An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the Project Management Team at Merseyrail as a Senior Project Manager.

The purpose of this role is to ensure the effective planning and delivery of programmes and projects that support the achievement of Merseyrail’s strategic vision. This role will lead a small team and their involvement in supporting project delivery across the business, accountable for driving successful delivery of projects within agreed timescales and budget.

This role will work collaboratively with colleagues and other functions across the business to plan project activities, identify interdependencies and align project governance. This will include preparing professional and concise project reports and supplementary documentation and chairing the Project Board on a period basis. The role will involve the management of a diverse portfolio of projects from different areas of the business, including those of an operational, technical, and transformational nature.

Other key responsibilities of this role include project/programme governance, line management, stakeholder management, defining project outputs, producing project plans, authoring business cases, managing project budgets, managing programme interdependencies, risks and issues, and milestones.

Key responsibilities of the role will include:

• Implement and maintain a comprehensive project governance framework, aligning with industry best practices and shareholder requirements.
• Define and uphold project management standards, processes, and methodologies across the organisation.
• Prepare high quality project reporting and chair the Project board. Facilitate effective decision making by highlighting any interdependencies and conflicts across projects. 
• Monitor business project portfolio project milestones and deliverables, manage portfolio visibility and provide clear and concise information to stakeholders.
• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to ensure transparency and alignment throughout the project lifecycle.
• Manage suppliers and external consultants and hold them accountable for committed objectives.
• Produce project documentation, including business cases and project progress reports, to a consistently high quality.
• Define project team roles and responsibilities and resolve conflicts of interest in a professional manner.
• Use professional project management software tools, including Microsoft Project to plan project timescales, milestones, and critical paths.
• Use risk management methodologies and apply risk reduction techniques to minimise potential barriers to project delivery.
• Control the project scope and budget across the Project Management Team and ensure the satisfaction of the end users throughout the project lifecycle.
• Use change control processes to ensure that deviations to project scope, timescales, or budgets are properly documented and authorised.
• Lead project meetings and maintain accurate and detailed records of all project decisions, issues and outcomes.
• Manage complex internal and external stakeholder relationships, and escalate issues to appropriate levels of seniority.
• Lead, manage and motivate the Project Management team. Manage associated workload and priorities by ensuring that clear objectives and outputs are in place and progress and quality is monitored.
• Assist the Head of IT & Transformation where directed.

With a focus on achieving results, the successful candidate will be self-motivating, pro-active, and have a drive to deliver. The ability to gain the buy-in of others is essential to ensure that the project succeeds, as is a positive can-do attitude.

The successful candidate must have the ability to be flexible in their work approach and be a highly effective communicator with well-developed inter-personal skills that gain the confidence internal senior stakeholders, customers and suppliers alike. 

Successful candidates will be invited to attend an interview.

For further information regarding this role please contact via email Louise Robertson lrobertson@merseyrail.org  

"As an equal opportunities employer, Merseyrail particularly welcomes applications from Black, Asian, Minority, Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds as they are currently underrepresented throughout the UK. All appointments will be made on merit of skill and experience relative to the role."