PMO Analyst

Howden Group Holdings; Dartford; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent insurance firm in Dartford is seeking a PMO Analyst to oversee project governance and analytics for key programs. This role involves close collaboration with stakeholders, project delivery teams, and ensuring adherence to project methodologies. Candidates should have proven PMO experience, strong analytical skills, and familiarity with Agile and Waterfall methodologies. The firm values diversity and offers flexible working arrangements.

Benefits

Flexible working arrangements

Company culture focused on diversity

Career progression opportunities

Qualifications

• Proven experience of working in a PMO Analyst role.
• Understanding of the whole lifecycle of projects.
• Proven ability to deliver project objectives and meet strict deadlines.

Responsibilities

• Support the business and project delivery teams with analytical support.
• Manage and monitor completion of projects to ensure they are within scope.
• Facilitate communication between various internal and external parties.

Skills

Project Management

Analytical Skills

Stakeholder Management

Agile Methodologies

Waterfall Methodologies

Education

Professional project management qualifications (e.g., PRINCE2, APM)

Tools

Monday.com

Microsoft SharePoint

Microsoft Project

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft PowerPoint

Job description

Overview

Who are we? Howden is a collective – a group of talented and passionate people all around the world. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 18,000 employees spanning over 100 countries.

People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

Role Purpose

This is a key role in the Howden Projects PMO team, which is responsible for delivery of key programmes and projects across the Howden Group. With a strong PMO Analyst background and good understanding of the change management lifecycle, you will support the business, Head of PMO, Project Delivery Director, Head of Project Management and delivery teams. You will provide the Project Delivery Director and Head of Project Management with the analytical support to best deliver the portfolio, by ensuring that you are challenging the priorities, tracking milestones, risks, issues and dependencies, based on your knowledge of the portfolio. You will be responsible for ensuring that projects adhere to the Project Framework and that governance and reporting is in line with the various committees and groups’ quality expectations. The role holder will need to work closely with the Project Delivery team, senior business leaders and stakeholders, across the portfolio.

Strategy & Planning

• Collaborate with the business to gain visibility of projects entering the pipeline.
• Document and maintain the Governance Structure.
• Provide relevant portfolio-level management information to stakeholders/management team as required, including progress against key milestones.

Technical: Project Governance & PMO

• Responsible for adherence and management of the Project Management Framework, Portfolio governance, and PMO processes.
• Monitor and maintain project approval and portfolio data for Portfolio projects using SharePoint and Monday.com systems.
• Produce, maintain, and circulate portfolio status reports to the wider team and senior management as required, ensuring milestone tracking and reporting is accurate and timely.
• Work with business contacts, project owners, and Enterprise Architecture to ensure project approval parties have the information needed for decision-making. Point of contact for stakeholders on the project approval process.
• Analyse the project portfolio, identify and resolve bottlenecks in processes, and raise awareness of individual project risks, issues, and slippage against milestones.
• Host regular project portfolio updates with team managers, record notes and action points.
• Chair and manage project approval group meetings with relevant COOs.
• Contribute information and guidance to other relevant functions (IMO, BTO, Business Systems).
• Develop and adapt the Project framework and corresponding documentation in response to additional governance requirements and the growing company.
• Run regular PMO meetings with project owners to review the Project portfolio and ensure milestone progress is on track.
• Arrange and deliver Healthcheck meetings, continuously monitoring that the benefits, risks, and timelines agreed upon at initiation are still on track.

General Project Management

• Manage / monitor the completion of projects to ensure that they are within scope.
• Set deadlines, assign responsibilities, track milestones and deliverables, and monitor / summarise the progress of projects.
• Ensure project documentation, templates and reports are consistent with agreed methodology.

Stakeholder Management

• Facilitation of communication between various parties within and external to Howden Group.
• Build and maintain strong and effective relationships with internal stakeholders, business unit and external vendors.
• Point of contact and first stage decision-maker for requirements, project issues and queries.
• Resolve conflict between stakeholders and bring differing parties to agreement.
• Work collaboratively and maintain regular communication with peers across the wider Group to ensure consistency in approach and promotion of best practice and facilitate efficient operational workflow and enhanced sharing of knowledge and information.

Knowledge/Experience

• Proven experience of working in a PMO Analyst role.
• Understanding of the whole lifecycle of projects from start-up to benefits realisation.
• Proven ability to deliver project objectives and meet strict deadlines.
• Good understanding of Waterfall and AGILE project methodologies.
• Preferably has experience working with third party suppliers and offshore development teams.
• A good level of IT domain knowledge and technology trends and market challenges.
• Preferred experience of using project management tools such as Monday.com, Microsoft Project or similar.
• A good level of experience working with Microsoft SharePoint, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio.
• Understanding and prior involvement with business analyst, development and quality assurance tasks during a project is desirable.

Qualifications

Ideally has professional project management qualifications such as PRINCE 2 / APM or have equivalent training and experience in project methodologies.

What do we offer in return?

A career that you define. At Howden, we value diversity – there is no one Howden type. Instead, we’re looking for individuals who share the same values as us:

• Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new
• We support each other in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges
• We are determined to make a positive difference at work and beyond

Reasonable adjustments

We\'re committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs. Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours* or hybrid working*.

If you\'re excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it’s the right fit for you, send us your application – if your profile fits the role’s criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments you may require.

*Not all positions can accommodate changes to working hours or locations. Reach out to your Recruitment Partner if you want to know more.

Fixed Term Contract (Fixed Term)