Job Title: Head of Project Services

Salary: £54,700 - £65,000

Location: Cambridge

Contract: Permanent, full-time

We are Cambridge University Press & Assessment, a world-leading academic publisher and assessment organisation and a proud part of the University of Cambridge.

The Head of Project Services manages a team of passionate experts based in Cambridge and Manila, who offer support, tools, learning and development services to the project and programme manager community across the organisation.

About the role

You will lead a culture of high-quality project and programme management across the organisation globally, contributing to the development of the project and programme management capability of the organisation. You will collaborate and influence at all levels of responsibility, as well as lead the Project Services team, an inclusive and dynamic team of 10, who value expertise and growth mindset​, teamwork, service​, and strive to add value and reduce waste and bureaucracy.

The team provides thought-leadership on standards and common ways of working, designing processes and templates, and providing quality assurance and advice, to support project and programme managers deliver the organisation's strategic portfolio effectively and efficiently.

Project Services also implement technical solutions based on corporate tools (such as M365, Jira), to help with the delivery of projects, programmes and the portfolio, as well as in support of the good administration of the Portfolio Office.

The team provides learning and development material and activities, facilitating mentoring and career development plans for project professionals, and encourages social learning including through the Project Management Community of Practice. Through these activities, they support the growth and retention of highly skilled project professionals for the organisation.

About you

You have a comprehensive understanding of project and programme methodologies, including agile and waterfall and can demonstrate a broad experience of project delivery to be an authoritative figure on what constitutes best practice. You also have strong understanding of the data that underpins effective project and programme management and how it can be captured and reported on to drive the most value from that data. You have a broad knowledge of software tools and techniques in the PPM space.

You have experience operating a customer-first style set of services that focuses on the benefits to the internal customer and not bureaucracy.

You have experience managing a global team, and its budget. You are an inspiring leader for the team, committed to its success and development and with experience of managing colleagues at different level of responsibility: from junior to senior individual collaborator, as well as line managers.

You are passionate about professional development and adult learning, with experience in facilitating and/or commissioning training, supporting colleagues at all levels through mentoring or coaching.

You are an excellent communicator, with strong influencing, presentation and negotiating skills, particularly with senior stakeholders (including executive board level).

For a full brief on this role and what will make you successful, please see the full job description attached to the bottom of this vacancy on our careers site.

Rewards and benefits

We will support you to be at your best in work and to live well outside of it. In addition to competitive salaries, we offer a world-class, flexible rewards package, featuring family-friendly and planet-friendly benefits including:

• Group personal pension scheme
• Discretionary annual bonus
• Life assurance up to 4 x annual salary
• Private medical and Permanent Health Insurance
• Green travel schemes
• 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays

We also offer flexible and hybrid working options from day one. We will consider any work arrangements if you wish to work flexibly or require adjustments due to a disability.

Ready to pursue your potential? Apply now.

We review applications on an ongoing basis, with a closing date for all applications being 25^th June 2023, however, this is a rolling campaign, and therefore we will hold interviews throughout and reserve the right to close this campaign early, so if this position interests you, please do not delay submitting your application! 

Please note that successful applicants will be subject to satisfactory background checks including DBS due to working in a regulated industry.

Why join us

Joining us is your opportunity to pursue potential. You'll belong to a collaborative team that's exploring new and better ways to serve students, teachers and researchers across the globe – for the benefit of individuals, society and the world. Sharing our mission will inspire your own growth, development and progress, in an environment which embraces difference, change and aspiration.

Cambridge University Press & Assessment is committed to being a place where anyone can enjoy a successful career, where everyone has a voice, and where we learn continuously to improve together. Ensuring that everyone feels they belong is essential to who we are, and to the contribution we make to society and our planet.

We believe better outcomes come through diversity of thought, background and approach. We welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and communities, actively seeking to employ people from a wide range of different communities.

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