Are you a dynamic and organised professional seeking a high-impact PMO Manager role?

We are recruiting for a HRIS & Payroll PMO Manager on an initial 16-month FTC, to drive the structure and core programme management aspects of our HRIS & Payroll Transformation Programme. As the PMO Manager, you will be passionate about compiling and maintaining key programme artifacts, including our Programme Delivery Plan, Risk and Issue Log, Dependencies and Assumptions Log, and other core programme management office deliverables.

With a proactive and can-do attitude, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring the programme's success through your energy, structured approach, and clear communication style that resonates with a diverse range of stakeholders.

A typical week in the life of the PMO Manager is exciting and fast-paced. You will attend various meetings to understand progress in workstreams, updating Programme Plans to reflect these developments. Your role will involve collating risk and issue updates, analysing changes to the overall risk profile, and working with our Programme Manager, System Integration Partners and Quality Assurance Partners to meet assurance requirements. Additionally, you will host cross-workstream sessions to mitigate risks and triage Change Requests to scope or timeline, ensuring that the programme remains on track. As the PMO Manager, you will collaborate with workstream leads, Programme Leadership, and subject matter experts in HR, Payroll and Communications to maintain an up-to-date and holistic view of the programme.

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Acting as the gatekeeper to the Programme Plan, ensuring its accuracy and alignment with project objectives.

• Maintaining a high standard of service within the Programme Management Office, providing tools and templates applicable across the programme, and ensuring their availability to all team members.

• Reviewing, escalating, closing, and mitigating programme risks, issues, and dependencies, maintaining a consistent and quality experience for all team members.

• Tracking change control requests, project deliverables, and resource management, providing support to our Programme Manager and Workstream leads.

• Gathering and sharing lessons learned, running retrospectives and documenting agreed good practice across the programme to ensure continuous improvement.

• Providing resource coordination, maintaining the overall team resource management tracker, and tracking any risks with availability and capacity against the programme demand.

• Supporting Programme Plan baselining and updates, analysing status reports and change requests, and producing weekly status reports aligned with our Programme Manager and workstream leads.

• Updating and maintaining the programme plan, proactively checking in with Project Managers regarding key dependencies and milestones to ensure they are on track.

• Drafting and disseminating key PMO messages across the programme, ensuring consistency and up-to-date information, and owning Business Continuity Plan contact details for the programme team, keeping them up to date.

What you’ll bring:   

• Extensive experience in delivering in a Programme Management Office within complex, fast-paced projects or programmes throughout their lifecycle, demonstrating a deep understanding of the intricacies and demands of such environments.

• Proficiency in Outlook, Word, Microsoft Project (MSP), PowerPoint, MS Teams, Jira, and Excel, or the ability to quickly acquire proficiency in these tools, ensuring seamless navigation and communication across platforms.

• Proven resource planning expertise, enabling effective allocation and management of resources to support project goals and deliverables.

• Skills in producing and supporting others in creating project documentation, such as status reports and risk logs, to ensure clear and comprehensive reporting throughout the project lifecycle.

• Demonstrated experience in change control, ensuring that changes are effectively managed and documented to maintain the integrity of project objectives and outcomes.

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, capable of effectively engaging with stakeholders at all levels, fostering collaboration and understanding across diverse teams and seniority levels.

• An ability to interpret complex data and convey it in a simple, accessible manner, effectively communicating with stakeholders across all levels, from executives to peers, to foster understanding and alignment.

About Penguin: 

We’re the UK’s largest publisher; made up of some 2,000 people and publishing over 1,500 books each year. Our doors are open to all kinds of talent. In a constantly evolving industry, we work hard to stretch the definition of the word publisher. Here, you’ll work with a breadth of talent who all play their part to make each of our books a success. Together, we make books for everyone because a book can change anyone. 

Our approach to hybrid working:

While our offices are places for you to connect, collaborate and celebrate with colleagues, having flexibility about where you work is just as important for doing your best work and for your wellbeing. So, we don’t have a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to how we work across Penguin Random House UK.

For this role, there are regular meetings and activities that you will need to attend in person mainly at our offices in London. Outside of these moments, you can choose to work remotely. The exact balance of office to remote working can be discussed with your future manager during the recruitment process. What we can say now is that you won’t need to go into the office five days a week, unless of course you want to!

If you are a detail-oriented and proactive professional with a talent for effective communication and stakeholder management, we want to hear from you. Please apply with your CV and cover letter by Tuesday 9th April.

What you can expect from us:

Salary: £55,000 - £60,000 dependent on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus bonus and benefits.

Our people are the heart of our business, and we work hard to support a culture of responsibility and recognition. Our benefits include:

• Financial – income protection, life assurance, childcare allowance

• Wellbeing – healthcare cash plan, critical illness cover, health checks

• Lifestyle – enhanced parental leave, tech scheme

For our full benefits list please visit: https://www.penguinrandomhousecareers.co.uk/what-we-offer/

You can read about our recruitment process at https://www.penguinrandomhousecareers.co.uk/how-we-hire/

As a Disability Confident Committed organisation, we're part of the offer an interview scheme. This is where disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role can opt in to get to the next recruitment stage. There may be some situations where volume of applicants means we can't take all eligible candidates to interview.

We encourage you to tell us about any reasonable adjustments you may need by emailing PRHCareersUK@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk. Remember, you only need to share what you are comfortable to for us to support your request.

Please note, we are not able to accept agency CVs for this role. Any CVs sent speculatively will not be eligible for a fee.

Company: Penguin Books Limited 

Country: United Kingdom 

State/Region: London 

City: London 

Postal Code: SW11 7BW 

Job ID: 269349