Senior Project Manager - Major Projects Directorate

Are you an established Senior Project Manager with a proven track record of successfully leading infrastructure projects? Are you keen to find your next challenge within a dynamic and fast-paced organisation?

Role Purpose

The Senior Project Manager is responsible for delivering a large/complex project or a portfolio of projects. Provide strategic direction and overview for the project on a day-to-day basis, successfully challenging approach to delivery to drive innovative solutions and savings in both time and cost.  Leading and managing the project team in a matrix environment.

The Senior Project Manager has an important role in interfacing between the project and the supporting business areas. This is important for communicating and encouraging the need for transformation and change in tandem with the delivery of new capabilities from the project.

The post holder will be required to accept Senior Project Manager Responsibilities consistent with the Governments Infrastructure and Projects Association Guidelines. 

Responsibilities

• Delivering complex projects or a portfolio of schemes.
• Lead, manage and motivate project team, building capability to enhance individual and team performance. Mentor and coach others within the project team. Management and direction of Assistant Project Managers and/or Project Managers allocated to the project.
• Developing and drafting concise business cases, with clear benefits.  Presenting business cases, feasibility and design proposals with solid recommendations and solutions to gain funding approval.
• Agreeing key project milestones, scope, acceptable risks and priorities with the Programme Leader/Sponsor, ensure appropriate plans and governance is in place to achieve successful stage gate reviews.
• Accountable for project cost base, proactively manage project costs and forecasts and present project costs and variances with required explanations at the monthly review.
• Proactively challenge delivery partners to look for innovative approaches to delivering enhanced customer experience, reduce delivery timescales and costs. Identifying best practice and sharing lessons learnt across peers to improve overall business performance.
• Identify project and cross-project risks and dependencies. Manage dependencies and enact risk mitigations with escalations as necessary.
• Identify and maintain professional relationships with key project stakeholders. Ensure regular checkpoints take place to build trust, update on progress, and address any concerns.
• Responsible for providing strategic direction, proactively driving the planning, progress and monitoring of the project, managing project risks and the development of contingency plans.

 About Highways England

Are you an established Senior Project Manager with a proven track record of successfully leading infrastructure projects? Are you keen to find your next challenge within a dynamic and fast-paced organisation?

Highways England is the new government company charged with driving forward our motorways and major A roads. Building on the successful 21 year heritage of the Highways Agency, we maintain and enhance the most important communications network in the country, the Strategic Roads Network. A network valued at just over £104 billion, which carries approximately one-third of all road traffic in England and nearly two-thirds of all heavy freight traffic.

We are responsible for modernising and maintaining the highways, running the network and keeping traffic moving. Over recent years investment in our highways has increased. This has led to advances in technology, such as smart motorways; enabling traffic to flow better. However even more is planned to be done.

Our vision is to be the world’s leading road operator which means that we need to become a high performing organisation. It's an exciting time to start a Highways England career. With £11 billion to invest in major road improvements over the next 5 years, there’s an opportunity for you to be part of something special.

For further information on Highways England, please visit our website: http://www.highways.gov.uk/highways-england/