Programme Management Office Lead

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 289689**Salary**:

- £49,403 - £55,823**Job grade**:

- Grade 7**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Business area**:

- RPA Business Transformation**Type of role**:

- Project Delivery**Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time**Number of jobs available**:

- 1Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- Bridgwater, Bristol, Cambridge, Carlisle, Crewe, Exeter, Leeds, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Reading, Worcester, Workington, YorkAbout the job

**Job summary**:
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is an executive agency of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), delivering over £2 billion in payments to farmers, traders and landowners each year.

We are an Operational Delivery Profession organisation, with the majority of our people delivering day to day services to our customers and stakeholders.

We make excellent delivery happen, empowering agricultural and rural communities to create a better place to live.
We manage over 40 schemes, and also make payments on behalf of Natural England, to ensure we have a healthy rural economy, strong and sustainable rural communities, and to protect and enhance the natural environment.

Our vision is to create a great place for people living in this country. We have developed a set of four strategic objectives covering our policy outcomes and corporate objectives. These objectives help us to deliver our ambitious vision to build our green and healthy future and provide a framework for all of the important work that we carry out.

**Job description**:
As a Programme Management Office (PMO) Manager within the Business Transformation Directorate you will play a pivotal role leading the provision of PMO leadership and support to one or more strategic portfolios. The current portfolios are:

- RPA Business Transformation
- Future Farming and Countryside Programme (FF&C) (on behalf of Defra)
- Livestock Information Transformation Programme (on behalf of Defra)

The PMO is the focal point for Project & Portfolio Management (PPM), providing value add PMO services and capabilities, to support the successful running and delivery of programmes and projects. It is the centre of expertise supporting teams throughout the lifecycle of programmes and projects and providing the relevant input from PMO specialists.

Working within this role you will have a high level of autonomy leading a team of PMO professionals to deliver tangible results and outcomes working in a frequently uncertain and challenging environment, managing ambiguity over sustained periods of time. You will provide proactive support of the delivery of business critical portfolio and programme activity and cultural changes with active promotion and embedding of continuous improvement principles across DEFRA and the RPA.

You will operate within a challenging and complex stakeholder environment working with key and senior partners and stakeholders to ensure agreed outcomes and outputs are delivered. You will be required to provide strong leadership within this role providing clear direction to meet diverse requirements within Defra and RPA. You will be empowered to make key and effective decisions on PPM matters, developing appropriate governance structures to high standard quality and timelines to meet the various governing body’s requirements.

You will work across one or more of the portfolios acting collaboratively across both Defra and RPA and work with Senior Management Team within the RPA’s Business Transformation Directorate on priorities, flexing resources to meet business needs. You will ensure team members are empowered to play a pivotal role in cultural and improvement initiatives and that all RPA PPM Professionals have access to the latest learning and development opportunities.

Within this role you will be key to improving RPA and wider Defra performance and ensuring reputation is maintained. You will identify, develop and share best practice in project management processes, tools and templates looking to benchmark these against wider Civil Service standards.

**Person specification**:
**Key Deliverables**:
**Leadership**:

- You will support and help create a positive culture within the working environment that is inclusive, respectful and supportive and where people feel valued, listened to, empowered and trusted
- You will provide professional leadership to support continual development of Programme & Project Management
- You will demonstrate an excellent understanding of the Agency’s strategy and objectives and ability to translate these into tangible Programme delivery
- You will effectively lead people through organisational change, establishing a strong vision for their area and engaging with people in a straightforward, truthful and candid way
- You will work collaboratively by building effective relationships across a wide range of people within and outside th