PMO Manager

Being a part of Kent Fire and Rescue Service 

Everyone is unique. Everyone has value. Everyone helps to make Kent Fire and Rescue Service a great place to work. We are one team. Together with our customers we are creating a safer future for Kent and Medway.

Being a PMO Manager

Reporting to the Chief Executive, the PMO Manager will lead the ongoing development and maturity of the PMO function as a centre of excellence.

The PMO Manager is a strategic leader supporting the development and delivery of Kent Fire and Rescue Service portfolio of projects.  This includes providing the Strategic Leadership Board with insights and recommendations to support investment, decisions, prioritisation, and alignment with strategic goals.

You will be directly responsible for managing a team of Project, Programme managers, project co-ordinators and a PMO Analyst.

What you’ll do

• Provide leadership and development support, ensuring effective project and programme delivery across the full lifecycle. Assign resources in line with individual skills, experience, and capability to maximise delivery effectiveness.
• Define, implement, and evolve, as required, a fit-for-purpose project delivery framework encompassing methodologies, standards, templates, and reporting to meet stakeholder and organisational needs
• Produce high-quality management information, dashboards, and portfolio-level analysis to support decision-making. This includes reporting on delivery performance, benefits realisation, risk exposure, and alignment with strategic priorities.
• Provide strategic oversight of corporate projects, establishing appropriate governance structures with sponsors.
• Support Project Managers in setting objectives, assigning tasks, allocating budgets, and agreeing timelines to deliver defined outcomes.
• Oversee a diverse portfolio of technical and business projects. While not a technical specialist, you will require sufficient understanding of IT architecture, cyber security, and systems integration to assess project complexity, determine dependencies, support risk evaluation and ensure appropriate stakeholder engagement and assurance.
• Frequent use of Microsoft Project, Visio and Microsoft Office suite applications will be required to interpret and manage task plans, resource schedules, and process models

What you’ll bring

• Significant experience in delivering a diverse range of complex projects and change initiatives over an extended period.
• Proven experience in portfolio and PMO (Project Management Office) functions, including governance, reporting, and coordination across multiple projects. 
• Comfortable operating in high-ambiguity and high-complexity environments. Capable of making informed decisions where information is incomplete or contradictory, and able to adapt thinking and approaches as new insights emerge. 
• Project Management Qualification at Practitioner Level (e.g. PRINCE2, APM PFQ/PMQ, Agile, change management) or equivalent experience.
• Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) at Practitioner Level or equivalent experience.
• Portfolio Management Qualification such as Management of Portfolios (MoP) or equivalent experience. 
• Evidence of continuing professional development in portfolio, programme, or PMO leadership (Desirable)

Benefits

• Automatic membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme
• Blue Light Card discount scheme supported by a number of high street retailers
• A range of family friendly policies including promoting work-life balance
• Access to health and wellbeing services and advice
• Access to LinkedIn learning online training
• Free parking
• Above all you’ll become part of a service that is committed to the safety of our community

How to apply

Please complete an online application and CV.
 

We reserve the right to close this vacancy upon receiving a sufficient number of applications. If you are interested in this role we recommend that you submit your application at the earliest opportunity.

Inclusion is at the heart of everything we do. We know that great minds don’t think alike, so we rely on diverse thoughts, feelings, beliefs and backgrounds to create the best working environment that we can possibly offer.

Kent Fire and Rescue Service, its employees and volunteers, are committed to safeguarding, protecting and supporting children, young people and adults at risk. As part of our safer recruitment process, we will undertake pre-employment checks to verify your suitability for the role. These checks will include your references and a standard or enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. Enhanced DBS check with barred lists are carried out for roles with direct and unsupervised access to children, young people and adults at risk. Risk assessments will be undertaken on any disclosures identified as part of the pre-employment checks.

As a Public Sector organisation with added responsibilities under the Equality Act, 2010 the candidate must demonstrate an understanding of what is meant by Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and how this fits in with their everyday work.