Head of portfolio management

Job Title

Head of Portfolio Management Office (PMO)

Reporting to

Director of Construction

Location

Cookstown, Northern Ireland

Job Purpose

The Head of PMO role will be responsible for overseeing the full portfolio of Customer and strategic projects , providing expert knowledge and support to the project delivery team , monitoring progress and reporting on the portfolio status. There are typically 120-150 Customer projects per year, ranging in value between £500k and £15M, in our 5 regions across the globe - UK & Ireland, Europe & Russia, The Americas, Middle East & Africa, and Australasia.

The successful candidate will work to ensure that all projects are consistently delivered in line with the project scope and agreed plans whilst ensuring effective communication and that relationships between the customer and project management team members are maintained.

The focus of the role is creating, improving, and maintaining project delivery best practice while developing the project management team in line with business requirements and strategy. The role will advise, mentor, and develop the team, develop and report on departmental goals and focus relentlessly on impressing our customers. The role will not be directly responsible for managing any projects; however, the role is a customer-facing role and direct interaction with customers will be required in certain circumstances or on projects of strategic importance.

Responsibilities:

• Assess the current health of the project management department and the level of project management maturity that exists within the current structure to gain a comprehensive understanding of the current way of working and identify the gaps between current practice and best practice. Implement changes to current practice to close gaps towards best practice in areas including but not limited to those outlined below.

• Conduct a review of commercial contracts to ensure compliance with contractual stipulations, prior to the implementation of any future changes to the governance structure/framework.

• Define, develop, and implement a project management governance framework with the support of organisational sponsors. Establish engagement and adherence to the implemented governance framework. Within the Governance Framework have clear organisational structure and definition of project roles and responsibilities as well as clear methods for measuring accountability and performance, including some form of regular internal stakeholder review to ensure that senior management are always aware of any project issues or roadblocks in time to be able to take decisions to try to mitigate any such issues.

• Facilitate and support improved inter-departmental integration and alignment with the framework across business functions to improve project delivery.

• Re-structure the project management team to ensure maximum effectiveness to organisational strategy and to boost its capabilities to deliver global projects successfully. Ensure consistent alignment and transparent structure. Balance the need for regional responsibility with ensuring that the correct level of experience and correct skillset of project manager is assigned to each project in line with the contractual and commercial complexity of each project.

• Manage and mentor the project management team to ensure a people centric, positive, supportive, and empowering team culture. Develop a stepwise pathway towards improvement and development of the team, including the creation of training and personal development pathways to develop the skills and experience within the team. Provide advice and expertise to the team where required.

• Ensure that each team member has relevant objectives, that they understand how their work contributes to the organisation's performance and that regular performance reviews are carried out, with any underperformance identified being promptly addressed.

• Identify and implement the most appropriate data gathering practices for monitoring, controlling, and reporting project data. Collect and consolidate key performance metric data, as defined by the portfolio governance framework. Utilise these techniques to measure and communicate the health of the portfolio and to make evidence-based decisions.

• Where gaps are identified in the software or technology available to be able to complete data collection effectively or efficiently, work with the IT department to evaluate potential options and their benefits and propose the preferred solution, complete with business case to senior management for consideration.

• Standardise portfolio management methods and documentation. Utilise organisational assets and industry standards to establish consistent portfolio management practices to drive successful project delivery (adherence to scope of supply, budget, schedule, quality, documentation, and contractual obligations where applicable, to ensure customer satisfaction, whether internal or external).

• Strengthen learning and engagement throughout the business by creating communities of practice and knowledge management opportunities.

• Monitor the portfolio performance on an ongoing basis, using reports, conversations, dashboards, and auditing techniques to ensure portfolio effectiveness, efficiency and to maintain strategic alignment. Ensure consistent, accurate and timely communication of portfolio data across the business (including project budgets).

• Maintain current working knowledge of project management best practice.

Other

• To carry out any other duties within reason and capability associated with this role

Criteria

Essential

Desirable

Qualification/ Attainments

Computing related degree or 2+ years of relevant experience

Relevant Experience

• A minimum of five years' experience in a project management role
• A minimum of five years' experience of managing and developing a large team
• A degree or be able to demonstrate extensive relevant experience within a comparable role along with formal project management training
• Experience of project management and capacity planning software (e.g. ERP system)
• Proven experience in driving large, complex projects to completion within project targets.
• * Excellent leadership and interpersonal skills including the ability to interact effectively and professionally with individuals at all levels; both internally and externally
• * Excellent relationship management skills with the ability to engage, negotiate and manage key stakeholders
• * The ability to exercise sound judgment when responding to enquiries
• * Strong self-motivation with exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail
• * The ability to manage multiple tasks/projects simultaneously within inflexible time frames.

• A minimum of ten years' experience in a project management role in a similar industry
• * A recognised professional qualification in project management such as Prince2 or similar
• * Fluency in a second language as well as English would be an advantage
• * Experience of delivering large capex equipment projects on client sites both in and outside of the UK & Ireland
• * Proven track record of managing and developing teams of ten or more people, ideally teams of project managers.
  

• * The ability to adapt to and manage frequent changes in priorities
• * Driving license and the ability to travel outside of UK & Ireland