Program Manager

Places for People; Empangeni; On-site; ZAR 1,639,000 - 2,404,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension with matched contributions up 

Bonus scheme

Car Allowance

33 days holiday

Healthcare cashback

Wellbeing support

Employee discounts

Training & progression

Recognition programmes

Gym membership

Life Assurance

Job summary

Places Leisure, part of Places for People, is seeking a Program Manager to lead end-to-end delivery of complex change across multiple sites. You will align operational, technology, process and people workstreams with clear governance and accountable teams, managing risks, budgets and dependencies to realise intended outcomes.

The role requires frequent travel to Leisure sites (2–3 days/week) and a track record of delivering large-scale transformation with measurable benefits.

Qualifications

• Significant experience leading complex business change or transformation programmes.
• Experience delivering organisational change within multi-site or dispersed operations.
• Ability to create integrated plans, governance, risk and benefits tracking.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end delivery of complex change programmes across Places Leisure.
• Coordinate cross-functional workstreams, governance and dependency maps.
• Manage budgets, risks, and executive updates; ensure delivery readiness.
• Oversee adoption, benefits tracking and transition to BAU.

Skills

Change leadership

Programme governance

Risk management

Stakeholder management

Budget management

Tools

MS Office

Job description

This role will be working for Places Leisure part of Places for People. As the UK's leading Social Enterprise, we move lives forward every day by building, managing and supporting thriving Communities. From new homes, social housing and student accommodation to leisure, education and Community initiatives, our work makes a positive difference to millions of People across the UK. And that takes People who care about doing the right thing. People who are ambitious, ready to grow and motivated to make a difference through the work they do.

We're looking for Colleagues who bring energy, curiosity and ownership. People who enjoy being challenged, support those around them and want to keep raising the bar. Because when we perform at our best, we create more opportunities to invest in our Customers, our Communities and each other.

Experience matters, but it's only part of the story. If you share our values and want to build a career where your work has real impact, we'd love to hear from you.

More About Your Role

As our Program Manager, you will lead the end-to-end delivery of complex business change and transformation programmes across Places Leisure. You will bring together operational, technology, process, data and people-focused workstreams, creating integrated plans, clear governance and shared accountability. Working with senior leaders, operational teams and external partners, you will manage risks, dependencies, budgets and competing priorities while ensuring changes are ready to be introduced across our locations. You will also oversee adoption, early-life support and benefits tracking so that new systems, processes and ways of working become part of business-as-usual operations and deliver the intended outcomes.

Please note that this role involves frequent travel to our Leisure sites, typically 2 to 3 days per week.

Essential Criteria

• Significant experience leading complex business change or transformation programmes involving multiple interconnected projects, workstreams and stakeholder groups.
• Proven experience delivering organisational change within a large, geographically dispersed or multi-site operational business.
• Demonstrable experience creating integrated programme plans, governance arrangements, dependency maps, risk reporting, executive updates and measurable benefits.
• Experience managing programme budgets, forecasting expenditure and connecting delivery decisions to operational, customer and financial outcomes.
• Experience leading matrix teams and delivering change across different roles, processes, systems and levels of digital capability.

More About You

You understand the complete change lifecycle, from discovery and planning through to implementation, stabilisation and transition into business-as-usual ownership. You can simplify complex information, resolve conflicting priorities and provide constructive challenge when delivery, resources or operational readiness are at risk. You build credibility with senior and frontline stakeholders, use evidence to support decisions and understand how centrally designed changes need to work in practice across different locations. Experience in a customer-facing, multi-site environment or with technology-enabled transformation would be an advantage, as would a recognised programme, project or change management qualification.

What You'll Get

We know rewarding work deserves rewarding benefits. That's why, alongside a competitive salary, you'll have access to a package designed to support you at work and beyond. You'll receive:

• Pension with matched contributions up to 7%
• Bonus scheme for colleagues at 2%
• Car Allowance
• 33 days holiday (including bank holidays) with the option to buy or sell days
• Healthcare cashback plan for everyday medical costs, with private GP and health support services available
• Comprehensive wellbeing support including counselling, flu jabs, our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and access to our Wellbeing Hub, supporting your mental, physical and financial wellbeing
• Access to Our Place Rewards, offering discounts and savings on groceries, travel, shopping, home products and other lifestyle purchases
• Ongoing training, professional qualifications, internal development programmes and career progression opportunities
• Recognition programmes including Star Awards and Colleague Awards, celebrating achievements and recognising great work
• Strong focus on inclusion, wellbeing and colleague engagement
• Free membership to Places Gyms
• Life Assurance to provide financial security for your loved ones, alongside access to will writing services to help you plan for the future with confidence

As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we offer a guaranteed interview to candidates who are disabled, neurodiverse, or have served in the Armed Forces, provided you meet the essential criteria for the role. If you would like to be considered under this scheme, please indicate this in your application.

We are committed to creating an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support your application or interview experience, please let us know. We're happy to work with you to ensure you have the opportunity to perform at your best.

We understand the importance of a supportive and inclusive work culture so please talk to us at interview about flexibility you may need. We can't promise to give you exactly what you want, but we promise not to judge you for asking. For this role we are open to discussing the possibility of reduced hours, flexible start and finish times or compressed hours.

Safeguarding

At Places for People, safeguarding is everyone's responsibility. We are committed to creating safe communities for our customers and colleagues by protecting children, young people, and adults at risk from harm, abuse, and neglect. We follow robust safeguarding policies and procedures, ensuring all employees, volunteers, and contractors uphold the highest standards of safeguarding and accountability. Our recruitment process includes pre-employment checks, including Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks where applicable, to promote a safe and secure working environment. By joining Places for People, you are expected to contribute to our safeguarding culture, following our policies and reporting concerns to protect those in our communities.

Further Links

Armed Forces

We are proud to support the Armed Forces Covenant. Places for People will guarantee an interview for any candidate who is serving or has formerly served in the Armed Forces, as a reservist, armed forces veteran (including the wounded, injured and sick), cadet instructor and military spouse/partner and who meets the essential criteria for the vacancy.

Disability Confident

We are proud to be a member of the Disability Confident scheme certified as Level 2 Disability Confident Employer. This helps us to successfully employ and retain people with disabilities and health conditions. Disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for a vacancy will be guaranteed an interview. The Equality Act 2010 (Disability Discrimination Act 1995 for NI) defines a disabled person as someone who has a physical or mental impairment that has sa substantial and long-term negative effect on their ability to do daily activities.

Neurodivergent

Neurodiverse individuals have highly valuable skills, and we recognise that a traditional interview process sometimes works against them and doesn’t allow them to self-advocate. Neurodiverse applicants who meet the criteria for a vacancy will be guaranteed an interview.