Summary

The Project Management Centre of Excellence (CoE) is a newly established department within the Strategic Projects Group. It sits alongside three other departments, the Strategic PMO which manages the delivery of enterprise scale initiatives, the Enterprise Business Analysis team, and the Business Process Transformation team.

The CoE acts as the strategic advisory and capability centre for project management. It enables teams to deliver through guidance, tools, learning, and governance assurance; it does not directly manage project delivery. Its vision is to embed a consistent, mature project management culture across the organisation — where every team has the tools, frameworks, and confidence to deliver successfully and sustainably.

As Head of the PMO CoE, you will be providing strategic leadership for the CoE. You will own the CoE strategy, service catalogue, governance, PM frameworks, and stakeholder engagement ensuring the CoE delivers measurable value through improved project standards, visibility, and outcomes. You will act as the senior advisor to executive leadership on portfolio maturity, delivery performance, and capability uplift, representing the CoE at the highest levels of governance.

Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Define and execute the CoE strategy, service catalogue, governance and PM frameworks.
• Align CoE priorities with business and portfolio objectives.
• Set standards, KPIs, and success measures for project management excellence.
• Represent the CoE at senior governance forums.

Governance & Assurance

• Own the CoE’s Governance Framework and Playbook.
• Sponsor standardisation of PM frameworks, templates, and stage gates.

Stakeholder & Executive Engagement

• Act as principal advisor to business units providing coaching and guidance on applying standards.
• Lead stakeholder engagement and communication on CoE performance and value.
• Foster collaboration between business units, PMOs, and enabling functions.

Service Oversight & Team Leadership

• Direct delivery across all CoE domains (Tools, Standards, Capability, Learning).
• Line-manage and develop the CoE team Tooling and Reporting manager
• Sponsor rollout of Celoxis, the PM Framework, and Knowledge Hub.
• Ensure integration of frameworks, tools, training, and reporting.
• Support Senior Director of Programme Management with team strategy.

Performance & Improvement

• Track adoption, and satisfaction metrics.
• Lead annual reviews of the CoE strategy, roadmap, and catalogue.
• Benchmark CoE performance and evolve services to maintain best practice.

Requirements

• Extensive PMO or CoE leadership in complex, cross-functional environments.
• Proven experience defining PM frameworks, governance, and maturity models.
• Executive-level stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Strong understanding of portfolio management and performance reporting.
• Experienced people leader fostering collaboration and capability growth.
• APM, PMI, or PRINCE2 certification (required).
• MoP, MSP, or Prosci certification (desirable).
• Degree-level education or equivalent experience.

The above list of duties is not exclusive or exhaustive and the post holder will be required to undertake tasks that are reasonably expected within the scope and grading of the post.