Platform Engineering PMO Lead & Strategy

Pearson; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Pearson is seeking a Principal, Program Management to drive strategic and operational alignment across the Platform Engineering organisation within OCTO. This hybrid London-based role leads the Platform Engineering Business Office, governance, and portfolio management to deliver structured execution and clear executive insight.

You will collaborate with Cloud, SRE, Networks and Enterprise Operations leaders, build dashboards, and report progress to senior stakeholders while shaping strategic

Qualifications

• 8+ years' experience within technology organisations.
• 4+ years within PMO, Portfolio Management, Business Operations, Chief of Staff, Delivery Management or Business Office leadership roles.
• Experience managing portfolios containing multiple programmes, projects and workstreams simultaneously.
• Strong governance, planning and stakeholder management expertise.
• Proven ability to influence senior leaders within complex matrix organisations.
• Experience producing executive-level reporting, dashboards and performance insights.
• Exceptional communication, facilitation and presentation skills.
• Experience with Jira, Jira Product Discovery, Confluence, ServiceNow and related enterprise platforms.
• A highly organised, structured and pragmatic approach to problem solving.
• Ability to thrive in fast-paced environments with competing priorities and changing demands.

Responsibilities

• Partner with leaders across Cloud, SRE, Networks, Digital Workplace Services and Enterprise Operations to drive organisational alignment.
• Coordinate strategic planning, operational reviews and cross-functional initiatives.
• Establish business office operating mechanisms, governance processes and delivery frameworks.
• Drive follow-through on leadership priorities, actions and commitments.
• Support finance, compliance, people and operational planning activities across the organisation.
• Own and govern the portfolio demand intake process across Platform Engineering.
• Build and maintain a consolidated portfolio view aligned to business priorities.
• Facilitate governance forums, portfolio reviews and leadership reporting activities.
• Monitor programme health, risks, dependencies and delivery outcomes.
• Support prioritisation decisions using business value, capacity and strategic objectives.
• Design and maintain KPI, OKR and performance measurement frameworks.
• Create dashboards and reporting mechanisms that provide a single source of truth for leadership.
• Translate technical and operational data into clear executive-level insights.
• Identify trends, risks and opportunities that support data-driven decision making.
• Coordinate organisational reporting for senior leadership audiences.
• Own executive presentations, leadership updates and strategic communications.
• Maintain service catalogues, knowledge repositories and business office content.
• Support preparation of leadership reviews, board updates and executive meetings.
• Coordinate and standardise outward-facing communications across the function.
• Ensure Platform Engineering's priorities, achievements and value are effectively communicated across Pearson.
• Act as a trusted partner across Platform Engineering leadership.
• Help drive transformation initiatives and organisational improvements.
• Coordinate activities across multiple programmes, stakeholders and workstreams.
• Bring structure, governance and operational rigour to a fast-moving environment.
• Influence senior stakeholders and help remove barriers to execution.

Skills

Executive reporting

Governance

Stakeholder management

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Jira

Jira Product Discovery

Confluence

ServiceNow

Job description

Pearson is seeking a Principal, Program Management to drive strategic and operational alignment across the Platform Engineering organisation within OCTO. This hybrid London-based role leads the Platform Engineering Business Office, governance, and portfolio management to deliver structured execution and clear executive insight.

You will collaborate with Cloud, SRE, Networks and Enterprise Operations leaders, build dashboards, and report progress to senior stakeholders while shaping strategic