Senior Project Manager - Transformation (Contract) | London, UK

Pacific Life; London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company seeks a Senior Project Manager to support a large-scale digital transformation. The role involves managing all phases of the development cycle, facilitating cross-functional collaboration, and ensuring project alignment with business goals. Ideal candidates will have extensive project management experience, particularly in the insurance sector, and be skilled at stakeholder engagement.

Benefits

25 days of annual leave with option to buy/sell more days

Comprehensive private insurance coverage for employee and dependents

15% combined employee/employer contributions to retirement

Subsidized gym membership

Access to Employee Assistance Program

Qualifications

• Minimum of 10 years' experience in project management.
• Strong understanding of project management frameworks (Waterfall, Agile).
• Demonstrable record of delivery within medium to large organizations.

Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of a global digital transformation programme.
• Develop and maintain transformation roadmap including tracking impact KPIs.
• Act as a bridge between business and IT delivery teams.

Skills

Project Management

Stakeholder Management

Problem Solving

Communication

Business Analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree in Project Management

PMP Certification

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Job description

Job Title
Senior Project Manager - Transformation (Contract)

Job Description

Inside IR35 Contract - 12 months

About the team

We know that in order to be leaders in our industry we cannot stand still, and so we continually invest in our capabilities and challenge the status quo. To achieve this, we have setup a dedicated Transformation function, reporting to the Chief Operating Officer and working closely with Functional Leaders, Digital Transformation Teams, Project Managers, Technology Leaders, and our Delivery Teams to drive transformation across our business.

Pacific Life Re have completed the planning and mobilisation of a large-scale global digital transformation programme, focusing on our back office, and are well into execution in 2025. The Senior Project Manager will play a critical role supporting this programme, and in the immediate term will take on the Lead PM role in Operations working closely with the Programme Director and cross functional teams.

About you

As a Senior Project Manager in the Transformation Team, you are passionate about managing the delivery of better, more effective solutions to solve business problems and you are skilled in navigating complex landscapes. You will have knowledge and experience of managing large-scale business change programmes (either with a consulting firm or an in-house business change team). You will have a proven ability to work with a wide range of stakeholders to translate strategic goals into technology, business process and organisational change plans, and to manage these plans through to implementation. The ability to bridge the gap between the business and IT delivery teams is critical and you will have a strong track record of managing very senior business stakeholders coupled with exemplary communication and programme management skills.

You will manage all stages of our development cycle, including initial identification of business challenges and subsequent development of solutions, embedding of new capabilities into the business and ongoing monitoring of effectiveness of any embedded capabilities. This is a Business Change focussed role.

You will:

• Act in a Senior Project Manager capacity to help navigate the delivery of a complex multi-year global digital transformation programme though deployment of strong project and programme management skills.
• Help develop and maintain our transformation roadmap including identifying and planning proofs of concepts to be piloted in each wave and tracking impact KPIs.
• Develop strong relationships with teams across our global business to help manage a complex pipeline of on-going work.
• Facilitate strong cross functional collaboration.
• Guide teams through all phases of our problem solving and delivery methodology including discovery & research, design & build, and test & release phases.
• Partner with project sponsors & stakeholders to define project scope, priorities, timelines, milestones, deadlines, plans, RAID, resource plans and deliverable schedules.
• Build strong links with global colleagues and ensure strategic alignment between the Transformation Team and wider stakeholders.
• Facilitate continuous improvement across the team including through the application of process excellence disciplines.
• Remove or facilitate the removal of impediments to ensure programme teams have what they need to succeed.
• Align, manage, and navigate external dependencies and key stakeholders outside the Transformation team.
• Ensure business readiness for supporting delivery including managing the closure of skills and capability gaps, measuring organisational maturity, and championing clear pathways to improve this.
• Lead baselining and business case creation for new initiatives.
• Be familiar with design thinking techniques and lean development principles to help architect innovative solutions to a wide variety of business challenges.
• Co-ordinate with external consultants to help supplement internal talent to deliver quality solutions in areas where we lack capabilities, and use these as opportunities for knowledge transfer; and
• Stay up to date with industry trends and the development of improved practices and approaches and bring these to the transformation team.

Qualifications & Experience

• Minimum of 10 years' experience in project management.
• Demonstrable record of delivery within medium to large organisations
• Experience of the Re insurance or Insurance business a distinct advantage
• Strong understanding of project management delivery frameworks (i.e. Waterfall, Agile).
• Numerate & financially literate, ideally with a bachelor's degree in project management or related qualifications such as PMP.
• Knowledge of needs analysis, process mapping, requirements gathering & solution discovery.
• Knowledge & understanding of Design Thinking beneficial.
• Strong senior stakeholder management skills.
• Experience managing project teams effectively and people management where applicable.
• Proficient in technology problem solving, developing business cases, and succinctly communicating these to relevant stakeholders.
• Able to effectively translate insights into actions through business analysis practices which includes gap analysis, business process modelling and product ownership.
• Strong awareness of new and emergent technology trends and emerging best practices and standards.
• Familiarity with Jira and Confluence would be beneficial.

Working For Pacific Life Re

Every person in our global team is valued for the unique qualities they bring to our business and we seek to build their expertise and support their individual ambitions at every step. Of course, we take our work seriously and we know our team can operate under great pressure. We work hard and thrive on achievement, but we also know how to have fun and relax too. We regularly host a range of team building days to strengthen our team's connection with each other and reflect on their successes.

Providing employees with a healthy work-life balance is very important to our culture. We have a wide range of employee benefits and we host regular social activities and well being initiatives. We are also committed to supporting our employee's involvement in their communities, by actively fundraising, hosting charity events and overseeing volunteering opportunities.

Benefits (Only for Permanent and Fixed Term Employees)

Leave

• 25 days of annual leave with option to buy/sell more days
• Adoption and fertility leave
• Generous enhanced parental leave

Healthcare

• Comprehensive private insurance coverage for employee and dependents
• Group Life Insurance coverage of 9x basic annual salary and Group Income Protection up to 75% of basic annual salary
• Optical benefits

Savings & Retirement

• 15% combined employee/employer contributions

Wellness

• Subsidized gym membership
• Access to Employee Assistance Program
• Cycle to Work and Electric Car Salary Sacrifice Scheme
• Time off for volunteering
• Charitable matching of employee donations

As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we will provide reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process to ensure equal access to applicants with disabilities. Please contact us about your needs so that we can discuss these with you to make sure that suitable adjustments are made, where possible.

Pacific Life Re Values

Please click here to view our company values

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