PMO Lead - 12 month FTC

At Unite Students our aim is to create a Home for Success for our students, using technology and data to empower them to find their home and have a great stay with us, and a great experience throughout their student life.

The PMO Lead will provide oversight, governance and management of the Programme, ensuring alignment to the overall business strategy and objectives. Working closely with the Senior Enterprise PMO Lead and the Programme Sponsor/Manager, they will proactively support the programme whilst providing respectful challenge to ensure the programme delivers to agreed budgets and benefits.

The successful candidate will be a self-starter with attention to detail, a drive for quality and have the ability and skills to build excellent collaborative working relationships. They will have a strong internal customer focus, excellent organisational skills and be able to understand the bigger picture as well as the detail that sits beneath it.

What You`ll Be Doing

Responsible for connecting the programme with the Enterprise portfolio via the EPMO, ensuring effective two-way flow of information and collaboration for alignment. Work with the EPMO to develop, implement and continuously update the Change Framework so it is fit for purpose. Leading on effective implementation of the Change Framework in the Programme. Play a key role in raising the bar on how we deliver the programme, changing the mindsets and behaviours to enable that. Promote a culture that motivates and inspires excellent collective and individual performance within the programme to realise the benefits through effective delivery. Responsible for demand management, resource planning and management and capacity planning across the programme, ensuring continuous alignment with the Enterprise Portfolio and other Functional Change Portfolios. Responsible for the management quality of the programme, ensuring alignment with Group Strategy. Challenging and supporting the programme through
the lifecycle. Ensure transparent and effective communication channels across the programme and with stakeholders. Responsible for development and ownership of programme dashboard and reporting tools. Conduct regular reviews and audits of the programme to assess adherence to standards and identify areas for improvement. Monitor progress against plans with the projects/work-streams, liaising with the programme manager to ensure the plan remains on track. Update governance meeting Terms of Reference and share with relevant stakeholders. Provide software tool support, ensuring relevant stakeholders have access as and when required. Support the co-ordination of project and workstream inputs to the programme business case including project costs and benefits. Track and monitor programme and project dependencies and interdependencies between other programmes and projects and the broader business. Prepare and send the programme weekly report to stakeholders. Schedule and lead Gateway meetings,
inviting relevant stakeholders, ensuring all information is provided on which a go no-go decision can be made. Monitor, analyse and co-ordinate RAID logs, risks, issues, actions, dependencies, changes, decisions, and lessons learned. Foster a culture of continuous improvement and implement best practices and lessons learned from completed projects across the organisation.

Experience in the management of a Portfolio of projects across a business function. Experience of Waterfall and Agile methodologies and project governance. Experience of capacity & resourcing planning - able to identify bottlenecks & common pinch points and delivery conflicts across multiple projects. Experience of project and dependency planning and scheduling to evaluate do-ability of plans considering volume of change and supply /demand. Previous experience with PM tools such as Monday.com. Strong analytical skills. Can define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success and efficiency of the Portfolio. Ability to identify & evaluate portfolio-level risks, issues & dependencies, identify mitigating actions and track through to resolution. Build relationships with Senior Business leads and respectfully challenge where required. Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication skills

Founded in 1991, Unite Students is a FTSE 100business and the UK`s leading provider of purpose-built student accommodation. You can find us in 25 leading university towns and cities, with 74,000 students calling US home! We are driven by our values, culture, and a commitment to develop diverse and inclusive teams, filled with positive energy and new ideas.

Instinctive inclusion. We know that to create and maintain a happy healthy organisation, we have to work hard to ensure inclusion isn`t just what we do but who we are.

People make Unite Students. Employees, students and neighbours all contribute to building environments where we can all thrive.

Room for Everyone

We`re proud to be an employer that embraces individuality, and we`re passionate about building inclusive teams. We focus on creating a collaborative culture where you can be you, where your voice is heard, and where you can truly belong. We take great pride in being rated Gold Investors in People and are constantly striving to provide the highest standard of learning and development opportunities and professional pathways for our people. Building a home for success, for both our employees and students, requires exceptional people with a passion for creating room for everyone, doing what`s right, keeping US safe, and raising the bar. Join us as we build better experiences for students that live with us.

What You`ll Get in Return

A discretionary annual bonus so you can share in the company`s success 25 days` paid holiday and an annual holiday buying scheme, with 5 additional days awarded for long service A generous pension scheme - employer contributions between 5% and 11% depending on how much you save Various benefits to support your health and wellbeing including a Healthcare Cash Plan, an Employee Assistance Programme, a Wellbeing platform and a Gym benefit that you can share with your family and friends Enhanced Family Leave including 18 weeks full pay for birthing parents and 4 weeks for non-birthing parents Lots of other great benefits including an annual ShareSave scheme, Employee Life Assurance, a discounts portal and more!
About Unite Students