Head of Programme Management Office and Quality Assurance

Alexgrayauthor; London; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Head of PMO & QA to lead digital transformation in education. This role involves overseeing project managers and QA teams, ensuring effective governance and risk management while driving the adoption of new technologies and workflows. The successful candidate will have a strong track record in managing complex projects, excellent stakeholder management skills, and a commitment to continuous improvement. Join a dynamic team dedicated to enhancing educational outcomes and making a positive impact on learners everywhere.

Benefits

28 annual leave days

Private medical insurance

Dental insurance

Generous pension schemes

Rent deposit loans

Community days

Summer hours

Retail discounts

Cycle to Work scheme

Wide-ranging training library

Qualifications

• Track record in managing digital transformation projects in EdTech.
• Expertise in programme governance and project methodologies.

Responsibilities

• Lead project teams ensuring effective governance and risk management.
• Monitor project costs and ensure financial accountability.

Skills

Programme Governance

Risk Management

Project Methodologies

QA Frameworks

Stakeholder Management

Change Management

Digital Transformation

E-commerce

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Relevant Certifications (e.g., PMP, Agile)

Tools

Project Management Software

Data Management Tools

Collaboration Tools

Job description

Who we are and what we do

At Hachette Learning (formerly Hodder Education), there’s one thing we’re certain about. No two students learn the same way. That’s why our approach to teaching begins by recognising the needs of individuals first. Our mission is to enable every learner to fulfil their unique potential by empowering those who teach them. From our expert teaching and learning resources to our digital educational tools that make learning easier and more accessible for all, we provide solutions designed to maximise the impact of learning for every teacher, parent and student.

Aligned with our parent company, Hachette Livre, founded in 1826, we’re proud to deliver high-quality learning solutions on a global scale. We make it easier for everyone to unlock a new world of learning.

Hachette Learning is a division of Hachette, one of the largest publishing groups in the UK, with 11 publishing divisions and over 60 imprints. Everyone here is proud to be in the business of opening doors and minds.

What you'll be doing

Role Overview

Hachette Learning is in its third year of digital transformation, delivering content through print, digital, and hybrid learning solutions. The PMO within the Operations Department oversees programme management, governance, process standardisation, and operational alignment to strategic objectives.

As the Head of the PMO & QA you will lead Project and Delivery Managers, and QA teams, ensuring structured governance, risk management, and seamless cross-functional coordination. This role is responsible for embedding best practices in programme execution, workflow optimisation, QA frameworks and technology adoption to drive efficient and scalable content production and delivery.

This is an exciting opportunity for a talented individual to lead on:

• The ownership of the business roadmap, manage interdependencies across projects, facilitate resource allocation and forecast resource demand.
• The execution of the divisional technology roadmap, ensuring projects are clearly scoped, signed off, and deliver measurable business benefits.
• You and your team will set-up and lead project teams, bringing together the necessary blend of knowledge and experience, ensuring clarity on roles, and encouraging collaboration and effective ways of working. You’ll work closely with a network of stakeholders to provide a strong technical and organisational capability to drive co-ordinated change, including all functional teams, the IT and other Hachette UK teams. You’ll be key in the selection, onboarding and tracking of third-party suppliers to deliver elements of the programme whilst retaining a holistic perspective on systems and data design.
• Change management, ensuring teams effectively adopt new publishing workflows, tools, and processes.
• Strong governance to oversee progress, manage risks and track investment spend and returns, keeping the overall programme on target in terms of scope, cost and quality. You’ll ensure that learnings and good practice are shared. You’ll ensure that our change is informed by the Hachette Learning values and the needs of our customers remain central in our thinking and investment.

Key Responsibilities

• Oversee and support Project Managers, Delivery Manager and QA teams, driving consistency in execution, risk management, and reporting.
• Implement and maintain governance frameworks, ensuring structured project ownership, decision-making, quality control, reporting, and risk mitigation.
• Manage project interdependencies, ensuring resource efficiency and seamless operational alignment.
• Monitor project costs and budgets, ensuring financial accountability and ROI.
• Ensure seamless integration of digital assets, publishing workflows, and technology platforms into BAU.
• Act as a centre of excellence across all business and digital systems and workflows, ensuring continuity and improvement of processes and documentation.
• Ensure compliance with publishing, digital, and data protection regulations, collaborating with IT and Legal.
• Provide governance support to leadership, ensuring strategic alignment and data-driven decision-making.

Who we are looking for

Who are we looking for

• Able to demonstrate a successful track record in delivery and management of business transformation, digital and technology projects, both large and small. Ideally this will have been delivered in an EdTech or education setting.
• Expertise in programme governance, complex workflows, risk management, and project methodologies, ensuring efficient project execution.
• Experience in QA frameworks and QA best practices.
• Strong leadership and a commitment to continuous improvement.
• A proactive planner who is comfortable working at strategic and operational levels.
• Excellent stakeholder management and ability to collaborate effectively with interdisciplinary teams.
• Excellent organisational, planning, and decision-making skills to drive programme efficiency and execution.
• Able and willing to play a key role in shaping the future of the business through fostering a team culture that always seeks to bring the best in each other.

We’d expect you to have the following skills / knowledge:

• Good understanding of programme management approaches as applied to digital development, e-commerce and user-centric learning. You will be familiar with the principles and implementation of lean practices and processes and used to working with both waterfall and agile project management methodologies.
• Good grasp of IT architecture, data management and cyber security.
• Excellent communicator, able to work cross-functionally, involving a wider range of stakeholders at all levels in the organisation and beyond
• Proven and demonstrable commercial negotiation skills, including management of tenders, and familiar with legal language and requirements
• Strong management skills, with an empowering, delegative and mentoring style

You’ll need to be:

• Able to lead inter-disciplinary teams
• Well-organised – consistently meet tight deadlines
• Excellent problem-solver with a can-do attitude
• Structured and disciplined in approach to planning own and team workload
• Good team-member, respected and trusted by colleagues
• Passionate about achieving real change to the business and its users in Education

What we offer

Our staff are our greatest asset, and our benefits reflect this:

• 28 annual leave days per year, increases to 29 days after 2 years' service and goes up to 30 days after 5 years' (+ bank holidays)
• Private medical insurance
• Dental insurance
• Generous pension schemes
• Rent deposit loans
• 2 community days per year
• Summer hours (finishing at 1pm on Fridays during the summer months)
• Retail discounts through Hachette rewards
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Eye care vouchers
• Wide-ranging training library
• Development programmes (including mentoring)
• Up to 70% off book purchases
• A charity bookshelf
• 12 Staff-led employee networks that are voluntary, includingGender Balance, Thrive, Pride, All Together, Wellbeingand religious networks
• Season ticket loans
• And much more!

This role can be based at our London office, or at any of our regional offices in Sheffield, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Manchester or Bristol, with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week.

[OR]

The role will be based at our London office, Carmelite House,with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week.

Our commitment

Hachette employs people on the basis of their abilities. We aim to attract and develop talent from a base as broad as the world of readers we want to reach, with a wide and representative range of age, faith, disability, race, gender, sexuality and socio-economic, regional and cultural backgrounds.

If you are shortlisted and need us to make any adjustments to help you attend for interview, please let us know.

The Book Trade Charity offers financial support to people looking to enter the book trade but who may struggle to afford the costs of attending interviews and undertaking junior roles. For more information visitwww.booktradeentrysupport.org