Lead Project Manager (Rail)Connected Places Catapult

Location - Milton Keynes or London (minimum of two days a week in the office. You can do more than two days if preferable)

Reporting to - Project Management Team Lead, Commercial projects

Band - 3.3

Salary - £60,323 - £66,128 (depending on location and proven ability)

Working hours - Full time

Contract type/duration - Permanent

Closing Date - 26th April 2023

Who Are We?  

Connected Places Catapult is the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport, and places. We provide impartial ‘innovation as a service’ for public bodies, businesses, and infrastructure providers to catalyse step-change improvements in the way people live, work and travel. We connect businesses and public sector leaders to cutting-edge research to spark innovation and grow new markets.   

We have a vacancy for a newly created role of Lead Project Manager in our commercial projects team, with a focus on managing innovation projects, predominantly in the rail sector.

The purpose of the role is to manage ground-breaking innovative projects to cost, time and quality requirements. You will predominantly manage our most complex projects within our Rail & Stations ecosystem portfolio, and you may be required to lead more than one project simultaneously. In carrying out this role, you will lead teams drawn from across our Delivery functions and manage subcontractors. Our projects accelerate innovation adoption and no two projects are the same. You will be required to foresee and instigate changes to the planned activities to keep the work focused on delivering the required market impact, liaising with the Internal sponsors and Account leads. Strong leadership and exceptional client relationship building skills and collaboration are essential in this role.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of technically complex, large innovation projects from contract award to closure to cost, time and quality requirements.
• Refine work plans, adjusting as necessary as projects develop, to provide clarity to project teams on the required activities.
• Manage significant, technically complex contracts with project partners and sub-contractors.
• Drawing on technical and sector knowledge, proactively identify and manage risks, issues and dependencies. Lead on the development of options and anticipate the need to adjust the work programme to meet the requirements of the client, directing project teams accordingly

• Build a trusted adviser status with clients and with internal stakeholder. Lead engagement with the client and other stakeholders, including the effective chairing of meetings and advising on the management of issues.
• Collaborate with the Portfolio Management Office to ensure projects are sufficiently resourced, drawing on agile resource as required.
• Guide the development of deliverables, providing feedback to the project teams to ensure high standards.
• Provide high quality, accurate and timely internal reporting of progress against plan. Ensure resourcing and financial forecasts are completed to the best possible accuracy
• Manage projects aligned to Catapult processes and standards, contributing to their refinement. Actively contribute to the continued improvement of the project management function through sharing project lessons, contributing ideas and working with others to develop and Implement changes.
• Build knowledge and contacts through presenting on project work at conferences, seminars and workshops, and representation on steering groups/external bodies.
• You may be required to undertake any other reasonable duties to support the Catapult in achieving its strategic outcomes and ensure effective business operations.