Senior Project Manager

At M&G, our purpose is to give everyone real confidence to put their money to work. With a heritage dating back more than 175 years, we have a long history of innovation in savings and investments, combining asset management and insurance expertise to offer a wide range of solutions.

Our two distinct operating segments, Asset Management and Life, work together to provide access to balanced, long-term investment and savings solutions.

Through telling it like it is, owning it now and moving it forward together with care and integrity; we are creating an exceptional place to work for exceptional talent.

We will consider flexible working arrangements for any of our roles and offer workplace adjustments to ensure you have the support you need to succeed in your role.

The Role:

To manage / deliver the Technology elements of large, high value projects to meet identified business needs within agreed parameters of cost, time and quality. Manage Technology Project managers (both internal and external) to ensure the quality of the Technology project management service. IT projects under management are likely to be in the range of £300k to £10m

Key Responsibilities for this Role:

• Deliver complex and/or large technology projects, where the timescales for delivery are greater than 6 months, the project costs exceed £300k and / or the stakeholders and benefits involved are complex and critical to the business.
• Mentor and coach Technical Project Managers in order to develop the quality of project management services. Review the approaches and plans created by same to ensure they adhere to the Technology Project Lifecycle.
• Monitor the Technology PMs to ensure the correct level of project control and organisation is in place, and support them to ensure that an acceptable level of project control and organisation has been implemented. Ensure all risks, issues, costs, changes and quality considerations are controlled and within tolerance of the project sponsors expectations.
• Manage project resources from numerous teams including 3rd party relationships. Determine appropriate solution for any resource / 3rd party issues received, arising from Technology projects.
• Ensure that the Project Sponsor and key stakeholders have the appropriate visibility on all project controls (risks/issues/costs/change/quality) as well as project progress so that they can fulfil their decision making roles
• Manage relationships with stakeholders, both formally and informally, by utilising appropriate forms of engagement in order to create a network of relationships that will  ensure a sustainable, positive relationship with all customers and business units (both internal and external).
• Negotiate and agree an appropriate level of project management services with stakeholders; monitor this, with stakeholder input, throughout the project. Coach the Technology PMs to ensure they engage with their stakeholders in an effective way, so ensuring they achieve customer satisfaction.
• Collaborate with other Management Teams to develop the project management capability within Technology. Review processes, identify opportunities to improve and, following consultation with peers, implement changes.

Key Knowledge, Skills & Experience:

• Minimum 10 years’ experience in managing large technology projects or programmes greater than 6 months, the project costs exceed £300k and / or the stakeholders and benefits involved are complex and critical to the business
• Experience in managing / mentoring Technology PMs to help them identify the appropriate solutions to project issues and project approach. Provide the correct level of coaching and support that ensures the Technology PM is providing more confidence in delivery but also learning from experience
• Excellent Leadership and people management skills, ability to build a project team from various sources, create a culture of success and  inspire large project teams to deliver every time.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills – can build good people networks up to and including executive level and utilise these relationships to understand the external environment and progress project delivery.
• Excellent negotiating and influencing skills, ability to articulate the project aims convincingly including the ability to manage and resolve conflict as well as being able to retain stakeholder buy-in throughout the life of a project
• Experience in managing numerous projects at once, being able to deal with differing granularity at the same time: conceptual, high level project and detailed, low level projects. Ability to supervise and support projects run by a number of Technology PMs
• Excellent business knowledge – understands how technical projects contribute to organisational strategy, understands the regulatory environment and ability to articulate this understanding to project teams.
• Excellent knowledge of project processes, methodologies and tools/techniques. Fully understands the Technology Project Lifecycle and can ensure that projects adhere to these processes and the governance approach.
• Takes responsibility for project budget, control and progress.
• Ability to respond positively to challenging priorities and take a flexible approach.
• Seeks areas and opportunities for continuous self-improvement as well as contributing to the improvement of Projects and Business Relationship and Technology

What we offer:

We’re dedicated to supporting your wellbeing and helping you thrive, both at work and beyond. Our benefits are designed to help you balance your professional and personal life, and financially plan for the future. Our UK benefits include:

• A valuable pension scheme of up to 18% (13% made up of employer contributions and 5% employee contributions).
• Access to our Share Save and Share Incentive Plan, alongside financial wellbeing and support services to help give you real confidence to put your money to work.
• Enjoy 38 days annual leave (including bank holidays), with the opportunity to purchase up to five extra days. Our Time Off When You Need It policy gives you the flexibility - to balance work and personal commitments.
• Our market-leading Inspiring Families policy includes comprehensive support and paid parental leave covering maternity, adoption, surrogacy, and paternity leave - because supporting families is an important part of our inclusive culture.
• Health & Protection cover includes Private Healthcare, Critical Illness cover and Life Assurance for you, with additional family options - for peace of mind.

To explore more about life at M&G and our full benefits offering, visit Life at M&G

At M&G we strive to have a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture, underpinned by our policies and employee-led networks that offer networking, support and development opportunities for the diverse communities our colleagues represent. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds – across gender, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation and more – including neurodivergent individuals, career returners and those with military service experience.

M&G is proud to be Level 3: Disability Confident Leader under the UK Government Disability Confident employer scheme, and we welcome applications from candidates with disabilities and long-term health conditions. If you would like to participate in the initiative, you will have the opportunity to indicate this on your application.

We are committed to providing an inclusive recruitment process. All candidates have the opportunity to request reasonable adjustments when applying. If you need any additional support at any stage, please contact us at: [email protected]