Project Management Office (PMO) Manager

Education Authority (Northern Ireland); Belfast City District; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

Education Authority (Northern Ireland) seeks a PMO Manager to lead the EnAble Programme's PMO, coordinate multi‑stream delivery, and ensure alignment with corporate and Departmental strategies. The role involves steering governance, risk management, procurement coordination, and providing regular progress updates to the Programme Board and Heads of Service.

The post requires substantial PMO leadership experience in complex settings, excellent communication with senior stakeholders, and a proven

Qualifications

• Experience leading or managing a PMO, programme office or equivalent governance and reporting function within a complex environment.
• Experience preparing/quality assuring programme reports, dashboards or governance papers for senior management or Programme Boards.
• Experience engaging senior stakeholders, workstream leads, delivery teams, suppliers or partners to support delivery and decision-making.

Responsibilities

• Lead and coordinate the PMO activities to achieve EnAble Programme objectives within time and budget.
• Manage the PMO team and oversee reporting of multiple workstreams.
• Identify, manage, mitigate and report programme risks and issues to ensure delivery.
• Liaise with DE regarding Business Case funding within delegated limits.
• Communicate programme vision and provide status reports.

Skills

PMO Management

Governance

Stakeholder engagement

Risk management

Project reporting

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business/IT or related

Job description

JOB DESCRIPTION

JOB TITLE: Project Management Office (PMO) Manager

SERVICE AREA: EnAble Programme

REPORTS TO: EnAble Programme Director

The Senior Manager PMO will be responsible to the EnAble Programme Director for supporting the development and delivery of a number of highly strategic and complex work‑streams within the EnAble programme and for encouraging a collaborative approach to work‑streams and projects across the programme through effective communication and consultation and ensuring that all EnAble teams follow standard processes and procedures. They will be the contact point for all issues pertaining to the programme, including liaison with Heads of Service and stakeholders across the Education Authority, and external suppliers to ensure delivery is consistent with EnAble Programme Plan. This will involve working closely with team members, to ensure that all programme requirements, deadlines, budget restrictions and schedules are on track. The Senior Manager will be responsible for managing and leading the PMO team within the service, this may include managing employees across all workstreams.

ENABLE PROGRAMME BACKGROUND

The EnAble Programme has been established to replace EA One, the Education Authority (EA)’s current Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, and aims to deliver an integrated, efficient, scalable and data‑driven platform to support the effective delivery of services to the NI Education Sector.

EA One currently supports key services across finance, procurement, HR and payroll for approximately 44,000 non‑teaching staff and 22,000 teaching staff. It also supports significant monthly transaction volumes, including payroll, invoices, procurement activity, leave, absence and expenses.

The current platform is based on Oracle E‑Business Suite, which is approaching end‑of‑life, with existing support and contractual arrangements reaching key expiry milestones over the coming years. The EnAble Programme has therefore been mobilised to deliver a replacement solution by March 2032.

The EnAble Programme is a major strategic priority for the EA and will provide opportunities to modernise systems and processes, improve user experience, strengthen data and reporting, and increase resilience across core corporate services.

Job Purpose

• Lead and co‑coordinate the activities of the programme ensuring the achievement of the EnAble Programmes’ overall objectives within specified time and budget constraints.
• Manage the PMO team and be responsible for the successful implementation and reporting of multiple workstreams to support the core business areas of the Education Authority (EA).
• Identify, manage, mitigate and report programme risks and issues to ensure successful delivery of the EnAble programme. Liaise with the EnAble Programme team and stakeholder groups, including Directors and Heads of Service, to ensure sufficient engagement.
• Liaise with DE in respect of the Business Case funding for the programme over the delegated limit.
• Communicate the vision of the EnAble Programme across teams and work streams.
• Inform the EnAble Programme Board of programme progress and provide regular status reports as defined within the reporting guidelines.
• Drive the EnAble Programme teams to deliver workstreams within the agreed time, cost and quality parameters.
• Ensure EnAble Programme Plans and deliverables are continuously aligned to EA and DE Strategies and feed into (PfG) outcomes.

Main Duties And Responsibilities

EnAble Programme of Work

• Co‑coordinate the preparation of progress reports and RAID logs aligned to the EnAble Programme of Work.
• Establish the documentation for the PMO and Workstream teams.
• Lead and co‑coordinate the procurement pipeline and usage of External Substitutes.
• Oversee the implementation of multiple workstreams across the EnAble Programme within defined timescales and budget.
• Report to the EnAble Programme Board on the progress of the EnAble workstreams against agreed time and cost constraints.
• Act as key contact and work in partnership with the EnAble Programme Director and Workstream Leads in terms of implementation and support issues throughout the EnAble Programme life cycle.

PMO Management, Implementation and Performance

• Carry out programme reviews and weekly and monthly status of deliverables with EnAble PMO to drive priorities in the project teams.
• Ensure all programme milestones are properly identified for all workstreams of the EnAble Programme and that they are met through effective management of and communication with the workstream/implementation team.
• Adhere to the system of monitoring and reporting against programme objectives and timescales.
• Manage the EnAble Programme with defined environment including:
• Detail planning
• Monitoring of costs; and
• Quality assurance
• Prepare programme documentation for the EnAble Programme Board, attend as necessary and facilitate EnAble Programme specific meetings.

Staff Management, including Planning and Monitoring Progress

• Define detailed activities and workstream team accountabilities.
• Define programme resource requirements to meet the EnAble Programme objectives to ensure they are provided when required.
• Provide guidance and direction to members of the PMO.
• Allocate work packages to the EnAble Programme team.

Management of Key Relationships to Ensure Effective Interaction between various partners.

• Liaise with appointed contractors as required and monitor the contractor’s performance against contracts and agreed timelines.
• Liaise with relevant officers within EA, DE, contractor, etc in relation to the successful development/implementation of the systems within the EnAble Programme of work.
• Undertake any other duties which from time to time may be required by the EnAble Programme Board

Risk Management

• Identify and manage risks that may arise within their area of responsibility and develop controls to mitigate them, ensure any risks or issues are escalated appropriately before they develop into an issue.
• Report to EnAble Programme Board on risks and management thereof.

This job description will be subject to review in light of changing circumstances and is not intended to be rigid and inflexible but should be regarded as providing guidelines within which the individual works. Other duties of a similar nature and appropriate to the grade may be assigned from time to time.

In accordance with Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act (1998), the post-holder is expected to promote good relations, equality of opportunity and pay due regard for equality legislation at all times.

• Report to EnAble Programme Board on risks and management thereof.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

NOTES TO JOB APPLICANTS

• You must clearly demonstrate on your application form under each question, how, and to what extent you meet the required criteria as failure to do so may result in you not being shortlisted. You should clearly demonstrate this for both the essential and desirable criteria, where relevant.
• You must demonstrate how you meet the criteria by the closing date for applications, unless the criteria state otherwise.
• The stage in the process when the criteria will be measured is outlined in the table below.
• Shortlisting will be carried out on the basis of the essential criteria set out in Section 1 below, using the information provided by you on your application form.
• Please note that the Selection Panel reserves the right to shortlist only those applicants that it believes most strongly meet the criteria for the role.
• In the event of an excessive number of applications, the Selection Panel also reserves the right to apply any desirable criteria as outlined in Section 3 at shortlisting, in which case these will be applied in the order listed. It is important therefore that you also clearly demonstrate on your application form on how you meet any desirable criteria.

Section 1 - Essential Criteria

Experience Factor Essential Criteria Method of Assessment Qualifications/

Hold a bachelor’s degree, UK Qualification and Credit Framework Level 6, or equivalent/higher qualification in a relevant discipline i.e Business Management/Business Administration, Management/Leadership, Business Information Systems/ Information Technology/Computer Science and have at least three years’ demonstrable experience leading or managing a PMO, programme office or equivalent governance and reporting function within a complex programme/project environment;

OR

Have at least five years’ demonstrable experience leading or managing a PMO, programme office or equivalent governance and reporting function within a complex programme/project environment.

• 'complex' is defined as cross-cutting across a number of business areas, involving internal and external stakeholders, and having an impact on multiple people/groups.

Demonstrable experience of leading or coordinating a PMO, programme office or programme/project support team.

Demonstrable experience of preparing and quality assuring programme reports, dashboards, briefing papers or governance papers for senior management or Programme Boards.

Demonstrable experience of engaging senior stakeholders, workstream leads, delivery teams, suppliers or partners to support delivery and decision-making.

Demonstrable experience of supporting programme governance, resource planning, financial monitoring, procurement activity or supplier performance monitoring.

Shortlisting by Application Form

Other

The successful candidate will be required: to have access to a suitable vehicle (appropriately maintained and insured for Education Authority business) that will enable them to carry out the mobility requirements of the post in an efficient and effective manner and thus meet this essential criterion;

OR

be able to provide sufficient information on the application form that will satisfy the employer that he/she has access to an appropriate alternative form of transport that will enable them to carry out the mobility requirements of the post in an efficient and effective manner and thus meet this essential criterion.

Shortlisting by Application Form

S Section 2 - Essential Criteria

Additional essential criteria which will