PMO Portfolio Manager

Birmingham 2022 is a golden opportunity not just for the West Midlands but for the UK. With a third of the world’s population tuning in, this is a chance to show that post-EU Exit Britain is open for business, support economic recovery from COVID-19 and to provide a shop window for Britain’s economic engine.

London 2012 and previous Commonwealth Games demonstrate the potential to drive tourism, trade and investment alongside the sport and culture. Funding has been secured to deliver a major programme to attract visitors, investors and events to the West Midlands and the UK and grow export opportunities. This will be delivered in partnership at regional and national level, with funding secured in the Spring 2020 Budget and match funding from the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). The programme is currently being developed – so an exciting time to join and help shape what will be delivered.

A central programme team supports the programme delivery partners (West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC), Department for International Trade (DIT) and VisitBritain (VB)). Based in central Birmingham at the WMGC offices on Centenary Square, the team will delivery cross-cutting activity and ensure integration within the programme, with the Birmingham 2022 Organising Committee (OC) and with relevant regional / national initiatives.

The programme has a diverse range of markets (UK, Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, and Malaysia) and audiences including Commonwealth leaders, investors, event organisers and leisure visitors. Alongside the core budget, the programme will be amplified working with sponsors, with IP being parts of their rights packages.

We are currently seeking a PMO Portfolio Manager to work within the PMO Centre of Excellence Business and Tourism. This role rund until October 2023.

This is a remote working opportunity until a date is agreed for the West Midlands Growth Company workforce to return to the usual place of work at Baskerville House, Birmingham.

Our priority is to keep all our employees safe and well during this time. We will be working remotely for the foreseeable future, and we are doing everything we can to ensure all our employees can enjoy a comfortable remote working space.

Please read the following areas of responsibility and key competancy requirements, and if you wish to apply for the PMO Portfolio Manager position, please email ben.williams@wmgrowth.com with your CV and a cover letter detailing why you think you would be right for the role.

Main responsibilities and key activities

Defining the portfolio and programmes governance framework ensuring that the programme adheres to the requirements for both public and private sector programmes
Provide expertise, advice, and guidance to the business, tailoring training needs assessments and recommendations in order to deliver programmes of work
Own the overall busines pipeline activity process across the business
Undertake regular capability assessments against delivery pipeline
Triage and weight score opportunities pipeline against business objectives and capability to deliver successfully whilst considering shareholder requirements using tools such as balanced scorecard
Leading, Mentoring and developing the PMO team and driving PMO excellence by modelling the behaviours needed to support the wider delivery team
Designing the CoE strategy and plans to maturity
Effective co-ordination of the programmes and the interdependencies within them
Managing and resolving portfolio and programme level risks and issues that may arise, in support with the risk manager and strategy manager
Maintaining the overall integrity of the portfolio, developing, and maintaining the Centre of Excellence (CoE) environment to support each individual programme within it
Delivering against cost/time/scope and ensuring that any arising issues are mitigated
Day to day budget management with financial accountant and procurement lead
Designing and implementing required business processes including end to end lifecycle management
Standardising processes, project delivery and maintaining information library, creating a one stop shop
Own the knowledge bank for the CoE
Lead on business engagement comms from a CoE perspective
Planning for the benefits against the business cases, in support with the benefits manager
Managing and support resource requirements and capacity management, ensuring that this algins with the overall business plan, managing conflicting requirements against different programmes
Implementing a continuous improvement environment, with the PDCA approach to efficiency
Create and maintain MI reporting requirements to business, board, partners, and shareholders
Own the stakeholder framework and deliverables

Key relationships:

Programme Director
Programme partners and wider stakeholders
Work stream leads
Finance & Procurement
Integration
Sponsorship
Wider programme delivery team
WMGC Extended Leadership Team (ELT)

Key skills and competency requirements

Area	Essential	Desirable
Qualification	Professional qualification or relevant degree, or equivalent experience in programme delivery, such as Prince2 practitioner, MSP practitioner, APM RFQ or similar Lean six sigma training	Membership or relevant professional body, chartership would be advantageous Evidence of continuous professional development P3O qualification Change management qualification Lean six sigma green belt P3M3 maturity models training
Skills and attricbutes	Ability to work positively with the full range of individuals and groups involved in the programme, embracing a collaborative approach to delivery Ability to develop and maintain effective working relationships with other members of the programme management team, senior managers, partners, programme teams and third-party suppliers Necessary seniority to be able to take on the responsibilities required of the role Strong leadership and management skills with excellent mentoring ability Understanding of the wider objectives of the programme and how they impact the overall business objectives Credibility within the programme environment and ability to influence others Good knowledge of techniques for planning, monitoring, and controlling programmes, including risk management Ability to find innovative ways of solving and pre-empting problems. Ability to prioritise and managing conflicting requirements at the same time Skilled in transformational change management with the ability to lead change initiatives and continuous improvement Ability to horizon scan and have an agile approach to delivery	Business management skills gained in a delivery environment
Knowledge and experience	Extensive programme management experience gained within a similar environment managing a budget of c. £15m Significant experience within a similar role in programme delivery, establishing a PMO and embedding a centre of excellence as well as leading on programme maturity In depth knowledge of creating and implementing new processes, handoffs, and dependencies, including process improvement cycles Significant understanding and application of public sector project environment including governance and assurance processes. Experience of managing transformational change across an organisation