Job Description

Job Title: PPM Practice Lead

Grade:

Details
About SLC
Student Loans Company is a non-profit making Government-owned organisation set up in 1989 to provide loans and grants to students in universities and colleges in the UK.We are responsible, in partnership with Local Authorities in England and Wales, the Student Awards Agency for Scotland, the Education and Library boards in Northern Ireland, the Higher Education Institutions and HM Revenue & Customs, for student support delivery in the UK.
SLC continuously delivers change projects to support our customers and stakeholders needs, which regularly includes the development and introduction of new products and services. In addition, we are currently undertaking an exciting Transformation programme to help us achieve our vision, which is to become a digital, customer focused centre of excellence.
Job Purpose
Provide leadership and direction to the Programme and Project Manager population, through
Key Accountabilities
  • Own the framework for Programme and Project Management and adopt an approach of ‘continuous improvement’ to enhance the framework based on feedback & lessons learned
  • Act as a Programme and Project Subject Matter Expert (SME) to Project Managers, Senior Programme & Project Managers, and the wider SLC
  • Responsible for agreeing the methods and standards to be employed in line with the framework and adherence to these
  • Recruit, line manage and develop all Project Manager and Senior Programme & Project Manager capability (including performance management, training plans, career paths and succession planning)
  • Work with the Capacity Manager to plan for future work, providing suitably skilled Project and Programme Management resources to projects
  • Responsible for the quality of outputs of assigned staff
  • Take cognisance of the outputs of audits performed by PMO Manager and Internal Audit
  • Manage 3rd party suppliers and commercial activity relating to the provision of PPM services
  • Provide senior management support in resolving programme and project management issues and challenges as required
  • Work with P&T colleagues to implement a new development scheme to give more junior resources (Junior Project Managers) a career development opportunity in PPM
  • Act as the key driver and owner or recognition within PPM, including taking an active interest in the wider PPM team, and cross Directorate teams we actively engage with and support
  • Work with colleagues across the Directorates to challenge and resolve cross team issues, e.g. identified in People Insights survey 2014, and actively promote a more collaborative culture
Essential Skills / Experience / Qualifications
  • Degree preferred;
  • Prince 2 qualified with experience in project management methodologies and practices;
  • Experience of resource/ capacity management in a complex delivery environment;
  • Knowledge of alternative resource models which can be used to alleviate pressure points in SLC;
  • Experience of working within a Programme delivery team;
  • Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills;
  • Excellent MS Office suite knowledge, including PowerPoint and MS Project;
  • Strong interpersonal skills and ability to build and maintain good working relationships at all levels;
  • Able to influence peers and colleagues to adopt new ideas and ways of working;
  • Clearly demonstrates the SLC Leading the Way values;
  • Adopts and promotes a collaborative approach;
  • Track record of good time-management, with ability to deliver to deadlines;
  • Highly organised;
  • Attention to detail;
  • Interact well in a team environment.
Desirable Skills / Experience
  • Experience working within an Agile environment;
  • Awareness of and experience of Portfolio Management.
Key Outputs
  • Programme and project delivery to agreed timescales, budgets and quality standards;
  • Completion of key project documentation, namely: PID, Communications Plan, Quality Plan, Lessons Learned and Closedown;
  • Project Log capturing details and progress of all risks, issues and changes;
  • Consolidated project plan;
  • Project reporting in line with SLC standards, e.g. monthly production of Highlight reports, and corporate updates;
  • Coherent ‘business cases’ developed from project portfolio;
  • Production of material to be supplied to Project Board;
  • Budgetary controls in place, monthly review and re-profile where necessary;
  • Stakeholder communications.