Programme Planning & PMO Lead

Cedar; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A higher education organization is seeking an Interim Programme Planning & PMO Lead to oversee complex change programmes. The role involves maintaining integrated plans, aligning Agile delivery, and managing stakeholder reporting. Ideal candidates should have extensive PMO experience and proficiency in tools like MS Project and JIRA. This position offers a hybrid work model with a day rate of £400-£475.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in leading programme planning and PMO functions.
• Experience managing risks, issues, and dependencies.
• Ability to integrate multiple data sources into planning tools.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain integrated programme plans.
• Align Agile delivery cycles with governance.
• Produce insight reports and dashboards for stakeholders.

Skills

Programme planning

Stakeholder management

Agile methodologies

Documentation control

Risk management

Tools

MS Project

MS Planner

JIRA

Job description

Overview

Interim Programme Planning & PMO Lead

Sector: Higher Education

Location: London / Hybrid

Duration: 6 months

Day Rate: £400-£475 (Inside IR35)

The Role

As Programme Planning & PMO Lead, you will:

• Develop and maintain integrated programme plans, consolidating inputs from MS Project, MS Planner, JIRA, and supplier plans.
• Align Agile delivery cycles with stage-gated governance, providing visibility of milestones, dependencies, and critical paths.
• Oversee PMO governance, including documentation control, change management, risk/issue tracking, and quality assurance.
• Produce insightful reports and dashboards for senior stakeholders, ensuring transparency across delivery.
• Facilitate governance meetings, track actions, and support continuous improvement in programme controls.

Essential Experience

We are looking for someone with proven experience in:

• Leading programme planning and PMO functions on large, complex, multi-workstream change programmes ideally in Higher Education organisations.
• Managing risks, issues, and dependencies to keep delivery on track.
• Using planning tools (MS Project, MS Planner, JIRA) and integrating multiple data sources.
• Balancing Agile and stage-gated methodologies in a unified plan.
• Designing and optimising governance processes.
• Producing high-quality, executive-level reporting.

This role requires a detail-oriented professional with excellent stakeholder management skills and the ability to influence at all levels.