Strategic Programme Delivery Specialist

This Programme Manager role is responsible for the effective delivery of change programmes and their constituent projects into the organisation. The programme manager will be accountable for the realisation of the expected benefits arising from projects within a change programme, developing excellent working relationships with key stakeholders to maximise potential gains.

Key Responsibilities

• Ensure programme delivery to agreed business objectives, requirements, schedules, costs, benefits, and quality objectives are met.
• Establish, control, and monitor project/programme timescales and budgets, obtaining appropriate approvals and authorisations while considering dependencies and taking action to overcome delays or cost overruns.
• Provide direction and support to ensure smooth project/programme initiation enabling budget approval and prioritisation.
• Plan, communicate, and implement change ensuring all affected parties fully understand the nature and implications of such changes.
• Develop and maintain good relationships with business sponsors and provide objective guidance and advice to ensure effective implementation.
• Ensure that all programme risks are understood and counter measures identified, minimising risk to the organisation while maximising quality and timeliness of all deliverables.
• Report programme status regularly.
• Ensure that programme and project management methodologies are adhered to and all documentation developed and maintained to agreed standards.
• Support PMs in successful delivery of major and transformational change programmes.
• Be the project manager for certain projects where a full resource is not required but some level of management is needed on the EQ side, particularly where there is a 3rd party PM.

Deliverables

• Develop and manage a detailed delivery plan, including identification of delivery resources required.
• Develop and agree reporting requirements, using this to monitor and report upon key activities, milestones, and dependencies impacting the plan.
• Manage key assumptions and dependencies underpinning the plan.
• Manage delivery risks relating to the plan.
• Monitor and manage the resource plan and costs for the project.
• Ensure agreed governance for the programme is followed.
• Prepare a detailed activity schedule for all projects, current and future, within the programme.
• Oversee Sprints run by the team to ensure the plan is being followed.
• Produce regular reports for Senior Management, in IT, HR, and Finance.
• Run regular Global Process Owner meetings to review prioritisation, issue updates, and requirements.
• Work with 3rd parties, their PMs, and the Workday team to coordinate activities.

Requirements

• Prince 2 or similarly qualified Project Manager with previous experience of successfully managing application development projects through the full project life cycle.
• Knowledge of Finance and HR high-level business processes with the ability to dive deep into lower-level business processes to understand project needs.
• Experience of Workday with extensive knowledge of configuration, implementations, and business processes.
• Experience of established programme management methods.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to persuade and influence.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to challenge supportively and effectively where appropriate.
• Proven ability to manage projects effectively, both strategically and operationally.
• Demonstrable experience in producing and delivering quality presentations to both internal and external customers.
• Strong understanding of project governance and controls, including scope and deliverable management.
• Fully explores the needs of internal/external customers and proactively introduces additional specialist areas as required.
• Switches seamlessly and effectively between different tasks and focus points, creating time for innovation and improvement.
• Regularly delivers on commitments to others and demonstrates accountability for all outcomes.
• Developing and maintaining project schedules.
• Experience of Jira or similar agile tool.

Preferred Skills

• Experience gained within financial services, pension sector, or other heavily regulated environments.