How you’ll make a difference
The Portfolio Management Office plays a critical role in ensuring that effective and consistent programme and project management arrangements are embedded through expert training, guidance and tools.
Working at the heart of programme and project activity, you will provide high‑quality analytical support that ensures effective reporting, governance, assurance and delivery across a diverse and ambitious portfolio of work.
You will also support project managers who manage and deliver corporate and departmental projects that form part of the council’s wider transformation programme, as well as leading small to medium sized projects that deliver service improvement and value for money.
What you will be doing
- Acting as a trusted lead on specialist advice, you will provide guidance on portfolio, programme and project management standards, tools and best practice. You will show confidence in engaging with officers at all levels, constructively challenging information and supporting teams to improve the quality of their programme delivery.
- Supporting robust programme governance by coordinating reporting cycles, meetings and assurance activities, you will apply strong quality‑assurance to check submissions for accuracy and completeness, proactively identifying opportunities to improve processes, reporting and overall effectiveness of the PMO function.
- You will be responsible for the reporting and overall effectiveness of the PMO function, with regular liaison with finance colleagues to track financials and reconciliations.
- It will be your responsibility to support the delivery of a large‑scale transformation programme, where you will produce high‑quality, accurate and timely reports for senior officers, boards and stakeholders. This will include programme dashboards, tracking milestones, risks, issues and benefits, liaising with finance colleagues to track financials and reconciliations as well as ensuring information is presented clearly to support effective decision‑making.
- You will collect, validate and maintain programme and project information from multiple workstreams, ensuring data integrity and consistency across the portfolio. You will also manage logs, plans and documentation, applying a high level of attention to detail to ensure records are complete, up to date and compliant with governance requirements.
- Undertaking research and analysing data, you will support the development, monitoring and evaluation of transformation initiatives, including identifying trends, dependencies and variances, and translate complex information into clear insights that inform programme planning and continuous improvement.
What we need from you
- We require you to either hold a relevant professional, equivalent degree level qualification or equivalent relevant experience.
- You will have Portfolio or Programme Management Office experience and be able to demonstrate extensive knowledge of developing processes and procedures that support programme and project delivery.
- It is essential that you have excellent communication and influencing skills, alongside well-developed interpersonal skills for persuading, building relationships and communicating effectively with customers.
- With strong analytical skills, you will be able to understand and analyse information and data and provide solutions and recommendations to achieve appropriate outcomes, presenting these in a user-friendly manner.
- You must be able to monitor and/or report on budgets, financial information and resources and have a good level of IT and digital skills, with experience of specialist in-house software packages.
- You will have specific experience in supporting project work in areas such as organisational improvement, value for money, performance management, project and programme management and other similar initiatives.
What you need to know
Interviews to be held on the 23rd April 2026.
How a career at South Gloucestershire Council is different
- We know our team work best when they have balance in their lives and we offer genuine flexibility to help them achieve that work/life balance.
- We value our staff as individuals, investing in their careers and we are recognised for the quality, breadth and depth of our training and development offer, which helps make the greatest long-term difference in work.
- As part of our benefits package you will receive generous annual leave (pro rata), employee wellbeing support and you will have access to a range of staff discounts, including eye tests, travel, shopping and leisure activities.
- We recognise that our diverse team of skilled and dedicated people make us a great place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and ensure that individuals are selected, promoted and developed on the basis of their merits and abilities.
Our teams at South Gloucestershire Council are making a real difference to the lives of people who live, work and learn here.
- We’re providing essential services across our internal network to ensure we can fully support our community.
- We’re positive and forward thinking, always looking for new and innovative ways of working work and we’re ambitious about the future.
We’ve achieved a great deal, but we need talented and dedicated people to ensure we continue to make a difference.
We’re making a difference, be part of it!
To view the full job description, please click this link:Project Officer Programme Office job description
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