Senior Programme Delivery Lead: End-to-End & Readiness

Pearson; Rotherham; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Pearson seeks a Lead, Programme Management to guide a government contract delivery programme across multiple sites. You will unify workstreams to create an end-to-end delivery view, manage dependencies and risks, and ensure alignment with contractual commitments.

This hybrid, permanent role reports to the Executive Partner, Assessment. You will collaborate with senior leaders, suppliers and the STA to deliver readiness and measurable delivery improvements.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading large-scale operational, programme or service delivery in a complex, multifaceted environment.
• Strong track record of integrating plans, managing dependencies and using risk, issue and readiness management to protect delivery.
• Excellent stakeholder-management, influencing and client-facing skills, with the credibility to engage senior leaders and external partners.
• A data-led approach to performance, governance and continuous improvement.
• Strong people skills and the ability to motivate teams, encourage transparency and navigate challenging conversations.
• The ability to remain calm, decisive and customer-focused when priorities shift or issues emerge.

Responsibilities

• End-to-end programme delivery: create and maintain the integrated delivery view across the programme, connecting workstream plans, milestones and dependencies.
• Translate strategic priorities and contractual commitments into clear, executable delivery plans.
• Use your experience and judgement to challenge assumptions, identify emerging risks and drive timely action before delivery is affected.
• Provide clear assurance, risk management and performance reporting to senior governance forums.
• Operational and assessment readiness: bring together Marking, Operations and Customer Support so they operate as one coordinated assessment-delivery service.
• Lead readiness, capacity and contingency planning across assessment cycles, with particular focus on peak delivery periods.
• Coordinate incident response, service recovery and lessons learned, turning insight into measurable improvements.
• Strengthen operational controls, scalability, service resilience and continuous improvement across the programme.
• People, partnership and client confidence: create an environment where workstream leads and teams collaborate openly, share information early and remain accountable for shared outcomes.
• Motivate and influence multidisciplinary teams, navigating competing priorities and holding constructive conversations when plans need to change.
• Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders, suppliers and the STA, communicating progress, risks and decisions with clarity.
• Keep the needs of schools, educators and learners at the centre of operational decisions and customer communications.

Job description

Pearson seeks a Lead, Programme Management to guide a government contract delivery programme across multiple sites. You will unify workstreams to create an end-to-end delivery view, manage dependencies and risks, and ensure alignment with contractual commitments.

This hybrid, permanent role reports to the Executive Partner, Assessment. You will collaborate with senior leaders, suppliers and the STA to deliver readiness and measurable delivery improvements.