Job Title: PMO Automation Specialist (Consultant) - R&D
Location: London, hybrid (3 days per week on site)
Duration: Permanent
Start: ASAP
At Pace, our consultants genuinely care about the impact our work has on our customers and their customers alike. We are ‘problem solvers’ who call on our collective experience, knowledge and skills to support customers to access benefits early.
We are reimagining how consulting services are delivered, taking a human-centred approach, and our work is having a material impact on people's lives.
Due to growth of an ongoing programme of work, we are hiring an experienced PMO Automation Specialist who will act as a practical automation and process improvement partner to the PMO, helping the organisation move from manual coordination and reporting-heavy processes toward a more scalable, AI-enabled operating model.
Role
You will identify, design, test, and implement automations that reduce manual effort, improve data quality, strengthen programme oversight, and support better portfolio visibility. This includes automation across reporting, risk management, governance, project onboarding, approval workflows, knowledge management, and portfolio planning.
This is not a purely technical automation role. It requires someone who can understand complex operational processes, work closely with programme and functional teams, apply sound PMO judgement, and build pragmatic tools and workflows that people actually use.
Accountabilities of the PMO Automations Specialist will include but not be limited to:
- Map key programme and PMO workflows, identifying where manual effort, duplication, rework, or coordination burden can be reduced through automation, better workflow design, or improved tooling.
- Design, prototype, and implement practical automations across core PMO processes, including reporting, risk management, governance, project onboarding, portfolio planning, knowledge management, and approval workflows.
- Work with programme and operational teams to understand recurring pain points and translate messy or evolving requirements into usable tools, workflows, dashboards, or structured processes.
- Support the development of a more scalable operating model by enabling teams to self-serve routine information, reduce manual chasing, and reuse data more effectively across reporting, governance, and decision-making.
- Use AI and automation tools to support synthesis, reporting, briefing generation, workflow prompts, knowledge search, data quality checks, and process guidance, within agreed organisational guardrails.
- Help define data standards and workflow requirements so that information from different systems and processes can be captured consistently and reused for reporting, portfolio oversight, and decision support.
- Support the review, selection, testing, and implementation of project management, workflow, and automation tools that can work flexibly across different teams while providing central visibility.
- Work with technical and functional colleagues to ensure automations are secure, maintainable, proportionate, and aligned with data governance and responsible AI expectations.
- Build prototypes quickly, test them with users, gather feedback, and iterate toward robust and maintainable solutions that improve adoption and reduce friction.
- Develop simple documentation, guidance, and training so that teams can use, maintain, and improve new tools and workflows.
- Track the impact of automation initiatives, including time saved, reduction in manual effort, improved data quality, faster reporting, better follow‑up, and reduced rework.
Required skills and experience
- Proven experience designing or implementing workflow automation, process improvement, operational tooling, or low‑code/no‑code solutions in a complex environment.
- Proven ability to deliver at pace, rapidly translating operational problems into usable prototypes, workflows, or automations without losing sight of quality, adoption, and maintainability.
- Strong understanding of programme, project, portfolio, or PMO processes, including reporting, governance, risk, dependencies, change management, approvals, and operational coordination.
- Ability to map complex end‑to‑end processes, identify bottlenecks, and translate operational requirements into practical tools or workflows.
- Experience with automation, workflow, or low‑code/no‑code tools such as Airtable, Zapier, Make, Power Automate, Notion, Smartsheet, Monday.com, Jira, Asana, or similar.
- Experience using AI tools to improve knowledge work, for example summarisation, synthesis, reporting, workflow support, search, or knowledge management.
- Strong analytical and systems‑thinking skills, with the ability to understand how data, process, people, and governance interact.
- Comfortable working with ambiguity, evolving requirements, and non‑standard operating models.
- Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills, including the ability to explain technical or workflow concepts clearly to non‑technical users.
- Pragmatic and delivery‑oriented, able to build useful prototypes quickly while also thinking about long‑term maintainability, data quality, and adoption.
- Experience working in a PMO, portfolio office, transformation, R&D, innovation, grant funding, or complex delivery environment.
- Experience automating or improving reporting, risk management, governance, portfolio planning, senior reporting, or operational decision‑making processes.
- Experience designing tools or workflows that operate across multiple teams, programmes, or business areas.
- Experience with AI‑assisted reporting, document synthesis, knowledge bases, chatbots, or internal assistants.
- Familiarity with data governance, information security, access control, responsible AI use, APIs, scripting, or lightweight technical development.
- Experience developing dashboards, structured databases, or workflow tools that support oversight and decision‑making.
Personal Attributes
- Practical, curious, and improvement‑minded, with a strong instinct for reducing unnecessary manual effort and the ownership mindset to proactively identify what needs to be done and drive it forward at pace.
- Comfortable operating in a high‑pressure, dynamic environment with ambiguity and evolving requirements.
- Strong user empathy, with a focus on building tools and workflows that genuinely help people do their jobs better.
- Able to balance speed and structure: willing to prototype quickly, but thoughtful about data quality, maintainability, and adoption.
- Comfortable challenging existing processes constructively and identifying where work can be simplified, standardised, automated, or removed.
- Organised, analytical, and detail‑oriented, with the ability to build credibility across operational, technical, and senior stakeholders.
- Motivated by the practical application of AI and automation to improve complex programme and portfolio management.
What’s in it for you
- An opportunity to join a high‑growth, scale‑up consulting firm; we see an opportunity to make a material difference to how clients are served, and are on a mission to create environments that thrive for our clients.
- A dedicated focus on your individual personal development: managed through annual performance appraisals, individual personal development plans, and our bi‑weekly ‘continuous conversations’ programme.
- Access to Corporate APM membership benefits and additional professional development through a personal training budget (subject to approval of a relevant business case)
Company benefits include
- Life Assurance*
- Critical Illness*
- Holiday Purchase Scheme
- Electric Car Scheme*
- Cycle To Work Scheme*
- Birthday Day off, Paid Volunteer Day off
- Enhanced Maternity Leave, Paternity Leave
- Work from Abroad policy
- Regular company and team events
- Discounted shopping with ADS Rewards
*Available to permanent employees only.
Your Pace team
Pace is one of Europe’s fastest‑growing UK‑based management consultancies, transforming the industry with a focus on delivering measurable customer value.
Pace tackles complex challenges across the Legal, Central Government, and National Infrastructure sectors.
By optimising people and systems, we help organisations enhance efficiency, boost productivity, and achieve significant savings in time, cost, and resources.
At Pace, we recognise that we are only as good as our people. Apply today to find out about the great things we’re achieving together and the fun we have as a team.
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