Senior Project Manager - UK Charity

Arts Charity, London, Hybrid working salary to 60k, FTC 6 months contract

Senior Project Manager

Reporting to the Director of Services and Research, you will be overseeing the delivery of the Services Operational Plan, ensuring projects are delivered to time, budget and standard.

The role is responsible for delivery of the following projects and initiatives:

• Monthly status reporting on the Operational Plan, working with all Departments to gather information on progress, delays and risks and providing monthly status updates to the Director of Services and Research
• Monthly performance reporting for the organisation, overseeing the Research and Insights Manager in the development and creation of a monthly performance dashboard, and working with Senior Managers to identity risks to performance and detail mitigating actions
• Project Management of the following multi-workstream projects, all of which have Board level visibility:
  • Launch and implementation of a new Single Eligibility Framework which involves multiple workstreams across IT, Services
  • Launch of new services within Musicians Development department
  • A strategic review of the charity’s Health and Welfare Services
• Project Management of the following workstreams, enabling excellence through others:
  • Research and Insights
  • Service Development and Design
  • Music Minds Matter Service Development

Both of these workstreams have a range of short and long term projects, and you will need to ensure all stay on track, putting in place the measures to enable the relevant Leads to deliver effectively while not needing to be experts in Project Management

• Facilitation of weekly stand ups and monthly Operational Plan reviews, as well as planning and facilitation of any project delivery meetings required to ensure delivery stays on track

Across all projects, the Senior Project Manager will be responsible for:

• Set-up and guidance- Ensure individual projects are setup for success, determining the best approach (waterfall or agile) and providing guidance to the project team, enabling them to deliver effectively without needing to be project management experts
• Documentation-Create robust project documentation appropriate to the project approach and maintain this, including the maintenance of RAIDS for each project
• Management– Manage the end-to-end delivery of the project across multiple workstreams, acting as an escalation point and owning the mitigation of any outstanding actions
• Risks & Issues – Establish the processes and standards for managing risks and issues across projects and provide assurance to the Director of Services on the effectiveness of risk and issue management arrangements.
• Project Performance & Controls – Establish and operate project controls to ensure all projects have appropriate levels of internal review and approval at key points in the project lifecycle
• Governance & Assurance – Ensure appropriate governance is in place for all projects and arrange external reviews at appropriate points in the project lifecycle. Monitor the effectiveness of controls and ensure that recommendations from external reviews are acted upon.
• Meetings and Communications-facilitate internal communications using the full range of channels optimally (email, messaging, meetings etc.) and enable effective collaboration across the project delivery teams through facilitation of weekly stand-up meetings and any other required discussions and meetings across the project lifecycle
• Change Management – Establish and implement protocols to change the scope of projects and/or programmes and update configuration documents as required and manage and communicate change across the department and organisation
• Contracts and Budget– Oversee supplier contracts and management in line with organisation guidelines and establish and implement financial controls for projects
• Resource– work with Senior Managers across the organisation to ensure resource required from across the organisation is available and allocated efficiently

Person Specification

• Proven project management experience with track record in delivering portfolio of multi-workstream projects
• Strong experience in both waterfall and agile project management approaches, with ability to identify where each adds most value and blend approaches as needed
• Knowledge of typical project governance, financial controls, risk management approaches in a charity
• Ability to manage both technical (eg design, IT) and business workstreams and a strong record of delivering excellence through others
• Ability to communicate and present timely updates to key stakeholders in a concise and regular manner.
• Excellent organisational skills with ability to manage own priorities and ensure effective prioritization and task management across project teams
• Excellent written and oral communication skills with ability to communicate effectively with Executive, Managers and delivery teams, translating needs between different teams to enable collaboration
• Exceptional commitment to delivery, with confidence in holding delivery teams accountable and identifying and mitigating risks and delays to delivery
• An appreciation of what it takes to launch a new service and an understanding of organisational change processes
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office suite as well as other software that might support delivery such as monday.com