PMO Manager

In Team Digital, we’re planning for a future where the technology solutions we co-create enable us to achieve our goal of protecting our greatest natural resource and allow our customers, communities and the environment to thrive.

As a team, our vision is to create an everyday digital experience for the people we serve - our customers - by putting them at the heart of everything we do. As part of our award-winning team, you’ll help the business become an intelligent, connected organisation in order to deliver our digital transformation and turnaround.

As the PMO manager, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring successful Digital project and product management within Thames Water.

The Project Management Office (PMO) Manager oversees the PMO team and the portfolio of technology change across all of our business areas helping to ensure they are completed on time, within budget and following Thames’ delivery best practice. 

The role will be pivotal in ensuring that we are managing our portfolio finances and benefit realisation correctly and be responsible for reporting to a wide range of stakeholders including the CIO, directors and others. An excellent PMO manager requires attention to detail, broad organisational skills, great communication and reporting and the ability to manage digital delivery financial control.

The PMO team you will lead are the ‘bridge’ between the digital delivery teams and wider Thames processes, standards, and governance.  Your team will be responsible for enabling technology change to be successfully delivered, and the outcomes achieved, within our frameworks and processes. A key part of this role will be to work across Digital so that we adapt our processes and tools to our new agile ways of working ensuring that we have the right sized, lightweight and adaptable processes and governance which support our drive to deliver business value quickly and efficiently.

You will be a key partner to the Director of Product Management and the Digital leadership teams consulting on efficiency, effectiveness, capacity planning, outcome delivery and strategic prioritisation, planning and financial management.

What you’ll be doing as a PMO Manager:

• Strategic and operational Portfolio planning and management.
• Project Management best practices and quality control.
• Financial Analysis, management and forecasting.
• Project/change delivery and Benefits Realisation.
• Risk Management and Reporting.
• Team leadership and development.
• Supporting our journey towards Digital Transformation.

Base Location: Clearwater Court, Reading - Hybrid.

Working Pattern or hours – Full Time (36 hours per week)

What you should bring to the role:

We want to bring together a team of brilliant tech minds with game-changing ideas. We’re looking for people who will help us re-imagine the way we work and the way we get things done:

• A truly digital mindset. Open to collaboration. Open to risk. Open to new ways of doing things.
• Obsessed with data. Obsessed with excellence.
• People who think and behave differently to the way we do. People who don’t want to just be another cog in the machine.

Essential Experience

• Experience in leading a PMO team.
• Team management and leadership experience in a technology-led environment including Projects, Programmes and Product Management processes.
• Experience in collaborating with a wide range of teams and other leaders to define and improve processes.
• Previous experience in financial data and managing budgets and forecasting.
• Ability to communicate and influence both technical and non-technical teams.
• PMO tooling and reporting.

Desirable Experience

• Prince 2 Practitioner.
• Agile Foundational qualification.

What’s in it for you?

• £70,000 - £85,000 per annum depending on experience.
• Annual Leave - 26 days holiday per year increasing to 30 with the length of service. (Plus bank holidays)
• Car Allowance.
• Annual Bonus.
• Private Medical Health Care.
• Contributory pension – Defined Contribution - Maximum of 12% -2x employee contribution.
• Personal Medical Assessments.
• Wider benefits scheme including our benefits hub, which is packed full of offers and information to save you money and support your wellbeing.

Who are we?

At Thames Water, our purpose is crystal clear - to deliver life’s essential service so our customers, communities and planet can thrive.

Water is life’s great leveller. Every living thing needs it, every single day. From people to plants, birds to bees, farms to factories, we all need it to thrive, and we’re committed to taking care of it for us all.

But keeping water flowing is becoming harder. From scorching summers to wetter winters, extreme weather affects everything from our pipes to our local rivers. We need to keep millions more kettles boiling, public services operating, washing machines spinning, showers running and more, so every drop is more precious than ever. Are you ready to play your part?

Working at Thames Water

At Thames Water, we recognise that people are at the heart of our business. To help us succeed in providing life's essential service, we need a range of skills and capabilities, representative of society throughout our business.

We seek to attract and retain a cultural mix of people who can offer different but complementary attitudes, values, talents, and knowledge. We understand the importance of appreciating and harnessing the unique skills, experiences, backgrounds, and differences that each individual brings.

Our over-arching diversity and inclusion aim is to ensure Thames Water is a diverse and inclusive great place to work. We encourage applications from everyone and offer extra support for those who need it throughout the recruitment process.

Find out more about working at Thames Water.

When a crisis happens, we all rally around to support our customers. As part of Team Thames, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up to support our customers on the frontline as an ambassador. Full training will be given for what is undoubtedly an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about our business, meet colleagues and earn some extra money along the way.

Disclaimer: due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.