PMO Manager [Planning]
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Job Location:
Monthly Salary:
Posted on:
16 hours ago
Vacancies:
1 Vacancy
Job Summary
About DFT Operator
Join Our Team at DFTO
DfT Operator Ltd (Department for Transport Operator - DFTO) is the public sector owning group behindeight key train operators: LNER Northern Southeastern TransPennine Express South Western Railway c2c Greater Anglia and WM Trains.
Were here to make your rail journeys smoother safer and more reliable. Since taking on LNER in 2018 weve focused on delivering better train services enhancing customer experiences and boosting performance across the network.
Stats about DFTO:
- 8500 services each weekday
- 640 million customer journeys across the networks every year
- 30000employees
- 7000people joined the railway family in the last year
We work closely with the DfT but operate independently with our own governance and leadership teams. Our priority is ensuring efficient dependable rail services for everyone.
Primary Purpose of Job:
To establish and maintain planning processes and procedures across DFTO to provide an integrated plan of all DFTO Project & Programmes to support decision making and prioritisation.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead the PMOs planning function ensuring standards templates and methodologies are consistently applied across all schedules.
- Develop and maintain integrated programme and project schedules ensuring dependencies and milestones are clearly defined.
- Analyse schedule performance identifying critical paths bottlenecks slippage and delivery impacts.
- Provide coaching and support to project teams on building high-quality realistic project plans.
- Produce schedule-related reporting dashboards and insights for governance forums and senior leadership.
- Maintain schedule baselines and support the change control process ensuring all schedule changes are tracked and approved.
- Work closely with risk finance and delivery teams to ensure schedule accuracy reflects resourcing constraints and risk exposure.
- Lead schedule assurance reviews to test quality logic completeness and alignment with PMO standards.
- Facilitate planning-related governance preparing review packs logs and timeline updates.
- Drive continuous improvement in planning capability across the PMO increasing consistency maturity and forecasting accuracy.
Knowledge Skills Experience & Technical Qualifications:
- Experience of leading planning and integrated schedules for large scale programmes and projects with the ability to create and embed best practise planning documentation
- Experienced in successfully delivering projects of varying complexity within different industries
- Proven track record in delivering successful complex projects with an element of business change
- Proven experience in management of customer expectations senior stakeholders and developing strong relationships across the business with excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
- Experience of business requirements gathering
- Strong leadership skills; motivating and inspiring confidence in others with high levels of flexibility and adaptability.
- Strong financial management skills and commercial acumen
- Desirable: Membership of the Association for Project Management or other professional body
- Desirable: Proven track record in supplier management
Vacancy Details:
Duration:2 year Fixed Term contract/secondment
Location:London Waterloo/Hybrid
Salary:up to 57430
Closing date: 20th March 2026
DFTO Benefits:
Annual Leave: Starting at 25 days and rising to an additional day per year of service completed within the first 5 completed years up to a maximum of 5 additional (30 days)
DC Pension Scheme: 10% Employer contribution 5% Employee contribution
Opportunities to learn and network across the wider industry
Additional Information
Disclaimer: Candidates applying for this position on a secondment basis must inform their line manager prior to submitting their application. This is to ensure transparency and facilitate any necessary discussions regarding workload and responsibilities.
About our people and the recruitment process - Were an inclusive employer of choice and we welcome applications from everyone! We encourage our colleagues to work flexibly as we know traditional working patterns dont always fit. If you want to consider working flexibly just let us know and well do our best to help and invest in your career with us whilst you have a healthy work life balance.
Contact: If you have any questions or reasonable adjustments please contact
Please do not email any CVs to us your application must be made by clicking the Apply button.
Required Experience:
Manager
