PMO & Operations Director

Advert close date: 28th April 2026

Purpose of Role: As the Director of PMO & Operations for the Marine Strategic Business Unit (SBU), you will play a pivotal leadership role in enabling the successful delivery of strategic objectives. This includes leading the implementation of the PMO in alignment with the evolving Enterprise PMO (EPMO), as well as overseeing operational excellence, and ensuring strategic alignment across the SBU. You will be accountable for driving performance against the Business Plan, embedding a culture of continuous improvement, and ensuring the highest standards of project execution, risk management, and providing first line assurance across all projects.

You will represent the Marine SBU in enterprise-wide forums, champion integration of risk and customer relationship management, and lead the implementation of the Safety-First Action Plan. Your leadership will be instrumental in building capability, fostering collaboration, and ensuring delivery is insight-led, transparent, and aligned with enterprise priorities.

Main accountabilities:

• Strategic Leadership & Governance

  • Provide senior leadership across Marine SBU operations, aligning with strategic priorities and fostering a high-performance culture

  • Represent Marine in Group-level forums on project and programme assurance, PMO standards, and delivery governance

  • Lead the PMO function, embedding consistent project and programme management standards, tools, and methodologies

• Delivery Assurance & Risk Management

  • Provide independent assurance across all projects and BAU, with escalation to the MD as needed

  • Oversee risk identification, escalation, and mitigation, aligning with enterprise-wide standards

  • Support and challenge project SROs and project managers in proactive risk culture and problem-solving

• Business Planning & Performance

  • Oversee performance against the Business Plan through effective planning, prioritisation, and resource allocation

  • Lead forecasting and scenario planning for skills and capacity across the Marine portfolio

  • Support Marine in identifying skills and capability gaps, providing training and coaching where appropriate

• Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement

  • Champion continuous improvement and operational excellence across delivery processes

  • Lead digital transformation to enhance efficiency and enable data-driven decision-making

  • Promote the use of dynamic reporting, using real-time data dashboards

• Customer & Stakeholder Engagement

  • Drive implementation of customer management plans for key Marine clients in collaboration with the corporate Customer team

  • Ensure transparent, timely, and insightful reporting to support informed decision-making

  • Foster strong relationships across Marine and enterprise, encouraging a collaborative culture

• Governance & Secretariat Oversight

  • Ensure effective governance support and alignment with Group frameworks

  • Maintain clear escalation and reporting lines to ensure independence and business relevance

• Capability Development

  • Provide strategic leadership in workforce planning and capability development

  • Support project leads in managing third-party delivery partners

• Safety & Compliance

  • Drive the implementation of the Safety-First Action Plan

  • Ensure compliance with health and safety regulations and sustainability practices

Most important skills based requirements:

• Proven experience leading PMO and operational functions in complex, multi-project environments

• Strong background in programme and risk management within major infrastructure programmes, ideally within marine or energy

• Demonstrated ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive cross-functional alignment

• Proficiency in project management tools, risk registers, and reporting dashboards

• Experience managing people and/or matrixed teams

• Qualification or membership of a relevant recognised institution

Our Offering / benefits:

As well as a competitive salary, pension and performance related bonus offering, we have a wealth of benefits available ranging from flexible working; market leading family policies and shopping discounts in the West End, to private healthcare; life and critical illness cover and 28 days holiday with the option to buy more. We value work life balance and your wellbeing highly, enabling you to be your best self to work.

Disability Disclaimer:

We are a proud disability confident employer and operate the offer of interview scheme Disability Confident employer scheme - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

We are happy to offer alternative application methods or formats and can be flexible on our process to enable you to have the best opportunity.

If you have any questions about our recruitment process or would like to talk about adjustments, please contact us directly.