Project Manager

Chorley Council and South Ribble Borough Council; Chorley; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 44,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days annual leave + bank holidays

Hybrid/agile working from day one

Local Government pension

Healthcare Cash Plan

Cashback website access

Volunteering days

Free parking

Car Allowance

Job summary

Chorley Council and South Ribble Borough Council are seeking a Project Manager to lead transformation and Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) programmes. You’ll manage digital system merges, align services across councils and deliver customer-focused improvements.

You’ll work with multi-disciplinary teams, apply robust governance, and drive change across a busy transformation portfolio to benefit residents and staff alike.

Qualifications

• Experience delivering complex projects and initiatives involving change or transformation.
• Ability to build relationships with stakeholders to deliver benefits and improvements.
• Experience with change management approaches including discovery phases and process mapping.
• Excellent communication at all levels, verbal and written, including stakeholder consultations.
• Learning mindset with ability to identify opportunities to learn from others.
• Works well in a team and can drive projects independently.
• Experience delivering digital system implementations would be an advantage.

Responsibilities

• Lead a portfolio of transformation and LGR projects through the full lifecycle.
• Engage stakeholders early and develop robust business cases.
• Ensure governance and structured project and change management are in place.
• Collaborate with internal teams and external partners to deliver improvements.
• Act as a champion for change and support leaders to plan and deliver.

Skills

Project management

Change management

Stakeholder engagement

Communication

Team collaboration

Education

PRINCE2 or other Project Management qualification

Job description

About The Role

Role: Project Manager

Location: Chorley Council and South Ribble Borough Council

Contract: Full time (36.25 hours per week) / Fixed Term Contract (until 31 March 2028)

Salary: £39,862 - £44,075 plus 6% car allowance

Closing Date: 13 September 2026

This is a great opportunity to step into a Project Manager role at an exciting time for Chorley Council and South Ribble Borough Council following the government’s decision on Local Government Reorganisation (LGR).

Working at the heart of our transformation and LGR agenda, you’ll take the lead on some of our most high‑profile projects and change programmes to future proof services. Projects will focus on digital system merges and alignment of systems across councils, digital system improvements, process/service improvements, customer services transformation, and improvements that have a direct impact on our residents.

As we prepare for Local Government Reorganisation (LGR), this role will play a key part in shaping how our services, people and technology evolve

What you’ll be getting up to

• Project managing a portfolio of transformation and LGR projects through the full project lifecycle; from early stakeholder engagement and developing business cases, through to project delivery, embedding change and making sure improvements stick.
• Making sure strong governance and structured project and change management are in place so that we deliver projects and changes in a clear, transparent and well‑managed way.
• Working closely with multi‑disciplinary teams, both internally and with external partners, to bring expertise together and deliver projects and meaningful improvements.
• Acting as a visible champion for change; supporting leaders and senior managers to plan, communicate and deliver change effectively.

Who we’re looking for

• An experienced and organised project manager who has experience of delivering complex projects and initiatives involving change and transformation.
• An individual who enjoys working collaboratively and can build relationships with stakeholders todeliver benefits and improvements.
• Someone with experience of change management approaches including discovery phases and process mapping.
• An excellent communicator, who can communicate effectively at all levels across the council, both verbal and written, including undertaking consultation and engagement exercises with internal and external customers
• Someone with a learning mindset with the ability to identify opportunities to learn from others.
• Someone who works well in a team as well as confident and able to use their own initiative to drive forward projects.
• Experience on delivery of digital system implementations would be an advantage but not essential.

Other requirements

• This role requires some travel around our boroughs. You should have a valid driving licence or the equivalent mobility.
• PRINCE2 or other Project Management qualification (desirable)

Our Benefits

• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays (and Christmas shutdown)
• Hybrid/agile working from day one
• Local Government pension
• Healthcare Cash Plan for cash back on health treatments
• Cashback website access for savings on brands you love
• Volunteering days
• Free parking
• Car Allowance

Many of our colleagues work flexibly for us. We’re always open to conversations around different working arrangements.

About Us

Chorley Council is dedicated to providing first‑class services and promoting the well‑being of the local community. Our staff are our greatest resource, at the heart of everything we do, and are crucial to the delivery of excellent services for our residents. At Chorley Council, we’re always striving to make our borough the best to live, work and visit.

Working Together

We share a number of our services with South Ribble Borough Council. This allows for improved resilience across both councils and provides numerous benefits to our operations. Whilst some staff and back‑end processes are shared between the Councils, both Councils still retain sovereignty and have separatestrategies and corporate plans.

Additional information

We reserve the right to close a vacancy prior to the closing date.

Equal Opportunities

We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect. We are committed to the elimination of unfair and unlawful discrimination and prejudice in all our policies, procedures, and practices.

We’re committed to making our recruitment practices barrier‑free and accessible to everyone. This includes making adjustments for disabled people, neurodiverse people or people with long‑term health conditions. If you would like us to do anything differently during the recruitment process, please contact us via the "Contact Us" page on our website.

If you are disabled or your last employer was the armed forces, and you meet all the essential criteria of a post, you will be guaranteed an interview.