Head of PMO - Group Product & Supply Chain

We have identified the need to establish a Programme Management Office for the Product & Supply Chain Accelerator function, which delivers organic change across Product & Supply Chain globally. The PMO for Product & Supply Chain will support the delivery of both organic projects across all regional P&SC teams and business as usual change across the P&SC Accelerator function .This role is critical to the successful delivery of our ambition of becoming first choice. The role requires a passionate and driven PMO professional who can influence, drive and embed change across the region and the wider organisation.

This position can be based in either Corby, London or Manchester and is a hybrid working role.

What you’ll be doing:

• Establishing and embedding the PMO capability for the P&SC Accelerator function.
• Driving delivery of the P&SC organic projects portfolio as well as business as usual projects and change initiatives.
• Creating and monitoring the P&SC organic plan including resource capacity management and dependency management for successful delivery.
• Using data and analysis to proactively identify and resolve issues, removing barriers to execution and allowing for efficient decision making.
• Managing the assurance activities to minimise the impact of issues and ensuring the changes adheres to company policies and procedure.

Delivery

• Establish and lead the PMO for the Product & Supply Chain Accelerator function.
• Support the launch and embedding of the Transformation implementation.
• Manage the portfolio roadmap and establish a process of capturing new initiatives and effectively prioritising ideas to drive the levers and deliver the Product & Supply Chain strategy.
• Product & Supply Chain Organic investment plan – a plan for all teams under the in scope workstreams covering prioritised change roadmap. The plan is to be outcome led and drive clear accountabilities and targets across all teams.
• Building on the existing capability from the Group’s Transformation Office, establish core delivery processes and key controls to best support delivery, implementing, iterating & embedding across the team. Supporting ongoing development of delivery lifecycle’s
• Implement, maintain and evolve the key documentation, including P&SC organic investment plan, resource plan and dependency map as well as control documents (RAIDs) and stakeholder maps/engagement plans.
• Track delivery and critical success factors and trouble shoot issues – e.g. dependencies, resource constraints.
• Working with the Transformation Office and the other Delivery Units, take the lead on behalf of P&SC delivery to work cross-functionally to understand, map and manage cross workstream dependencies and risks.
• Lead relationships and interfaces with Transformation Office and have a ‘business partner’ network cross-functionally with other work-streams to develop and ensure consistency of approach, tools and information reporting.

Management

• Day to day line management of the PMO Team.
• Provide leadership to the team and coach them through 1-1 discussions ensuring. they remain motivated and committed to the teams’ objectives.
• Developing and managing a talent pipeline to drive recruitment.
• Recruitment of permanent and where necessary contractor roles.
• Work with the Group Transformation Office and other Delivery Units to develop a Centre of Excellence to help and grow the PMO capability in the wider organisation.
• Development of PMO capability and competence, including performance management and personal development plans.

Data Analysis, Reporting & Insight

• Own the Management information and performance reporting across the P&SC Accelerator workstreams, reporting information to Chief of Product and Supply Chain, P&SC accelerator leadership team, P&SC matrixed leadership team, FD for Accelerator function.
• Create insightful metrics, close monitoring of P&SC Delivery KPIs and the levers that impact these.
• Use data and analytics to help drive delivery, identify issues, and propose fixes, accelerate decision making and continuously improve our ways of working.
• Ensure provision of accurate data from the different sources.

Governance and Assurance

• Work with the P&SC Delivery team to establish and improve governance and complete required reporting.
• Work across the P&SC organic projects to establish consistent governance and controls.
• Establish and manage the Portfolio assurance process to enable control and effective risk and issue management. Support delivery excellence to scope, time, quality and cost and the compliance to company policy and procedure.
• Continuously monitoring and evaluating delivery through execution of the Assurance process.
• Conduct quality reviews of change initiatives as required and advise on areas of concern and opportunities to improve.

Stakeholder & Communications

• Influence and negotiate across Group wide stakeholder’s including Chief of Product and Supply Chain, P&SC accelerator leadership team, P&SC matrixed leadership team, FD for Accelerator function.
• Act as an ambassador and champion for the P&SC Delivery Unit across the different stakeholders and functions.
• Support the production of Communications.
• Take ownership for the management of specific stakeholders including building strong relationships and interfaces with the central Transformation Office team.
• Maintain a ‘Business Partner’ network between different areas of the business who are critical for the successful delivery of the P&SC Organic plan

Skills & experience we will be looking for:

• Experience of working in a Project/Programme Management Office or Project delivery team within an organisation, delivering large scale complex changes across multiple geographies.
• Extensive knowledge of good-practice project, programme and portfolio management methodologies and approaches e.g., waterfall, Agile, etc. (preferably supported by formal qualifications)
• Knowledge of different delivery methods, including Agile and waterfall methodologies
• Experience in the development of project and programme management standards, processes and guidelines, and their continued development to meet organisational need.
• Experience of setting up a PMO from ground zero, including resource capacity management, dependency management and assurance.
• Experience in the development of project and programme management standards, processes and guidelines and their continued development to meet organisational needs.
• Willingness to learn and get involved in project delivery.
• Excellent planning, prioritisation, and organisational skills
• Ability to influence, negotiate and hold people to account across all stakeholder levels.
• Strong interpersonal and relationship building skills, able to work across functions, geographies and cultures.
• Excellent communication skills, able to communicate confidently and effectively at all levels of the business and to various stakeholder groups, both in writing and verbally.
• Able to challenge constructively, build credibility and work with integrity at all levels within the organisation.
• Confident with data analysis and insight.
• Continuous improvement - track record of identifying and delivering improvements.
• High degree of collaboration across the organisation at all levels.
• Agent for change.
• Positive, ‘can do’ approach and open minded to new ways of working.
• Awareness of cultural environments and able to adapt approach accordingly.
• Strong inter-personal skills, able to provide robust challenge but also build supportive relationships with delivery teams and senior management.
• Effective written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to effectively use Microsoft Project, Visio, PowerPoint, SharePoint and Excel.

We are RS Group

At RS we’ve been solving engineering problems for over 80 years: big ones, small ones, easy and difficult ones. We turn the ‘what ifs’ into the ‘why nots’, the impossible into the possible.

Our purpose? Making amazing happen for a better world. We offer service and product solutions. We send out a parcel every 2 seconds, to over 130 countries. We provide over 800,000 in-stock and over 3 million unstocked products to more than 1.2 million customers. We want people like you, as you are curious about things, you like doing things differently and also in a human way with empathy. Because that’s exactly how we partner with people – our customers, suppliers, colleagues and communities – to solve problems. We’ll also invest in your development and wellbeing – because building a more diverse and inclusive culture, being ethical, responsible and committed to our Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) action plan is at the heart of everything we do. Come and join us and over 9000 employees worldwide – and we’ll help you to think big, do more and unleash your brilliance, so you do amazing things too.

Rewards

At RS, as well as the usual employee benefits you’d expect from a FTSE listed company (Annual Bonus, Private Medical Cover, Life Assurance, Generous Pension) we’ve just introduced several new Family Friendly Policies including:

• Help for people to take control of ongoing Health conditions such as diabetes or asthma.
• Support for Neurodiverse colleagues and families with neurodiverse members.
• Support for Women at different life stages from streamlined fertility support through to diagnosis and monitoring of both endometriosis and menopause.
• Helping our LGBTQ+ community through enhanced coverage for trans colleagues.