Salary: £35,608 to £37,694 with progression to £46,049 per annum (pro rata) Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you. Closing Date: 06 January 2026 The Role We are seeking a dynamic and experienced Project Manager with expertise in Change Management to lead and inspire teams in delivering projects within the University’s strategic project portfolio. As a member of the Strategic Projects and Change team you will use the University’s project management approach, working across teams and with third party stakeholders to ensure projects deliver the planned outcomes within agreed timescales, budgets, and quality standards. In this role you will create the conditions for success, driving projects forward while ensuring change is managed effectively in a complex and evolving environment. You will bring specialist skills in project delivery and change leadership to design and deliver impactful and robust change strategies, including communication and engagement plans, stakeholder analysis, and training plans. Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills will be essential to your success. This role offers the opportunity to oversee a diverse range of initiatives, providing unique insight into the higher education sector. Prior experience within the Higher Education sector would be advantageous, though not essential. This role is part time for 29.6 hours a week, 1 year fixed term contract If this sounds like you and you would like to chat informally about the role, please contact Sharon Burleigh at sharon.burleigh@newcastle.ac.uk. To apply please upload your CV along with cover letter evidencing how your skills and experience align to the essential criteria as outlined in person specification. Key Accountabilities Lead the planning and initiation of projects ensuring the correct governance is in place and the relevant management products are developed as part of a controlled definition. Ensure that the benefits of the project are identified, owned and tracked in order to support the sponsor/business lead in benefits realisation. Identify deviations from the planned realisation to ensure the continued justification for the project. Facilitate the definition of project scope, goals and deliverables and develop business case details to enable selection of options where appropriate. These should include a cost/benefit analysis for each option as appropriate – include recommendations. Define project products and tasks in order to develop appropriate project plans and resource requirements. Coordinate and lead the project team, comprising of internal staff and third party suppliers to ensure a collaborative and focussed approach in the delivery of the project. Maintain focus on the desired outcome of the project ensuring appropriate and continued engagement throughout. Manage the project's budget on behalf of the Project Board, controlling the expenditures within tolerance and monitoring the costs against project deliverables. Manage the Project Log (Risk, Issues, Actions, Decisions, Change) on behalf of the Project Board. Assure all items are clearly captured and reviewed on a regular basis whilst resolving issues and initiating corrective action as appropriate. Constantly monitor and assess the project, produce relevant reports updating stakeholders on project progress and highlighting problems, with recommendations for solutions, to the Project Board and wider stakeholders. Create and maintain appropriate communication channels in order to ensure effective and timely communication with all stakeholders. This should include regular Project Board and Team meetings. Manage third party and external stakeholder contributions to the Project as appropriate. Facilitate and manage the effective knowledge transfer during the handover of completed projects to ensure systems are properly supported and maintained through operational life. Lead Post Implementation Reviews and produce a Project Closure Report ensuring that lessons learned are captured and any residual activity from the project is identified and owned as appropriate. Manage projects to company standards, ensuring all mandatory documentation is complete and that the Project Gateway/Framework is adhered to as applicable. Work with Portfolio Managers across the University to provide assurance to relevant University-level committees for high risk, high impact projects. Actively participate in the Project & Change Managers Community Managers Forum, showing innovation and drive in the development of a university-wide approach to Project and Change Management The Person Knowledge, Skills and Experience • Experience of working in a Higher Education Institute or similar mutli-faceted organisation, preferably in a related role • Experience of successfully managing projects/workstreams and able to demonstrate effective leadership and motivational skills • Effective stakeholder management; tailoring communications to suit the audience and ability to influence decisions to maintain a focus on the delivery of a successful outcome • Experience of the development and ongoing management of the project plan and ability to use various planning techniques as applicable • Understanding of the importance of and has experience of Risk Management • Experience of providing regular and ad-hoc reporting to a range of audiences, both verbally and written as appropriate and to agreed quality standards • Experience of working with Portfolio/Project Managers across an organisation to provide accurate reporting and assurances on project progress to University-level committees • Matrix Management including experience of collaborating with third party providers to enable successful delivery • Ability to work on own initiative, taking decisions and actions to meet the expectations of the Project Sponsor and needs of the users/students • Use of MS Office software (eg Word, Excel, Powerpoint) • Use of collaboration tools (eg Sharepoint, Microsoft Groups/Teams, Yammer) • Awareness of University Strategy Attributes and Behaviour Embracing Change • Recognises the need for change and is forward looking • Promotes the benefits of change to others and regularly comes up with new ideas • Has the willingness to adopt new ways of working and to make improvements • Accepts the reality and requirements of change as part of achieving organisational goals • Is able to achieve change at individual and functional level • Reviews and revises plans to meet with changing circumstances • Is supportive of others during change • Develops and implements new ideas Team-working • Works collaboratively with others, plays a positive role in teams and establishes and grows relationships across the project where different skills, expertise and opinions are valued • Respects the expertise and contribution of others even if own opinion is different • Shares relevant and useful information with others and keeps other team members up to date with progress • Gets involved with team tasks • Willing to help others and share workloads • Supportive of team decisions • Asks others’ opinion • Encourages others to get involved • Talks about other team members in a positive way Planning and organising • Manages time and resources by prioritising and organising effectively • Identifies quickly what is important and prioritises accordingly • Establishes clear roles and responsibilities for self and others • Maintains flexibility in work plans to allow for changing circumstances • Works in a planned and structured way • Ensures all activities are completed on time • Uses systems and tools to ensure records and audit trails are clear and up to date Thinking strategically • Has the ability to see the “big picture”, to think strategically and to manage complex problems and issues • Sees the bigger picture • Understands and makes sense of complex or conflicting data and different perspectives of stakeholders and University areas/faculties/etc • Works through the implications of situations in order to identify the most appropriate way forward in order to meet strategic goals • Uses analytical techniques to break down complex problems into component parts Qualifications • A degree and/or relevant professional qualification (e.g. PRINCE2) or relevant experience in project management Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution. We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society. We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population. At Newcastle University we hold a Gold Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC. We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme. In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. Requisition ID: 28951