Would you like to help enrich the lives of learners around the world?
At RM, we’ve been pioneers of education technology since 1973. We provide technology and resources to the education sector, supporting over 10 million students worldwide. We work with over28,000 schools, nurseries, and education trusts in 115 countries to deliver customer-centric solutions that improve education outcomes.
What we do helps learners at all stages of their lives, from preschool to higher education and professional qualification; we partner with schools, examination boards, central governments and other professional institutions to enrich the lives of learners.
RM Group operates through three businesses: Technology (Managed Services, Software and Infrastructure for Schools), Assessment (Software and Services) and TTS (Educational Resources).
Within the assessment market we are experts in providing solutions for online exam testing and marking and the management and analysis of educational data. We work with government ministries, exam boards and professional awarding bodies for high stakes assessment such as GCSEs, A Levels, and professional qualifications. Each year, our software is used globally to conduct hundreds of thousands of on-screen tests and to mark millions of paper-based scripts. For over a decade we have been partnering with the world’s leading awarding bodies to deliver intuitive, secure, and reliable e-marking solutions.
Visit our website to find out more: www.rm.com/assessment
Responsibilities
The Programme Manager Role:
As a Programme Manager in RM Assessment, you will be working on a range of complex digital technology and transformation programmes, where contracts generate revenues of £25m and upwards, with contract terms being multi-year.
The Programme Manager is a brand ambassador for RM and the focal point of engagements for our clients.
Their focus is upon strengthening client relationships through effective programme leadership, operating with integrity, engendering trust, and embedding programme management best practice to optimise schedule, financial, and risk performance on each client engagement.
Demonstrating leadership and inclusion and communicating clearly and effectively at all levels between the programme team and the RM executive, the Programme Manager takes accountability for programme delivery and applies sound judgement towards how and when to escalate to senior/executive stakeholders.
Team engagement is equally important, effectively leveraging a matrixed programme team of typically 30+ colleagues, as is stakeholder engagement within RM in light of the client, commercial, financial, programme, and service / operations interests in the programme within RM.
The Programme Manager will exercise sound judgement, based upon their experience of ensuring that their programmes are delivered within a contractually compliant manner and in enabling informed and objective commercial decisions.
They will also ensure that effective and proportionate governance is established and maintained throughout programme execution, facilitating relevant and insightful reports, based upon robust plans and risk assessment, and the clear understanding of programme dependencies.
Where expedient, the programme manager will be engaged in support of RM bids and proposals.
As a member of the RM Assessment operational team, the Programme Manager may also lead major service incidents and manage significant customer issues when required.
The Programme Manager Accountabilities:
o The successful delivery of the programme.
(delivering in full the contracted scope, client acceptance achieved within contracted milestones, securing payment from client on the milestones specified, and within agreed RM budget)
o Contractual compliance – planning, mobilising, and executing the programme in accordance with contracted terms and conditions; applying contractual change control when appropriate.
o Effective client engagement and optimising client satisfaction.
o Team engagement – ensuring that the team is engaged, clear regarding deliverables and milestones, galvanised as ‘one team’, peer relationships with the client established, joint (with client) clarity of purpose week by week
o Implementing and operating programme standards and controls – planning, risk, dependency, reporting etc.
o Implementing and operating effective governance – both at client level (based on contracted governance requirements) and within RM
o Effective RM stakeholder engagement.
o Installing a ‘learning’ culture within the programme, engaging within RM and the client to evaluate approaches taken and identify, agree, and implement enhancements for the joint benefit of RM and client.
Experience
Our Programme Managers must demonstrate:
o A high degree of emotional intelligence – clear communicator, listening skills, ‘reading’ situations and people, effective leadership
o Programme leadership experience and achievement within a commercial context (i.e. they have successfully led and delivered programmes for a supplier on a client engagement based upon a Fixed Price contract)
o Programme leadership experience and achievement where they had accountability for the delivery of technology transformation, where there budgeted cost accountability was > £10M (maybe compromise on the £2M but absolutely need to see strong financial management acumen)
o Programme leadership and achievement within a product management environment (as a minimum demonstrate that they understand Product Management principles and can practically apply these)
o Programme leadership and achievement focused on (as a minimum including) business change
Our Programme Managers should demonstrate:
o Experience of programme leadership and achievement within a product management / SaaS environment
o Recent experience as a mentor
Qualifications and Accreditations:
o We expect our Programme Managers to:
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- Hold a current, recognised Programme Management accreditation (Axelos Managing Successful Programmes preferred)
- Have experience and proficiency in line managing, coaching, and developing colleagues.
- Be conversant with the Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, Powerpoint)
- Be at an advanced level of proficiency with Microsoft Project
o It is desirable that our Programme Managers:
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- Hold a current, recognised Agile Project Management accreditation
- Have a practical understanding of Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) standards and practices, and hold a current ITIL accreditation
- Have a practical understanding of one or more change management methodologies
There may be the need for occasional UK based to support customer needs.
What’s in it for you?
At RM we have My Work Blend @RM which provides office-based colleagues with multi location and hybrid working options. As well as your office base, you can spend a proportion of your time working at other locations that suit your role and your life, including home, other offices, customer sites, distribution centres or on the move. We encourage you to discuss arrangements for this role with your potential line manager during the recruitment process.
As well as a competitive salary and our core benefits package which includes private medical healthcare, life assurance and a Group Personal Pension Plan with higher contribution levels available, some roles are also eligible for a performance-related bonus. There are lots of voluntary benefits too. You could buy additional annual leave, join our dental plan, sign up for a health assessment, or take part in our cycle to work scheme. You could even earn yourself an extra bonus for successfully recommending a friend or family member for a position within RM.
To better reflect the society that we serve, we’re committed to building a diverse workforce and creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for all. To achieve this, we create teams of talented people from different backgrounds and experiences and strive to be a business where our people can bring their whole selves to work, we also want to make the recruitment process as inclusive as possible for everyone. Should you require additional support with your application or through the interview process, please contact us at recruitment@rm.com.
Unfortunately, we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.
