Programme and Business Manager

National Energy System Operator Limited; Warwick; Hybrid; GBP 77,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible holidays

Birthday leave

Cycle to Work scheme

Private medical insurance

Critical Illness Insurance

Personal Accident Insurance

Job summary

National Energy System Operator Limited is seeking an experienced portfolio/business-planning leader to drive the central activity plan for the WESR directorate. You will align system priorities with leadership direction and available resources, coordinating across multi-disciplinary teams to deliver a coherent, forward-looking plan.

You will turn diverse inputs into clear priorities, manage interdependencies, and develop dashboards for executive oversight.

Qualifications

• Experience leading portfolio or business-planning initiatives.
• Ability to turn multiple inputs into a clear, forward-looking plan.
• Strong analytical and cross-team collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop and coordinate the delivery of WESR’s central activity plan—annual, quarterly, and ad-hoc—linking system priorities, leadership steer, and available resources.
• Proactively manage the activity triage and prioritisation process in WESR.
• Identify and manage cross-team interdependencies, overlaps, and delivery risks, providing clear recommendations to leadership to drive WESR’s portfolio.
• Lead the creation of clear portfolio insights and dashboards for leadership and NESO governance groups.
• Coordinate dynamic resource allocation and knowledge-sharing across WESR, ensuring teams have what they need to deliver efficiently.
• Monitor progress, risks, and performance against the plan; intervene or re-prioritise as needed.
• Lead WESR’s business management processes, including monitoring performance KPIs, reporting, governance, financials, and mitigations to risks.
• Coordinate input into NESO strategic planning activities, including development of business planning processes.
• Manage and develop a multidisciplinary team focused on proactive delivery and coordination.

Skills

Portfolio leadership

Business planning

Strategic thinking

Stakeholder collaboration

Analytical skills

Job description

About the Role

Reliable energy systems are fundamental to everyday life in Great Britain. They underpin homes, businesses, public services, and critical national infrastructure, and are essential to economic stability, public safety, and social wellbeing. As the energy system evolves through decarbonisation, increasing electrification, and greater interdependence across sectors, ensuring that it remains secure, reliable, and resilient is more important than ever. The Whole Energy System Resilience (WESR) directorate strengthens whole-energy-system resilience by being a catalyst for change – turning insight into coordinated, prioritised action that reduces risk and builds capability across the system. WESR delivers this through analysis, assessments, reviews, emergency exercises, and plans that drive tangible improvements with our partners.

WESR operates through a continuous improvement cycle that includes:

• Learning systematically about energy system risks and resilience
• Conducting prioritised assessments to generate insights and advice
• Translating insights into actions that drive tangible improvements

WESR is building its capability to maintain a strategic, system-wide view that integrates insights across all teams in the directorate and translates them into prioritised risks, workplans, and engagement strategies. This enables each team to focus on developing deep expertise and excellence in a specialist area. This role can be based from Wokingham or Warwick, and we continue to offer hybrid working from office and home. We are open to full time and part time applicants, as well as flexible working arrangements. This role is to lead the team that builds and manages WESR’s central activity plan and its business health, ensuring that every workstream, resource, and timeline aligns with WESR leadership’s strategic steer to drive prioritised actions that strengthen the resilience of Great Britain’s energy system. The team owns the integrated view of what WESR delivers—spotting interdependencies, risks, and opportunities for shared capability—and continuously works with teams across WESR to adjust the plan as new priorities emerge.

Key accountabilities

• Develop and coordinate the delivery of WESR’s central activity plan—annual, quarterly, and ad-hoc—linking system priorities, leadership steer, and available resources. This includes all activities WESR does to learn about energy system risks and resilience, generate insights and advice, and drive tangible improvements
• Proactively manage the activity triage and prioritisation process in WESR
• Identify and manage cross-team interdependencies, overlaps, and delivery risks, providing clear recommendations to leadership to drive WESR’s portfolio
• Lead the creation of clear portfolio insights and dashboards for leadership and NESO governance groups
• Coordinate dynamic resource allocation and knowledge-sharing across WESR, ensuring teams have what they need to deliver efficiently
• Monitor progress, risks, and performance against the plan; intervene or re-prioritise as needed
• Lead WESR’s business management processes, including monitoring performance KPIs, reporting, governance, financials, as well as proactively identifying mitigations to business risks and opportunities and driving those with support from senior leadership
• Coordinate input into NESO strategic planning activities, including development of business planning processes
• Manage and develop a multidisciplinary team focused on proactive delivery and coordination

Applicants must have the right to work in the UK by the start of employment. Visa sponsorship may not be available for this role and will be considered in line with business requirements.

About You

Experienced portfolio or business-planning leader who thrives on structure and clarity. Skilled at turning multiple inputs into a single, coherent, forward-looking plan. Comfortable making prioritisation decisions and challenging constructively to align resources with impact. Analytical and system-minded—able to spot connections, conflicts, and delivery risks early. Strong communicator and collaborator who builds trust across teams and leadership levels. Proactive and motivated by creating order, transparency, and pace in complex multi-disciplinary programmes.

What You'll Get

A competitive salary of £77,000 - £85,000 pa dependent on experience and capability.

As well as your base salary, you will receive a bonus of up to 15% of your salary for stretch performance, 28 days annual leave as standard, and a competitive contributory pension scheme where we will double match your contribution to a maximum company contribution of 12%.

NESO's flexible benefits programme provides you with more flexibility around your health, lifestyle and protection benefits, here's just a few available:

• Flexible Bank Holidays & Holiday Trading
• Additional Birthday Day Off
• Cycle to Work Scheme, Retail & Gym Discounts
• Private Medical Insurance, Critical Illness Insurance & Personal Accident Insurance

About Us

At the National Energy System Operator (NESO), we play a vital role in tackling climate change and securing Great Britain's energy future. We already operate the world's fastest decarbonising electricity system and are working towards our ambition to run it carbon-free for a short period this year - provided the market supplies electricity exclusively from renewable sources. Alongside this, we provide expert advice to government on how to deliver a clean power system by 2030. In autumn 2024, the Electricity System Operator (ESO) transitioned to become NESO - an independent, expert public corporation with a whole-system view across electricity, gas, and hydrogen. NESO operates independently and transparently, always acting in the best interests of all energy users. Licensed and regulated by Ofgem, we make impartial decisions that balance sustainability, affordability and security. Our organisation is fully independent from government, the regulator and all commercial interests, with a clear focus on system-wide benefit, long term thing and public value. The time to deliver is now. Join the energy transformation and help shape the future. Your energy. Our future. Together

More Information

This role closes at 23:59, on the date displayed on the top of this advert, however we encourage candidates to submit their application as early as possible and not wait until the published closing date as this can vary. Interviews will be held at the start to middle of September Research shows that some people may hesitation to apply unless they meet every single requirement. At NESO, we believe potential comes in many forms and we're committed to a fair, inclusive recruitment We're committed to building a workforce that represents the communities we serve, and a working environment in which each individual feels valued, respected, fairly treated, and able to reach their full potential. If this role sparks your interest but you're not sure you tick every box, we still want to hear from you. process where everyone has the opportunity to show their talents. We celebrate the difference people can bring into our organisation, and welcome and encourage applicants with diverse experiences and backgrounds. At the National Energy System Operator (NESO), we play a vital role in tackling climate change and securing Great Britains's energy future. We already operate the world's fastest decarbonising electricity system and are working towards our ambition to run it carbon-free for a short period this year - provided the market supplies electricity exclusively from renewable sources. In autumn 2024, the Electricity System Operator (ESO) transitioned to become NESO - an independent, expert public corporation with a whole-system view across electricity, gas, and hydrogen. NESO operates independently and transparently, always actin in the best interests of all energy users. Licensed and regulated by Ofgem, we make impartial decisions that balance sustainability, affordability and security. Our organisation is fully independent from government, the regulator and all commercial interests, with a clear focus on system-wide benefit, long term thing and public value. The time to deliver is now. Join the energy transformation and help shape the future. Your energy. Our future. Together