PMO Manager - 12 month FTC

Closing Date:

14/03/2025

Group:

Networks and Communications Group

Management Level:

Senior Associate

Job Type:

Fixed Term (Fixed Term)

Job Description:

Please note this role will close at 00.01 on the 14th March so we advise making your application by midnight on the 13th March.  

About Ofcom

As the UK’s communications regulator, we’re delivering vital work that helps keep the UK connected and shapes the future of how we’ll stay connected with each other.

Our work covers everything from phones and broadband, through to TV, radio, the postal service, and wireless devices. We’re also taking on the challenge of making the online world a safer place. And we need people of all backgrounds, skill sets, and experiences to help us achieve our goal of making communications work for everyone.

About the team you’ll be part of

The role of PMO (project management office) manager provides business management support to the Networks and Communications (N&C) Policy team, which comprises circa 80 colleagues, and sits within the wider N&C Group. Our role is to help ensure the communications services we all use every day and rely on for nearly everything we do work in customers’ best interests. We do this by promoting competition in the industries we regulate, to help drive innovation and make sure people and businesses can get the services they need. We are also focused on helping empower and protect customers using post, broadband, mobile and other digital communications services.

Colleagues in our team work closely with other teams across N&C Group, Ofcom, other regulators, Government, and a range of external stakeholders to address problems that affect people or businesses across the UK, designing options and solutions to help solve them.

The purpose and scope of the role

This is a central role in helping N&C policy to deliver its portfolio of work effectively and efficiently. You will work closely with the leadership of the policy team to co-ordinate, oversee and support its work by monitoring and reporting on the progress of our projects and programmes of work, ensuring our projects are effectively resourced, supporting our recruitment, onboarding and risk management processes and helping to shape how we work so that the Group delivers positive outcomes for customers. You will be working closely with project and programme directors and managers to collate the necessary reports and seek ways to minimise the ongoing burden on teams to keep information up to date (e.g., through the creation of tools, templates and processes that are user friendly and ensure maximum efficiency).

This role will also involve contributing to the management of N&C group overall with the required information, particularly focusing on budgeting, business planning and risk management.

It is an exciting time in N&C as we look at the best ways to achieve our mid to longer term priorities. We are looking for someone who can help support any such review of process and ways of working and is flexible to adapt duties to enable this to happen.  

Your Key Responsibilities

• Owning the portfolio of N&C’s policy work by working closely with project directors and project managers and ensuring that this is kept up-to-date and communicated effectively. This includes developing tools and solutions to minimise the impact on policy teams of keeping reporting up to date.
• Resource management – Maintaining a current view of resource availability, colleague preferences, development needs and career goals, liaising with Project Directors and Managers to develop recommendations for how to deploy resource across N&C’s policy work. As part of this, the PMO Manager is also expected to oversee the policy teams’ use of resource planning & budgeting tools, ensuring they are kept up-to-date. This includes creating user friendly / visual reports that facilitate management decision making (e.g., on resourcing).
• Leading, coordinating and supporting the team’s management and policy leads on activities including: recruitment & onboarding processes, resource management, business planning, reporting and analysis, budgeting and forecasting, risk management and business continuity.
• Budgeting and forecasting – Leading and supporting our policy team’s engagement with finance and co-ordinating input into budgeting and forecasting exercises.
• Business planning – inputting and supporting the Group in business planning, reporting and colleague engagement activities.
• Acting as the central point of contact for the team’s portfolio and management information, building strong collaborative networks across the Group and across Ofcom to share information and best practice. This includes the team’s input into annual plans and reports.
• Redesigning how we organise our portfolio of work in SharePoint to meet best practice and all data management requirements.
• Inputting into group management activity, working with other PMOs in the Group as required, to ensure it is joined-up and proactively managed and facilitated.
• Contributing to other work supporting Ofcom’s corporate values of excellence, collaboration, agility, empowerment and respect.

This is a varied and dynamic role which will evolve over time to adapt to emerging needs, allowing you to gain a broad range of opportunities and skills.

The skills, knowledge and experience you’ll need for success

The essential requirements for the role are:

• Experience managing complex portfolios and programmes of work with excellent knowledge of project management principles, tools and processes. You will be comfortable working with numbers and contributing to budgeting and forecasting exercises effectively.
• Ability to clearly and concisely articulate complex information to a broad range of audiences, both verbally and in writing. This includes creating user friendly visual management reports to facilitate management decision making.

• Building solutions: Proactive in identifying and addressing issues, offering new ideas and implementing improvements to processes and how the team works with excellent knowledge of project management principles, tools and processes. You will be comfortable working with numbers and contributing to budgeting and forecasting exercises effectively.
• Executing plans: Ability to think strategically about business challenges and opportunities, identifying the bigger picture and prioritising effectively. Strong organisational and planning skills and experience delivering results in fast-paced environments and adjusting approaches to meet changing needs and situations.
• Forming relationships: Confident at building and managing constructive working relationships with senior leaders and broader teams and able to persuade and influence different audiences.

• Channelling influence: leading and contributing to team management discussions, using clear communication and persuasion to influence decisions.

No specific qualifications are required for this role, however a relevant professional qualification is desirable (e.g., PRINCE2, MSP, APM qualification etc.) as well as proficient use of the core suite of Microsoft packages (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PowerBI) and other management reporting packages.

Ofcom has a clear mission: to make communications work for everyone.  To be able to deliver on this, we want our organisation to reflect the diversity of background, experience, upbringing and thought that exists across the UK.  We aim to recruit from the widest pool of candidates possible – no matter your social background, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender or disability. 

Where positions are listed as full-time, we remain open to reduced hours, part-time arrangements, job shares, and other flexible working options. From day one, we champion flexible work arrangements to accommodate individual needs.

We also warmly welcome applicants who are returning to the workforce after a break – for whatever reason. If you have taken time away and are ready to rejoin, we look forward to reviewing your application.

Our recruitment processes prioritise accessibility and inclusivity. If you need information in an alternative format or have specific preferences, please contact our recruitment team at [email protected] or call 0330 912 1378.

As a Disability Confident employer, we offer interviews to disabled applicants who meet essential criteria for advertised roles. Learn more about this scheme here.  https://careers.ofcom.org.uk/careers/how-we-hire/