Job Description

PMO Manager

Full Time / Permanent / salary from 52,000 / Office Based / Stoke

Water Plus, one of the UK's largest water retailers for around 350,000 customers, has a really exciting opportunity for an experienced

Portfolio Management Office

-

PMO Manager

, based at our Head Office in Stoke-on-Trent (ST4 4TW).

What's the role?

Through the application of governance, you will take accountability for the delivery of Water Plus change initiatives, ensuring trends, risks, issues and potential delivery slippage is identified and rectified.

You will have autonomy to plan your own workload based on business priority and strategy. Being adaptable to urgent There is likely to also be urgent requests for support from the Transformation Director and other senior leaders.

You will make regular decisions relating to the direction of the PMO team, influencing Senior Leadership and ExCo decision-making.

What are some of the duties I'll be doing?

Design and develop a Portfolio Management Office (PMO) function to enable the governance of Water Plus Change implementation. Provide ongoing support to Transformation and Change Delivery colleagues and utilise stakeholder management skills to ensure all levels of seniority understand the processes. At a Programme level, work with the Project Teams and key stakeholders from across the Water Plus footprint to track key risks, issues, dependencies and opportunities. Coordinate and manage, via the Water Plus change control structures, requests presented by the business are in line with corporate strategy and safeguarding investment, with escalations to the Executive Steering Committee in the event of a prioritisation conflict. Lead Gateway and Health Check reviews across all in-flight projects to ensure adherence to best practice and to identify early-warning indicators ahead of unplanned slippage or overspend. Continuously improve standards and tools across Water Plus Change implementations, ensuring an effective, efficient and flexible approach to delivery. Prepare central reporting of Water Plus Change delivery progress into the Executive Steering Committee and Senior Leaders ensuring that risks, issues, expenditure and planned/unplanned slippage is communicated. Accountable for the assurance of programme, project and change expenditure through Time Sheet tracking as well as working alongside Financial Partners to re-forecast. Providing enterprise resource management profiling across all Water Plus Change activities through a central resource management tool (including application of a resource demand management process) Responsible for the creation of Water Plus pipeline forecasts to aid quarterly business planning, ensuring that upcoming demands and activities are sufficiently resourced. Build and develop effective working relationships across the Transformation team and the wider Water Plus business to ensure overall commitment to Water Plus governance frameworks.

What are we looking for from you?

You will have the skills and experience to coach and mentor both change professionals and non-change professionals, in the mechanics of how change works and how change controls operate across large programmes and projects.

Essential:

Demonstrable experience in the set-up and run of a Portfolio Management Office, leading and embedding organisationwide governance practices Proven experience (3+ years) within a Change environment with evidence of the design and application of governance methodology Deep understanding of the application of project gateway and programme health check reviews as well as overall implementation methodologies, tools and techniques Exceptional communication, presentation and meeting facilitation skills with the ability to interact with colleagues at all levels (up to and including ExCo level) across the organisation Experience of leading a team of direct reports including application of company policies and development framework Prince 2 certified

Desirable:

Prince 2 Practitioner P3O Practitioner Experience of governing a large portfolio of change Utilities or Retail background

All offers are subject to a satisfactory Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.

What do we have to offer you?

A competitive salary from 52,000 dependent upon experience 25 days annual leave (pro-rata if you join part way through our annual leave year). Plus never work your birthday, Plus all Bank Holidays. Our holiday year runs from April to March; in February you'll have the opportunity to buy/sell annual leave. Free parking. Free Healthcare cashback Plan (re-claiming for spend on optical treatment or dental care and so much more). You can also choose to pay to upgrade your membership to include a partner and children. Pension scheme with employer contributions matched to 6%; Life Assurance. Confidential Employee Assistance Programme. Access to discounts and offers from 350+ top brands. Access to Water Plus Academy to develop personally and professionally, incl support with professional qualifications and study leave.

What is a Water Retailer and who is Water Plus?

When parliament approved The Water Bill in 2014, it declared that the water market could become competitive for non-domestic customers. It ruled that water wholesalers could no longer provide the retail element for their non-domestic customer. Water Plus is a Water Retailer, and we went live in 2017 as a joint venture between United Utilities and Severn Trent and our customers range from small independent businesses to some of the biggest names in the UK.

A few years on, we are an award-winning trusted water retail partner for around 350,000 non-domestic customers across England and Scotland. Amongst other accolades, we have recently won the UK Customer Satisfaction Award for Sustainable Customer Service for 2025, for our work with customers and employees - the second UK Customer Satisfaction Award we have won in two years.

Please note: We may close the advert sooner than the date advertised, therefore, you are encouraged to apply as soon as you can. If you have any questions regarding your application, please email us at recruitment@water-plus.co.uk

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Pay: From 52,000.00 per year

Application question(s):

Please briefly summarise your skills and experience relevant to this opportunity. What is your salary expectation? What is your notice period?
Licence/Certification:

right to work in UK without employer sponsor now or future (required) ability to attend the Stoke Office, 5 days a week Mon-Fri (required)
Work Location: In person

Reference ID: PMO-080825