Senior Project Manager

12 month fixed term contact – hybrid or home working available

The National Safeguarding Team is seeking an experienced, dynamic and stakeholder focused Senior Project Manager to project manage a forthcoming procurement process for a safeguarding related service.

The Senior Project Manager will be responsible for defining, planning and delivering the procurement project to time, cost and quality in accordance with the steer provided by the Senior Responsible Officer. The Senior Project Manager will be responsible for leading the project and actively engaging with the project stakeholders to ensure the achievement of the project objectives. It includes being responsible for monitoring and reporting, risk and issue management, benefits management and stakeholder management.

The Senior Project Manager will work closely with safeguarding colleagues in the National Safeguarding Team as well as colleagues across the National Church Institutions, Senior clergy, senior officers and wider stakeholders.

About the National Safeguarding Team:

The National Safeguarding Team provides professional safeguarding advice to the Church of England on matters of national policy as part of its wider transformation plan, which includes the development and implementation of national policy, training, quality assurance and audit, and work with survivors. The national safeguarding team also leads complex casework and supports dioceses in their safeguarding of children and adults.

For an informal discussion about this role, please email andrea.harper@churchofengland.org in the first instance to arrange a time.

Candidates are encouraged to apply early. Interviews may be held on a rolling basis and we reserve the right to close the advert earlier than the date advertised.

Although empathy for the aim and values of the Church is important, we are welcoming applicants from all faith or none.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Leading on the planning and monitoring of the procurement process, working with internal and external colleagues and third parties to develop end to end oversight from requirements gathering to contract sign off and implementation
• Leading on the direct management and delivery of the project
• Activity and resource planning
• Cost estimating and developing and tracking the budget
• Tracking of project deliverables
• Monitoring and reporting at all levels in the organisation
• Analysing and escalating project risks and issues and planning corrective actions to mitigate those
• Producing and managing reports and necessary documentation
• Manage resource allocation and capacity
• Acting as a project advocate and main project representative
• Ensuring effective working relationships with key colleagues within the NST
• Working closely with communications representatives in regards to all stakeholder communication
• Working closely with NCI procurement to ensure the procurement process follows NCI policy
• Liaising with different NCI departments to ensure arrangements for input to the project
• Lead on vendor liaison by setting communication and reporting standards, actively chasing for important deliverables and being the key project expert
• Managing outputs validation with senior stakeholders
• Managing the closure of the project and transfer into Business as Usual (BAU)
• Quality assurance
• Setting standards for communication consistency
• Strategic and operational stakeholder engagement, relationship building and communication
• Identification and management of risk
• Coaching and providing guidance to project team members
• Compliance with the NCIs Project Management Framework and best practice
• Providing project updates to all necessary governance bodies

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Educated to degree level in a relevant field (e.g. social science, mathematics & logic, engineering or computer science) or relevant and demonstrable work experience that enable demonstrating analytical skills and an understanding of managing people, operations, data, information systems, finance, policy and strategy
• Formal qualification in Project Management e.g. PMP (PMI), Prince2 Practitioner (Axelos), PPQ (APM) or equivalent certification
• Proven experience in project procurement, including managing the drafting of the ITT documentation, requirements gathering oversight and being responsible for planning and monitoring the process from end to end, including contract negotiation and implementation
• Proven experience successfully managing projects from start up to close.
• Proven experience successfully project managing procurement processes
• Experience using Microsoft Project or another equivalent Project Management Information System
• Good knowledge of Excel (e.g. pivot tables, diagrams, formulas, Gantt charts)
• Good knowledge and experience of project finance and budgeting
• Good analytical skills and attention to detail
• Excellent writing and verbal communication skills
• Experience of reporting to project boards and wider governance arrangements
• Proven track record of proactively delivering successful results
• Ability to build relationships, trust and credibility with a wide range of diverse stakeholders
• Experience of working in multi-disciplinary teams in a complex environment
• Ability to adapt and take a pragmatic approach in order to obtain an effective outcome
• Dedication to customer service
• Ability to be rational, objective and unbiased when making decisions and taking action

Desirable

• Experience of managing both technical and non-technical projects
• Understanding of the structures of the Church of England and sympathy with its work and aims
• Experience working for the Church of England, for Christian Charities, in the public or charity sectors or with safeguarding.

We in the National Church Institutions support the mission and ministries of the Church all over England. We work with parishes, dioceses (regional offices), schools, other ministries and our partners at a national and international level.

Excellence, Respect, Integrity

We follow these three values in everything we do, whether we are of Christian faith, another faith or no faith. To learn more about working for National Church Institutions and our benefits, please click here

As a Disability Confident Leader, we actively look to attract, recruit and retain those of you who are disabled.

As a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, we welcome applications from those of you who have served in our Armed Forces and their families.

We are committed to being an equal opportunities employer and to ensuring that everyone, job applicants, customers and other people with whom we deal, are treated fairly and not subject to discrimination. We will do whatever is necessary to provide genuine equality of opportunity. We continuously review our policies and processes to support our aim to create a workforce as diverse as the nation the Church of England serves.