Senior PMO Manager

Purpose of the role

The Senior PMO Manager (SPMOM) will establish and run a Group PMO that provides consistent governance, transparency, and delivery discipline across all Group‑led projects and transformation initiatives, whilst providing consistency in approach and PMO methodology for all Divisional/Regional/Functional or School‑specific projects. The SPMOM will also act as the single source of truth for programme status, risks, interdependencies, and delivery confidence at Group and Board level.

Reports to

Group Head of Transformation, Change and PMO

Key Responsibilities

• Establish new PMO set‑up and define optimal operating model
• Design, implement and continuously improve the Group PMO operating model, including standards, templates, tools, and ways of working
• Define and enforce programme and project governance, stage gates, reporting cadence, and decision forums
• Ensure clear ownership, accountability, and escalation routes across Group, Divisional and Regional projects and initiatives
• Portfolio & programme management
• Maintain a Group‑wide portfolio view of all strategic and transformation projects and initiatives
• Track delivery against milestones, benefits, risks, dependencies and resourcing
• Identify and proactively manage cross‑programme dependencies and delivery conflicts
• Allocate resources effectively across Projects, ensuring projects are suitably staffed and managed
• Support prioritisation and sequencing of initiatives in line with strategic capacity and value
• Reporting & executive insight
• Produce clear, concise and credible reporting for ExCo, SteerCo and Board‑level forums
• Translate complex delivery data into decision‑ready insights, not activity updates
• Provide early warning on delivery confidence, slippage, or emerging risks
• Risk, issue & dependency management
• Own the Group transformation risk and issue framework, ensuring risks are identified, quantified and actively managed
• Drive a disciplined approach to issue escalation and resolution, ensuring timely decision‑making
• Maintain and manage critical path and dependency maps across programmes
• Benefits & outcomes tracking
• Establish and embed benefits realisation frameworks across transformation initiatives
• Track delivery of financial, operational and strategic benefits post‑implementation
• Work with Transformation, Project and Finance leads to ensure benefits are clearly defined, measurable and owned
• Stakeholder management
• Act as a trusted partner and constructive challenger to programme sponsors and workstream leads
• Influence senior stakeholders to maintain focus on outcomes, pace and delivery discipline
• Support programme leaders in resolving blockers without becoming delivery‑accountable themselves
• Tools, data & PMO capability
• Select, implement and optimise PMO tools and dashboards (e.g. Monday.com, Smartsheet, Planview or equivalent)
• Ensure data quality, consistency and integrity across all reporting
• Build PMO capability across the organisation through guidance, coaching and standards
• Build team & capability
• Build and lead a small Group PMO team, providing clear direction for new team members
• Set clear expectations, standards and performance measures for PMO resources

Skills, Qualifications and Experience

• Proven experience setting up or leading a Group‑level PMO in a complex, multi‑stakeholder organisation
• Strong understanding of portfolio, programme and transformation governance
• Experience supporting executive‑level decision‑making with clear, credible reporting
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to challenge senior leaders constructively
• Strong analytical capability, able to move from data to insight quickly
• Pragmatic, outcomes‑focused approach – avoids bureaucracy for its own sake

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