Head of Programme Management

Pension Insurance Corporation (“PIC”) provides secure retirement incomes through comprehensive risk management and excellence in asset and liability management, as well as exceptional customer service. Our purpose is to pay the pensions of our current and future policyholders.

A newly created role has arisen within our Origination department at PIC: we are recruiting for a Head of Transition Programme Management to join our Transitions function, which plays a critical role in the management and delivery of transition projects for clients. This involves delivering efficient project management processes, standards, and governance frameworks to reduce cost, mitigate risks and drive value across the Company.

The purpose of this role is to engage and develop strong working relationships with stakeholders at all levels to ensure key internal departments (Operations, Origination, Finance, Finance Actuarial, IT, Longevity Risk Management, Information Management, Legal and Risk) and PIC’s third parties (Administration, Legal, Communications, Actuarial) to ensure that transition processes deliver on our commitments to clients and quality into the business.

You will partner with our Co-Heads of Transition Management to deliver strong business outcomes relating to systems, processes, and technology improvements and automation as appropriate, which deliver positive outcomes for the Company brand and market reputation as well as for our policyholders on a consistent basis.

Specific accountabilities assigned to the role of Transition Programme Manager:

• Programme Leadership: Lead and manage a programme comprising multiple, concurrent client-facing transition projects, ensuring cohesive delivery and oversight.
• Project Governance: Establish and maintain appropriate project governance, including reporting, documentation, and controls in line with internal standards.
• Escalation: Act as a primary escalation point for clients, transition managers or third parties, ensuring a professional and responsive service that meets or exceeds expectations.
• Planning and Scheduling: Oversee detailed programme planning, project scheduling, and resource allocation to ensure timely delivery across all workstreams.
• Budget Management: Manage the overall programme budget (multi-million-pounds), including individual project cost tracking, forecasting, and reporting. Ensure cost efficiency and accountability.
• Stakeholder Management: Collaborate with internal stakeholders (Origination, Operations, HR, Finance, etc.) and external partners to align project objectives and deliverables with financial and human resource capacity.
• Risk and Issue Management: Proactively identify and manage programme risks, issues, and dependencies, ensuring effective resolution or escalation.
• Team Leadership: Provide leadership, guidance, and development support to Transition Managers and connected internal teams and third parties across the programme.
• Quality Assurance: Monitor the quality of project deliverables to ensure they meet business requirements and client satisfaction standards.

Keeps informed of industry trends, market developments, regulatory changes in insurance/financial services as well as best practices relating to the Transition.

Experience:

• Proven track record of successfully delivering large, complex programmes, ideally across insurance, financial services.
• Demonstrated experience of managing multi-million-pound departmental budgets.
• Experience in leading client facing onboarding programmes at scale.
• Track record of delivering measurable outcomes in terms of client satisfaction, operational efficiency and commercial performance.
• Significant experience working with executive stakeholders and cross-functional teams.
• Demonstrated ability to introduce and embed governance frameworks and risk management processes.
• Evidence of fostering a high-performance culture and developing strong project managers.
• Experience in budget management, and performance reporting.
• Experience in developing effective monitoring and quality control processes.

Knowledge:

• Deep understanding of programme and project management methodologies.
• Strong knowledge of insurance operations, client onboarding and transition processes.
• Awareness of governance, compliance and risk frameworks.
• Familiarity with change management principles and application to complex client projects.

Skills:

• Exceptional leadership and people management skills, able to inspire, coach and motivate a diverse team.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to engage credibly at Senior Executive levels.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, with structured approach to issue resolution.
• Highly effective communication skills (written, verbal and presentation) with the ability to distil complex information into clear, actionable insights.
• Ability to balance strategic vision with hands-on delivery oversight.
• Skilled at driving continuous improvement, innovation and best practice adoption.
• Commercial judgement and analytical mindset with the ability to analyse data and make informed decisions.
• Good working knowledge of MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Word and Power BI.

DEI at PIC: At PIC, we believe that true innovation stems from embracing diverse perspectives, backgrounds and experiences. We are committed to building a workplace where every individual, regardless of race, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, religion, or socio-economic background, feels valued, heard and empowered to succeed. We hold ourselves accountable through ongoing initiatives, such as inclusive hiring practices, and equitable career development opportunities that support belonging and community. While we’re proud of our progress, we recognise there’s work ahead, and we remain dedicated to listening, learning and evolving together.

In addition to a competitive base salary and the opportunity to participate in our annual, performance-related bonus plan, upon joining us here at Pension Insurance Corporation, you will get access to some great benefits, including private medical insurance, 28 days' annual leave (excluding bank holidays), a generous pension scheme and much more.