PMO Manager (L7)

About the role

The PMO team sits within the Change Profession in Transformation Directorate. The profession provides centralised teams of expertise in Strategic Change Management, Programme & Project Management and PMO (Programme Management Office). Together, we’re responsible for delivering and landing c£600m of projects across the John Lewis Partnership: everything from large scale operating model programmes like WTR Simpler Shops or JL Retail Transformation to improving availability through propositions like Delivery from Store, to helping us develop into new businesses such as Build to Rent - all with the aim of delivering the Partnership Plan.

The majority of the PMO team, including the successful candidates for this role, spend their time working in Value Stream/Shared Capability PMO teams and are focused on ensuring efficient and effective programme and project delivery by supporting and constructively challenging delivery activity, providing insight to drive decision making and driving best practice through coaching and assurance.
The successful candidate will also be expected to play an active part in improving the PMO team’s ways of working.

• Salary range - The budgeted salary range for this role is set at £ 47,100-73,000 

• Contract type - There is 1 x 14 month secondment available. 

• Working pattern/flexible working - The Partnership has adopted a hybrid working approach, meaning you'll be able to work a mixture between the office and home based upon your personal needs whilst balancing the needs of the business. The PMO team aims for around 1 or 2 days a week in the office to connect and on a more ad-hoc basis to attend key meetings but again, are flexible on this.

• Location - This role is based at our Bracknell/London (Pimlico) offices. 

• Please note, any cost incurred as a result of travel to the office is the responsibility of the successful candidate. There is no travel allowance for this role.

• Interviews will be held in w/c 14th July

Your day-to-day remit will depend on your assignment across the breadth of Value Streams and Shared Capabilities in the Partnership, but you can expect to be focused multiple initiatives and products - working closely with the relevant programme/project/product manager(s) and business leads. 

You will be responsible for making use of and refining agreed delivery frameworks appropriately in the context of your assignment; this is likely to include governance, risk/issue management, financial management, reporting and planning/dependency management. You may be asked to people and/or task manage a small team of PMO Professionals.

•  Using agreed frameworks, establish and maintain appropriate governance and control processes and standards for your remit and ensure that they are followed consistently,supported by the coaching of delivery teams as required. 

• Undertake analysis in order to generate insight on the delivery of your remit, including a clear understanding of dependencies, to enable appropriate

  decisions to be made in relation to the Partnership portfolio. 

• Escalate and identify potential solutions to key portfolio, programme / sub-portfolio or project risks and issues for resolution with the appropriate delivery team. Complete regular reviews of mitigating actions to support risk and issue resolution. 

• Manage and support the preparation of reports and key updates to relevant governance groups. 

• Within agreed frameworks, implement appropriate financial controls for your remit to allow early identification of potential over/underspend and recommendations for action. 

• Ensure that the Partnership’s PPM tool is managed and maintained such that it provides a single source of accurate, timely data to allow effective management of the delivery portfolio.

   

Essential skills & Experience you’ll need: 

• Experience of working in a PMO or Portfolio team within a large programme or portfolio of work

• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills

• Financial management of programme and/or project costs & budgets

Desirable skills you’ll have:

• PMO, Portfolio, Programme or Project Management qualifications e.g. P3O, AIPMO, MSP, Prince 2 or equivalent

• Experience of using PPM tools (e.g. Planview)

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The Partnership

We’re the largest employee owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We’re not just employees, we’re Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us.  

We’re ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food-lovers in Waitrose.   

As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect. 

We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we’re free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective. 

As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.  

Important points to note:  

It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. Any DBS checks required will be carried out by a third-party registered body and financial probity checks may also be required for some of our roles.  

We also recommend that you apply as soon as possible as vacancies can close early if we see a high number of applicants.  

We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview. 

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