Senior Programme Manager

Hampshire and the Solent Combined County Authority; Southampton; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Salary and benefits package

Professional development

LGPS membership

Job summary

Hampshire and the Solent Combined County Authority is seeking a Senior Programme Manager to drive complex, high-profile programmes that support strategic priorities, statutory responsibilities and investment commitments. You will lead governance, budget management, and benefit realisation across multiple workstreams with senior leadership support.

You will translate priorities into practical delivery plans, manage risks and dependencies, and collaborate with internal teams, suppliers, and

Qualifications

• Extensive experience leading complex transformation programmes with significant stakeholder impact.
• Strong governance, planning, risk and dependency management experience.
• Ability to translate strategic priorities into practical, outcome-focused delivery plans.

Responsibilities

• Lead and deliver complex programmes from initiation to implementation and closure with strong governance and budget management.
• Translate strategic priorities into practical delivery plans coordinating multiple projects and dependencies.
• Drive organisational change with service continuity, business readiness and adoption of new ways of working.
• Manage programme risks, issues, resources, budgets, suppliers and delivery challenges with clear reporting and assurance.
• Collaborate with internal teams, external partners, and government stakeholders to resolve blockers and maintain momentum.
• Support transformation initiatives while embedding benefits realisation and performance measures.
• Provide leadership and coaching to project managers and delivery teams to raise programme management capability.

Skills

Programme management

Governance

Budget management

Stakeholder engagement

Leadership

Public sector

Change management

Agile methods

Job description

The Role

As our Senior Programme Manager you will play a key role in helping HSCCA establish itself as a successful and effective new authority. Reporting to the Corporate Director of Delivery & Digital, you will lead the delivery of complex, high-profile programmes that support the organisation's strategic priorities, statutory responsibilities, and investment commitments. Working across multiple programmes and stakeholders, you will ensure change is well-governed, affordable, effectively managed, and delivers measurable benefits for the region.

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 and deliver complex programmes from initiation to implementation and closure, ensuring strong governance, programme controls, budget management, and successful outcomes.
• Translate strategic priorities and organisational objectives into practical delivery plans, coordinating multiple projects, workstreams, stakeholders, and dependencies.
• Drive organisational change and transition activities, ensuring service continuity, business readiness, implementation planning, and successful adoption of new ways of working.
• Manage programme risks, issues, resources, budgets, suppliers, and delivery challenges, providing clear reporting, assurance, and decision-making support to senior leaders.
• Collaborate with internal teams, external partners, suppliers, and government stakeholders to resolve blockers, maintain delivery momentum, and achieve programme objectives.
• Support digital, operational, organisational, and service transformation initiatives while embedding benefits realisation, performance measures, and continuous improvement.
• Provide leadership, coaching, and guidance to project managers and delivery teams, helping to strengthen programme management capability and foster a high-performance delivery culture across HSCCA.

What you’ll bring?

We’re looking for someone with:

• Extensive experience leading complex transformation, transition, or change programmes with significant organisational, operational, financial, and stakeholder impact.
• Strong programme management expertise, including governance, planning, risk and dependency management, benefits realisation, assurance, and successful programme delivery
• Proven ability to translate strategic priorities and policy objectives into practical, outcome-focused delivery plans that achieve measurable benefits.
• Significant experience managing large budgets, resources, suppliers, and cross-functional teams while ensuring value for money and effective stakeholder engagement.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and influencing skills, with the ability to operate effectively in complex, politically sensitive environments and drive organisational change.
• Experience working in local government, combined authorities, central government, public bodies, regulated sectors or partnership environments subject to formal governance, assurance and public accountability.
• Experience of public sector reorganisation, devolution, local government reform, public service integration, post-merger integration or complex service transfer.
• Knowledge of recognised programme and project management methods such as MSP, PRINCE2, Agile, Managing Successful Programmes, P3O, MoP, MoR or equivalent approaches.
• Experience leading or supporting teams in a new, growing or significantly transforming organisation.

We do not expect you to meet every one of these criteria. If you are excited by the role and bring most of what we are looking for, we want to hear from you.

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.

Selection process

Your application will progress through the following stages:

1. Application Review

Your CV and supporting documents will be reviewed by Reed Recruitment against the essential criteria outlined in the Skills & Experience section of this advert.

2. Telephone Interview

If shortlisted, you will be invited to an initial telephone interview.

3. Face-to-face interview

If shortlisted, you will be invited to a face-to-face interview. During this stage, you will be assessed against the Skills & Experience criteria and your overall suitability for the position.

This is the final stage of the selection process and will determine the outcome of your application.

4. Feedback

Feedback will be provided following the final face-to-face interview stage.

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 (minimum 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 HSCCA is committed to creating a diverse, inclusive and accessible workplace where everyone feels valued and able to thrive. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and lived experiences, particularly those from groups that are currently underrepresented in our workforce. This includes people from ethnic minority communities, disabled people, neurodivergent people, LGBTQ+ people, parents and carers, and individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds. We are committed to removing barriers to employment and encourage candidates to let us know about any reasonable adjustments they may need at any stage of the recruitment process.

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.