Program Management Office Lead in London

Contract: 12 months initially

IR35: Outside IR35

Location: Predominantly Remote, with occasional travel to London

Sector: Insurance

Start: ASAP

The Opportunity

We are supporting a leading consultancy working with a rapidly growing UK insurance organisation on the next phase of its transformation. Following significant growth and acquisition activity, the organisation has a broad portfolio of transformation and change underway across the business, with further growth expected.

We are looking for an experienced PMO Lead to work closely with the CFO, establishing the PMO capability from the ground up and creating the governance, structure and visibility required to successfully manage a growing portfolio of change. This is not a role to inherit an established PMO and maintain existing processes. The successful individual will need to assess what is currently happening across the organisation, establish the portfolio view and then design and implement the PMO framework, governance, controls and reporting from scratch.

The Role

• Working closely with the CFO and senior leadership, you will create a central view across a broad range of business transformation initiatives.
• The organisation will continue to evolve and acquire, meaning priorities will change and new programmes will enter the portfolio.
• The PMO needs to provide enough structure and control to manage this effectively without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Establish the PMO capability from the ground up, including governance, standards, controls and operating rhythm.
• Build a consolidated view of transformation activity across the organisation.
• Establish portfolio-level plans, milestones, dependencies and priorities.
• Implement consistent RAID, decision and action management.
• Create effective executive and Board-level reporting.
• Give the CFO and leadership team clear visibility of what is happening, what is at risk, what requires a decision and where intervention is needed.
• Establish appropriate financial tracking, forecasting and benefits visibility across change.
• Introduce prioritisation and intake processes for new initiatives.
• Identify cross-programme dependencies and competing demands.
• Establish appropriate delivery assurance and health checks.
• Work with Project and Programme Managers to improve consistency and delivery discipline.
• Support governance around future acquisitions, integration and transformation activity.
• Continuously evolve the PMO as the organisation and change portfolio grow.

Experience Required

For this role, insurance and regulated-environment experience are important and essential. We are looking for:

• Strong PMO Lead / Head of PMO / Portfolio PMO experience.
• Demonstrable experience setting up a PMO or portfolio capability from scratch.
• Insurance industry experience, ideally within an insurance broker/intermediary or acquisition-led insurance organisation.
• Strong understanding of working within a regulated environment.
• Experience supporting a broad portfolio of business transformation, rather than purely technology projects.
• Experience working directly with a CFO, COO or equivalent executive leadership.
• Excellent portfolio governance, planning, RAID, dependency and assurance capability.
• Strong financial management and portfolio reporting experience.
• Executive/Board-level reporting and communication.
• Experience within organisations undergoing rapid growth, acquisition and integration would be particularly valuable.
• Pragmatic approach – able to introduce appropriate controls without building an overly bureaucratic PMO.
• Comfortable operating in an environment where not everything is already defined.