Project Manager

Hampshire and the Solent Combined County Authority; Southampton; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible hybrid working

Competitive salary

Professional development opportunities

Leadership team collaboration

LGPS membership

Job summary

Hampshire and the Solent Combined County Authority is seeking a Project Manager to translate strategic objectives into deliverable change across programmes and initiatives. You will analyse business needs, define requirements, map processes, and support decision-making with stakeholders and governance forums.

You will lead multi‑workstream projects, manage risks and dependencies, and ensure delivery aligns with statutory requirements and organisational priorities in a devolved public service

Qualifications

• Proven ability to translate ambiguity into a structured delivery plan and communicate clearly across senior, political and partnership environments.
• Experience leading complex, high‑profile change programmes with multiple workstreams and dependencies.
• Background in organisational transitions, workforce transfers, service transformation, or public sector reform initiatives.
• Strong project delivery capability including mobilisation, planning, scheduling, RAID, dependency tracking and governance coordination.
• Desirable: experience of devolution, local government reform, digital transformation or infrastructure delivery.

Responsibilities

• Lead defined projects, work packages or implementation activities from mobilisation to closure with clear scope, outputs and milestones.
• Maintain project control, manage plans, risks, issues, dependencies and escalation routes to keep delivery affordable and on track.
• Prepare progress updates, RAID info, options and recommendations for Programme Managers and governance forums.
• Coordinate delivery across teams and organisational boundaries with clear ownership and sequenced activities.
• Support readiness and transition into business as usual, ensuring adoption, handover and lessons learned are captured.

Skills

Project management

Stakeholder management

Governance

RAID management

Change management

Public sector reform

Devolution experience

Job description

Working hours: Full time - 37 hours per week

Schedule type: Hybrid working - Office days 2-3 days per week, however this is dependent on business needs

Are you looking for a role where you can help shape something new, make a visible difference and work alongside people who care deeply about their place? If so, the HSCCA could be a brilliant next step. We are building a new Combined County Authority for Hampshire and the Solent, bringing together partners across Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton to bring investment to the region and to create opportunities for our people, places, communities and businesses.

The Role

As a Project Manager, you will play a key role in translating strategic objectives into practical, deliverable change across programmes, projects, and organisational initiatives. Working closely with stakeholders, you will analyse business needs, define requirements, map current and future processes, and support informed decision-making around services, systems, operating models, and ways of working. By reducing ambiguity, identifying improvements, and ensuring solutions align with user needs, statutory requirements, and organisational priorities, you will help strengthen change delivery, improve organisational readiness, and support the development of sustainable and effective new arrangements across the HSCCA.

What you'll be doing?

In this role, you’ll play a crucial part in ensuring our teams have the tools, knowledge, and processes they need to deliver a high‑quality service. You will:

• Lead defined projects, work packages or implementation activities from mobilisation to closure, establishing clear scope, outputs, outcomes, plans, milestones, dependencies, resources, risks, decisions, handover requirements and evidence of delivery impact.
• Maintain strong project control and delivery confidence, actively managing plans, risks, issues, assumptions, dependencies, changes, reporting requirements and escalation routes so that projects remain coherent, affordable, paced and aligned to intended outcomes.
• Support effective governance, assurance and decision‑making, preparing clear progress updates, highlight reports, RAID information, options and recommendations so Programme Managers and governance forums can understand delivery confidence, risks, choices and next steps.
• Coordinate delivery across teams and organisational boundaries, bringing together colleagues, partners, suppliers and stakeholders so responsibilities are clear, activity is sequenced, dependencies are understood and delivery remains focused on completion and outcome achievement.
• Support implementation, readiness and transition into business as usual, ensuring operational impacts, adoption needs, handover arrangements, evidence requirements, lessons learned and closure activity are planned and followed through.

What you’ll bring?

We’re looking for someone with:

• CVs must demonstrate your proven ability to translate ambiguity into a structured delivery plan and communicating that clearly across senior, political and partnership environments.
• Demonstrable experience leading complex, high‑profile change programmes, including the project management of multiple workstreams, stakeholders, governance requirements, and organisational dependencies.
• Your experience would include organisational transition, workforce transfer, service transformation, or public sector reform activity, where organisational integration formed a significant delivery workstream.
• Strong experience managing projects, work packages or implementation activity in complex multi‑stakeholder environments, including projects that are significant in size, complexity, profile or organisational impact.
• Strong project delivery capability, including mobilisation, planning, scheduling, RAID management, dependency tracking, reporting, governance coordination, implementation and controlled closure.
• Strong stakeholder management and coordination skills, including the ability to work with colleagues, partners, suppliers, subject matter experts and decision makers where success depends on alignment and follow‑through.
• Highly desirable: Experience of devolution, local government reform, public sector reorganisation, transition, digital transformation, infrastructure delivery, service change or implementation in a complex environment.

Why join the HSCCA?

We are building the HSCCA on the basis that how we work is as important as what we deliver. We want people who bring enthusiasm, drive, and authenticity - who are proactive, open to challenge, and motivated by progress rather than process. We value collaborative leadership: the ability to bring people together across organisational boundaries, respect the expertise of others, and create shared direction without needing to own everything.

We act in line with the Nolan Principles. We use public money responsibly, make evidence‑based decisions, and hold ourselves to high standards of integrity, inclusion, and accessibility. We expect feedback to be given and received constructively, challenge to be welcomed, and relationships to be built on openness, trust, and mutual respect.

This is a complex, fast‑moving environment. We need people who are energised by that, not unsettled by it.

What the HSCCA will offer in return?

As we take on new responsibilities devolved from Government, you will have a genuine opportunity to contribute to building a public service organisation that does things differently.

Our reward package includes:

• A flexible working environment, with hybrid working arrangements as standard (min. 2 days per week in our office)
• A competitive salary and benefits package
• Investment in your professional development and leadership growth
• The chance to work alongside a leadership team that is committed to building an organisation where people thrive
• Membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme

The HSCC are focused on creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. We encourage applications form all candidates, including minority ethnics, the LBGTQ+ community, people with disabilities and long‑term health conditions, neurodivergent people, parents, carers, and people from lower socio‑economic backgrounds.

Further information

As a Disability Confident Committed employer, we run a guaranteed interview scheme for disabled applicants. If you meet the essential criteria listed in the job description for this position and would like to be considered under this scheme, please state this in your application.

All data collected is anonymous and has zero bearing on your application. If there is anything we can do to accommodate your specific situation, please let the recruitment team know.

We are committed to fair and inclusive recruitment. As part of this, we use anonymous shortlisting to ensure candidates are assessed solely on their skills, experience, and suitability for the role.