About the role:
Delivering and embedding sustainable change is one of our key strategic priorities.
At Thames Water, we are on an exciting journey to improve the way we deliver change by delivering best practise Programme and Project Management.
We are looking for talented people with a passion for change in this exciting time for our business to play a key role within our Programme and Project Management Practice and join our community.
The Programme Manager will take ownership of a programme or complex group of projects delivering technology enabled change, from initiation through to completion of handover to Business as Usual. You will lead delivery teams, supported by business leads and SMEs.
You will be accountable for all aspects of programme delivery to agreed time, cost and quality outputs.
You will engage across the senior leadership team at Thames Water, ensuring that sponsors and stakeholders understand and fulfil their roles in the assurance of a great business outcome.
You will also work in a matrix model to ensure that the Business Unit change portfolio is successful, with conflicts and competing demands managed accordingly. This includes assurance that the end user community are ready and accepting of the required changes.
For this role you will be delivering on behalf of the Customer Experience Portfolio Lead in Thames Digital. Successfully delivering from end to end IT / digital elements of the Digital Programmes to support business IT enabled change.
The role can be split into two key areas of focus:
Programme Design & Governance
- Establish governance processes to ensure engagement and support to resolve issues and risks;
- Ensure change impacts are understood and managed, through the engagement of end users throughout the programme lifecycle;
- Drive best practice programme management techniques
- Define and maintain well-structured Programmes, assuring PIDs;
- Develop the business case, with clearly agreed programme outputs and outcomes;
- Manage resources to achieve agreed time, cost and quality outputs;
- Work with the Central PMO to ensure staff and contractors are properly engaged for the programme and that any contractual issues are resolved;
- Align relevant activities with the principles of ITIL in the delivery of initiatives, especially in relation to change control, configuration, release management and good governance;
Sponsor & Stakeholder Engagement
- Establish strong relationships to ensure ongoing programme involvement;
- Ensure various roles and responsibilities are understood and active throughout programme lifecycle;
- Work across enterprise portfolio change teams to assure the delivery of the TW business plan;
To be successful you will have the following skills and experience:
We are looking for a significantly experienced Programme Manager, preferably educated to degree level, BSc or equivalent and with an understanding, practice and qualification of recognised change techniques and methodologies e.g. PRINCE2, MSP, Lean, Kaizen, Six Sigma (Black Belt) etc.
A thought leader in enabling the business through digital technologies and can use traditional or agile delivery methodologies to bring these to realisation for the business. Championing change and interpreting business needs into successful business and technology implementations to enable business to maximise benefits.
Providing a focus and single point of contact for the business and suppliers / partners, in this case focused on digital technologies. Building an integrated team and co-ordinating all IT and partner inputs into the programme and ensuring they meet the appropriate Thames Water (TW) governance requirements. Maintaining an effective communications and engagement conduit with Customer Experience operational managers.
Our ideal candidate will have a passion for transformation and change, and the delivery of a first class customer experience, gained from business improvement experience in a complex, matrix organisation. We are looking for clear and demonstrable experience in programme management, throughout the programme lifecycle, delivered via line management of teams of 15 or more. It is highly desirable for this role that your experience will include delivering and understanding transformative Contact Centre technology.
You will be a strong communicator and facilitator, able to influence senior stakeholders to obtain support and backing for significant change via a confident and friendly engagement style, whilst commanding respect. Your previous experience, operating at a senior management level, will ensure that you possess the personal credibility to influence and coach colleagues across the organisation and a style which naturally demonstrates our core values.
What’s in it for you:
You will join the rapidly growing Digital Delivery team where you will hold an ultimate accountability for the successful delivery of key projects within the programme and realisation of the business outcomes.
Our competitive salary package includes an excellent contributory pension, 26 days holiday per year increasing to 30 with length of service and a wider benefits scheme. This includes an annual pay review, season ticket loans, voucher scheme giving you money off in major retail outlets, loyalty awards for continuous service plus much more, including our refer-a-friend bonus, where you can receive up to £1,000 for helping someone get a permanent position within the company.
We’re also proud to be here for our local community around Swindon, offering all of our teams two days paid volunteer leave a year, as well as proudly supporting a lot of local events and charities.
Click here to view our full list of Rewards and Benefits
About us:
Thames Water is the largest water and waste-water services company in the UK. We provide the essential service at the heart of daily life, health and enjoyment to 15 million customers across London and the Thames Valley and we are going through a period of exciting change. On a typical day we supply 2.6 billion litres of top quality drinking water and our 350 sewage treatment works treat more than 4.2bn litres of waste-water. Our 85,000 miles of water mains and sewers would wrap around the world three-and-a-half times.
We are focusing like never before on delivering brilliant services and providing our customers with a great experience. We are in the process of transforming our business in order to achieve this. To help us succeed, we need a range of new skills and capabilities and will be recruiting for these in the coming months. We are on the lookout for talented people across our entire region who are interested in helping us to become the best water and waste-water company in the UK.
Thames Water is an equal opportunity, Disability Confident, and Stonewall diversity champion employer, welcoming applications from all walks of life to join our diverse team. We’re also leading the way with our award-winning mental health and wellbeing strategy.