Programme Management Office Manager

The Service and Team

The Programmes and Change Management team coordinates, assures and delivers the Council's Strategic Change Portfolio. Our programmes tackle the most significant business challenges for the organisation and contribute significantly to the delivery of savings as well as people and planet benefits.

The Role

As PMO Manager, you will lead the corporate-wide Project/Programme Management Office (PMO), developing and maintaining methodologies, standards, and tools that ensure robust portfolio assurance and monitoring. You'll provide oversight of the Council's most significant programmes and projects, ensuring they deliver on time, on cost, and to the highest standards. Working closely with senior leaders and corporate colleagues, you'll champion innovation, continuous improvement, and best practice in project, programme, and change delivery.

You'll be responsible for:

• Portfolio governance and assurance, including risk, benefits, cost, and resource management.
• Reporting on portfolio performance to the Chief Executive, Corporate Directors Team (CDT), and Councillors and embedding lessons learned.
• Leading a team of portfolio analysts and a benefits manager to embed our Change Delivery and Benefits Framework, ensuring benefits and resources are managed effectively.
• Acting as a centre of excellence for project and programme management, driving the continuous improvement of the PM
• Delivery and development of the PMO Improvement Plan and PMO handbook to embed our Change Delivery and Benefits Frameworks
• Working with the team to improve and digitise our processes to maximise effectiveness, efficiency and compliance
• Providing assurance to the organisation on the performance of the portfolios and programmes that the team is delivering, identifying key risks, issues and achievements
• Supporting and developing the PMO team ensuring the right capabilities and business continuity
• Working with senior leaders, Capital Project and Corporate colleagues to ensure developments contribute towards the overall direction of travel, with the ambition for the organisation being a single pipeline of change and a single view of performance of change

Working pattern:

This is a full time, 37 hours permanent position.

What you'll need to succeed:

We're seeking passionate individuals to lead transformative change in this area, with a focus on the following key priorities:

The ideal candidate will have experience leading a Programme Management Office in a large, complex organisation, preferably with P3O practitioner status. You'll bring strong oversight and assurance capabilities across major change portfolios, working with blended teams to demonstrate delivery of outcomes and benefits. Excellent communication and relationship-building skills are essential, along with a proven track record in governance, assurance, and reporting. You'll be adept at translating strategic ambitions into actionable delivery plans, and skilled in leading high-performing teams, resolving complex issues, and driving continuous improvement.

This is a customer facing role and as such will involve effective stakeholder management and the identification of the resourcing and expertise needed to deliver the required outcomes. You will have experience of joint resource planning across corporate functions to support the effective and timely delivery of our change portfolio.

What you'll get in return:

This is an exciting opportunity for a strong candidate to shape the future journey of our corporate PMO. You will join a high performing team at a pivotal point and will benefit from:

• Be at the forefront of delivering strategic change for Cornwall.
• Flexible working arrangements including remote working opportunities.
• Access to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
• Opportunities for professional development and to shape the future of project and change management in local government.

Cornwall Council's ambition is to be an employer of choice, a high performing Council and a learning organisation. We commit to providing a reward and benefits package to attract, motivate and reward our employees. We offer a range of flexible working options to our staff. This helps provide our employees with a greater work/life balance. Whilst still ensuring that service needs are met.

Our core employee rewards and benefits include:

• a competitive salary.
• a defined benefit pension scheme, based on your career average earnings. This includes the option for extra voluntary contributions
• a generous annual leave entitlement with the potential to purchase additional leave.
• A national award-winning employee health and wellbeing programme
  Employee benefits scheme giving employees access to a wide range of discounts to local and national goods and services.

Ready to make a difference? Apply now to join a forward-thinking team committed to delivering positive outcomes for Cornwall.

Additional Information:

Cornwall Council is unable to offer visa sponsorship or transfer existing sponsorship for this role.

The full role profile is attached here

We recommend saving a copy of this to refer to if you are invited to an interview.

For an informal discussion, contact Philip Train, Head of Programmes and Change at

Application Process

Please attach a supporting statement to your application, you can add your Education & Qualifications details manually using the application form timeline or you can upload your CV. Remember to demonstrate why you are suitable against each of the points marked as 'Application' on the Role Profile using examples from your experience or transferable skills. This might be through qualifications or descriptive examples from your work / personal experience, which clearly illustrates what you did and the effect it had. Guidance on how to complete your application can be found here – The application process .

Please note that applications cannot be edited after they have been submitted, please contact if you have any queries or require assistance with your application.

Existing employees must apply using their Cornwall Council email address through the Opportunity Marketplace on Oracle.