Program Assurance Manager

TN United Kingdom; Royston; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Program Assurance Manager to ensure capital projects deliver value and meet business objectives. This key role involves guiding a portfolio of medium-sized projects, applying risk-based methodologies, and coaching site staff on best practices. With a strong focus on project lifecycle management and stakeholder alignment, you will drive improvements and ensure projects are suitably prepared for funding. Join a forward-thinking organization committed to sustainable technologies and be part of a culture that values diversity and inclusion.

Benefits

Competitive compensation

Bonus opportunities

Excellent pension contributions

25 days of annual leave

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in project delivery within hazardous industries.
• Proven experience across the entire project lifecycle.
• Deep knowledge of project methodologies and delivery approaches.

Responsibilities

• Recommend projects to meet business goals using risk-based methodologies.
• Liaise with global leaders to ensure standardized approaches.
• Conduct Stage Gate processes to ensure project readiness.

Skills

Project Management

Risk Management

Engineering Principles

Procurement Strategies

Multi-discipline Engineering

Education

Chartered Engineer

Chartered Project Manager

Job description

The Program Assurance Manager plays a critical supporting role in ensuring PGMS capital projects deliver value for PGMS and JM. The primary objective of this role is to act as the Assurance Authority to confirm to PGMS Board that projects are suitably prepared and conditioned with tolerable risk for ongoing funding approvals. This role will guide a portfolio of projects per year of medium sized nature and circa. £100 m of Capital requests over a 3-year period. The role will work across PGMS sites globally and will be expected to coach site staff and Senior Management on project execution practices to JM and Industry standards.

This role will also support the identification of global PGMS and JM improvements to share and incorporate into ongoing project delivery to speed up JM’s growth projects. This secondary function will ensure transformation opportunities are leveraged throughout the wider organisation and accelerate the capital engineering learning globally.

Johnson Matthey, a FTSE 250 organisation, is a global leader in sustainable technologies specialising in catalysis, precious metal products, chemicals, and process technology. With operations in over 30 countries, we employ more than 12,600 people. We have more than 200 years of success behind us; be part of the next stage of our growth journey and help maintain our reputation as one of the most admired organisations in our field. Our unique culture and people give us a competitive advantage and will ensure our success for years to come. You can be part of that success story.

Your responsibilities:

1. Recommend to senior management, PGMS board, and wider stakeholders that projects, programmes, and portfolios will meet its business goals, objectives, and requirements, applying risk-based methodologies to improve applications, recommend or deny Stage Gate approvals.
2. Liaise with global functional leaders in Engineering, Procurement, HSE, Project Management, Construction, Technology Experts, and Site Management to ensure standardised approaches and best practice are being coached and used across the PGMS sites globally.
3. Keep accurate records of Stage Gate reviews, make recommendations, and track close-out of those recommendations to approve Stage Gate applications. Provide justification to the senior management for why the project is suitable for funding applications or rejected, including support for the areas that the site teams may need additional coaching.
4. Utilise and improve both global and PGMS governance and assurance to enable success of the requested projects at each of the sites, and ensure the sites’ portfolios are suitably identified and developed.
5. Work with site project teams to ensure that project assurance processes systematically align stakeholders to achieve PGMS capital goals. Identify the scope and timing of reviews appropriate to project size, complexity, risk profile, and business priorities. Coach site capital teams and leadership in effective assurance implementation, including project self-verification, functional reviews, and connecting sites with wider communities of practice across JM.
6. Ensure lessons learned in project assurance reviews are captured and fed into PGMS Capital Engineering Team, working across PGMS and JM to improve the project lifecycle and delivery process.
7. Share best practices and lessons learned with PGMS Capital Engineering and Site Capital teams.
8. Conduct Stage Gate processes and support reviews with functional experts, site, and project teams to ensure project readiness, proper documentation, and conditions for success, with clear outcomes.
9. Support project integration into PGMS business evergreen portfolio by analyzing project requests against PGMS business targets and strategies.
10. Perform deep-dive reviews for specific projects, identify deficiencies, and work proactively with site project teams and wider JM organization to resolve issues for successful project progress.
11. Develop capability and competence strategies across PGMS sites.

Requirements for the role:

1. Extensive experience in a project delivery environment within hazardous or regulated industries, with Chartered Engineer or Chartered Project Manager status and extensive multi-functional experience.
2. Proven experience across the entire project lifecycle from initiation to mechanical completion and plant startup, with project values typically between £1-10m involving multi-discipline engineering projects.
3. Deep knowledge of project methodologies and delivery approaches in a formal stage gate process, with ability to influence JM senior management and functional heads.
4. Expertise in project execution planning, principles, governance, and industry practices related to engineering and subcontractor management.
5. Experience with procurement and contracting strategies and processes, both internally and externally, to support PGMS contract development and approval at the global contract assurance board.
6. Experience with multi-discipline engineering, hazard studies, safety, product, and quality deliverables, understanding their impact on engineering, safety, social, physical, and economic environments.
7. Background in engineering principles within an engineering environment.

How you will be rewarded:
We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package including bonus, excellent pension contributions, and 25 days of annual leave (varies for shift-based roles).

At JM, an inclusive culture is integral to our values and ambitions for the future. We are committed to ensuring that everyone can bring their full self to work and thrive in their career. We welcome everyone to JM, regardless of their characteristics, experiences, or thoughts, enabling us to bring many different voices and experiences together to tackle the world's biggest challenges.

Being truly inclusive means that all colleagues feel valued for their differences, views, and contributions, and feel a sense of belonging at JM.