Programme PMO Lead

Programme, Program, PMO, PMO Lead, PMO Manager, Project Management Office, Senior PMO, Publishing, Education, Governance, Planning and Delivery, Reporting, Oxford, Contract. We are looking for a Programme level PMO Lead to work for a World leading multi national publishing organisation located in Oxford (Hybrid) on a 12 month contract. Position Overview The role of the PMO Lead is to provide the analytical rigour and process discipline to facilitate the successful management and delivery of the program, and give program leadership confidence in progress, effective project management controls, and decision quality across all projects. They act as a bridge between program leadership and project teams to ensure alignment and visibility across all program activities; translating program-level direction into consistent working practice; and surfacing project-level issues that need program-level visibility or escalation The role holder is expected to exercise independent judgement in applying governance and delivery standards, and to constructively challenge program leadership and project teams where practice falls short of agreed standards. Skills and Experience • Proven experience providing PMO leadership to large, multi-workstream transformation programs. • In-depth knowledge of program and project management principles and governance frameworks, and experience implementing them in a low- or evolving-maturity environment. • PRINCE2, Managing Successful Programmes (MSP), P3O, and/or PMP certification, or equivalent. • Strong proficiency with project and portfolio management, delivery, and planning tools, such as Clarity PPM, Jira, and Microsoft Project/Smartsheet. • Practical experience applying AI or automation tools to improve PMO and reporting workflows. • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to propose solutions to challenges rather than simply surface them. • Effective communication and stakeholder management, including experience constructively challenging senior/executive stakeholders. • Experience with data analysis, financial/budget tracking, and program progress reporting. Key Responsibilities Governance • Governance structure – Partner with the Program Director on the design of the program governance structure, proportionate to the scale and complexity of the program, and recommend changes as the program evolves. • Governance forums – Support the effective running of program governance meetings by ensuring meeting are scheduled, materials are prepared to a high standard and appropriate to the audience, and actions taken at the meetings are recorded, tracked, and followed up. • Change Control – Own the program change control process, ensure projects adhere to the agreed strategy and process, and coordinate collation and review of requests. • Decision-Making – Ensure decisions are effectively and accurately recorded and traceable, and that the rationale behind key decisions is retrievable for audit or lessons-learned purposes. • Standards – Own the standardization of processes, templates, and ways of working across the program, and drive consistent adoption across project teams. Planning and Delivery • Planning and scheduling – Support projects in defining plans to an appropriate level of detail, with milestones and critical path identified, and provide quality assurance of those plans. • Program plan – Support the definition and maintenance of the integrated program-level plan, consolidating project schedules into a single master view and identifying cross-workstream critical path. • Dependency management – Identify, track, and facilitate resolution of dependencies within and across workstreams, escalating conflicts that cannot be resolved at project level. Monitoring and Reporting • Reporting – Design and implement program reporting and dashboards, and consolidate project status into program-level reporting and KPIs. • Risks and issues – Support projects and program in identifying and defining risks and issues, drive a continuous, forward-looking approach to risk identification across the program to ensure new or emerging risks are identified. • Mitigation effectiveness – Support the program in tracking mitigation actions to completion, test whether they are actually reducing likelihood or impact, and escalate where mitigations are stalling, under-resourced, or not working as intended. • Risk culture – Coach project teams on risk management practice and standards, and periodically review the program and project risk registers for quality and completeness. Advice and Guidance • Provide support and constructive challenge to program leadership on governance rigour, plan confidence, and risk exposure. • Provide advice and guidance to projects on applying the program management governance and best practices effectively to their projects. • Promote the benefits of program and project management standards and best practices both within the program and with key stakeholders. Assurance • Quality assurance – Review project documentation and records for consistency and quality standards, and guide projects on completion of project deliverables. • Health checks – Conduct periodic program and project health checks against the agreed governance framework, and track resulting actions to closure. • RAG validation – Provide independent challenge on project and program RAG status ahead of reporting, to protect the integrity of escalations. Administrative Support • Information Management – Ensure program documentation is stored and managed correctly and in accordance with the information management strategy, and that program information is maintained and accurate across program documentation. • Provide general program administrative support, such as resource onboard and offboarding, meeting scheduling. Tooling and AI • Promote, support, and optimize the use of designated project and portfolio management tools across the program. • Support the program to leverage AI to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of program and project management processes. Continuous Improvement • Identify lessons learned throughout the project and program lifecycle, and identify actions to ensure learnings are applied. • Identify opportunities and make recommendations to improve our program and project reporting practices, and implement them as agreed. What success looks like • Governance cadence is consistently maintained, with materials delivered on time and to a high standard. • Program-level reporting is accurate, timely, and provides an early, reliable signal on risk and delivery confidence. • Escalations reach program leadership with sufficient lead time to influence outcomes. • Stakeholders across project teams and program leadership regard the PMO as a source of constructive challenge, not just administration. Role will be inside IR35/Umbrella, Hybrid (2-3 days on site), £550 - £625 per day (dependant on experience), 12 month contract. Please send me your CV for an immediate review and confidential discussion.