discipline required to move complex service redesign initiatives successfully from discovery and design through to implementation. The organisation has already developed a transformation methodology and supporting framework, heavily influenced by GDS principles and ways of working. The requirement now is for someone with the experience and credibility to embed that approach across the programme and ensure teams consistently follow it. Fundamentally, you will bring structure and chronology to transformation. You will establish what needs to happen, in what sequence, who needs to be involved and what needs to be achieved before a service or workstream progresses to its next stage. It is important to explain that the transformation extends well beyond technology. It considers the whole service operating model, including people, processes, organisational structure, technology, data, finance and the customer journey.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide overall programme leadership across a portfolio of complex service redesign and modernisation activity.
• Establish the structure, sequencing and delivery rhythm required to move services through end-to-end transformation.
• Translate an established transformation methodology into a practical programme approach that teams can consistently execute.
• Provide clear direction to Project Managers, Business Analysts, Service Designers and other specialists regarding their responsibilities and deliverables at each stage.
• Coordinate transformation activity across operations, technology, process, organisational design, HR, finance and data.
• Ensure discovery, analysis, service design, business case development, implementation and benefits realisation happen in a logical and disciplined sequence.
• Identify and manage dependencies between services and workstreams.
• Bring consistency and rigour to programme planning, governance, risks, issues and decision-making.
• Challenge activity that is disconnected from the overall transformation outcome or taking place at the wrong point in the redesign lifecycle.
• Ensure transformation moves beyond analysis and design into executable, sustainable organisational change.
• Provide leadership, coaching and direction to the wider transformation team.

About You:

The need is there now so we are particularly interested in speaking with people who have genuinely done this before, rather than those whose experience has centered predominantly on traditional programme governance or technology implementation. Experience should include:

• Significant Programme Management or Transformation leadership experience within Local Government, Central Government or the wider Civil Service.
• Demonstrable experience of personally leading end-to-end service redesign and transformation.
• Experience redesigning services across the combination of people, process, technology, data and organisational structure.
• Strong knowledge of GDS methodologies, principles and service design approaches.
• Experience directing multidisciplinary teams incorporating Project Management, Business Analysis, Service Design and specialist corporate functions.
• The ability to take a transformation methodology and convert it into a clear, practical and sequenced programme of activity.
• Strong understanding of programme dependencies, governance, implementation and benefits realisation.
• Experience operating within a large organisation with significant organisational and stakeholder complexity.
• The credibility to provide direction to experienced transformation professionals while also constructively challenging senior stakeholders.

End-User Transformation Experience:

There is a strong preference for candidates who have worked directly within a complex public-sector organisation and have been accountable for delivering transformation from the inside. Consulting experience can certainly be relevant, but this assignment requires someone who understands the practical realities of organisational transformation: working alongside operational services, navigating organisational constraints, making difficult design decisions and taking those decisions through into implementation. We are particularly interested in candidates who can enter a complex transformation environment and quickly establish:

• Where are we now?
• What needs to happen next?
• Who needs to do it?
• In what order?
• What are the dependencies?