Project lead

Your newpany
A modern Higher Education institute is undergoing an exciting, forward-thinking, ambitious transformation programme to future-proof the University and offer its students the very best student journey from submission to graduation and beyond. The strategic vision aims to be a leading provider of high-quality teaching, learning, research and knowledge exchange, a beacon of opportunity, possibility and be a key anchor institution for the area.
As part of the wider organisational strategy with two core portfolios to drive the University forward to reach the intended goal. These portfolios have sustainability and continuous improvement at the forefront of the ambition. The University has begun the first steps in their digital transformation journey with the introduction of a new CRM, designed to be the single, central platform that underpins the full student journey. The CRM aims to create one source of truth, enable faster and more accurate decision-making, standardised processes, improve the student experience by ensuring every interaction is joined-up, timely and informed by real -time data.
Your New Role
This is a delivery leadership role at the heart of the organisations transformation programme. You will turn strategy into coherent, joined-up delivery across the end-to-end student journey, owning the Operational Excellence portfolio including CRM delivery, interim Microsoft 365 solutions and the business change that goes with them.You will provide single-point accountability for oues, benefits, risks and delivery coherence across multiple workstreams, suppliers and business areas. You will sit between strategic sponsorship and day-to-day coordination, making sure delivery is oue-focused, wellerned and built to be reused across the institution.
Your responsibilities:
- Own and lead the Operational Excellence portfolio, including scope, plan, milestones, dependencies and tolerances.
- Take accountability for the delivery of agreed oues and benefits, with measurable improvement to the student, staff and partner experience.- Track and report benefits realisation continuously beyond go-live, not only up to deployment.
- Set portfolio priorities and make trade-off decisions across scope, schedule, risk and benefit to keep delivery aligned to strategy.
- Provide clear direction to project managers, delivery partners and business change leads, holding them to account for theirmitments.
- Hold delivery partners and suppliers, to account for theirmitments, quality and pace of delivery.
- Manage cross-workstream dependencies and sequencing so CRM delivery, interim digital solutions and process redesign operate as one integrated portfolio.
- Report into the Transformation Board and otherernance forums on progress, risks, issues and benefits.
- Own the escalation of delivery risks with clear options and rmendations.
- Lead the Operational Excellence delivery cadence, including sprint and cadence meetings, so reporting cycles and updates stay on track.
- Work in close partnership with the TMO Coordinator soernance, reporting and decision logs reflect a true picture of delivery.
- Build ownership within business areas to ensure changes are embedded and sustained.
- Make sure approaches developed here are reused in the overall strategy portfolio and future work.What you'll need to succeed
- Degree or equivalent professional experience in a relevant discipline.
- Significant experience leadingplex, multi-workstream transformation or change programmes.
- Formal programme, project or portfolio management development, for example MSP, PRINCE2 Practitioner, Agile delivery frameworks or equivalent.
- Experience delivering process-led and system-enabled transformation, for example CRM, ERP or digital platforms.
- Proven experience reporting into seniorernance forums, managing escalation and supporting decision-making at executive level.
- Strong programme leadership skills, with the ability to direct delivery through others.
- Ability to manage ambiguity,plexity andpeting priorities while maintaining momentum.
- Excellent stakeholder engagement and influencing skills, including with senior leaders and suppliers.
- Ability to take an end-to-end, systems view of delivery and oues.
- Confident use of Microsoft 365 and appropriate use of generative AI tools such as Copilot to support high-quality delivery.

What you'll get in return
Flexible working, ideally on-site 3–4 days per week for the first couple of months, with further flexibility thereafter. The organisation offer a generous holiday entitlement of 45 days (bank holidays included).