Head of Project Management Office

JOB TITLE: Head of Project Management Office (PMO)

REPORTS TO

TITLE:

Deputy Managing Director

BUSINESS FUNCTION/ SUB-FUNCTION: Managing Director’s Office

LOCATION: London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds

The Head of PMO provides leadership for portfolio, programme, and project delivery across GBS. The role is responsible for evolving the PMO into a strategic capability that enables impact-driven change.

Working in partnership with functional leaders, the Head of PMO will strengthen delivery discipline while maintaining an outcome-focused approach that empowers teams to execute effectively. The role also provides independent assurance and facilitates cross-programme coordination to improve delivery confidence and benefits realisation.

They will shape the PMO operating model, establish clear portfolio governance, and provide trusted delivery insight to executive leadership. They will ensure that transformation initiatives are aligned to strategy and resourced appropriately, to maximise organisational capacity and impact.

The role will lead the Project Management Office, Continuous Improvement, Change Control and Business Process Design functions at GBS.

• Define and evolve GBS’s PMO strategy, roadmap, and operating model
• Establish consistent delivery frameworks and governance architecture
• Develop PMO team capabilities, professional standards, and career pathways
• Lead the adoption of delivery tooling that strengthens portfolio visibility and reporting capability
• Own the organisation-wide change portfolio, including pipeline visibility, demand intake, and prioritisation
• Facilitate executive decision-making on investment trade-offs and sequencing of initiatives
• Coordinate cross-programme dependencies and resolve portfolio conflicts
• Provide oversight of portfolio financial performance, investment tracking, and forecast accuracy
• Lead portfolio capacity and resource planning to ensure deliverability
• Provide independent delivery assurance through structured health checks, gateway reviews, and recovery interventions
• Deliver high-quality executive reporting covering progress, risks, capacity, benefits, and delivery confidence
• Ensure programme and portfolio risk management aligns with enterprise risk frameworks
• Maintain transparent escalation pathways for complex or at-risk initiatives
• Establish and embed benefits realisation frameworks across transformation initiatives
• Ensure business cases are robust, outcome-focused, and aligned with strategic priorities
• Monitor benefits delivery and support corrective action where value is at risk
• Refine and operate effective change demand intake and triage processes
• Coordinate portfolio governance forums and reporting cycles
• Oversee change control processes to maintain portfolio integrity without constraining delivery agility
• Support process improvement and transformation initiatives by embedding clear ownership, governance, and measurement
• Promote cross-functional collaboration to improve delivery effectiveness and reduce organisational friction
• Embed lessons learned, continuous improvement practices, and knowledge sharing
• Act as a trusted advisor to the executive team on delivery feasibility, risk, and portfolio performance
• Build strong relationships with programme sponsors, senior leaders, and operational teams
• Collaborate with Risk, Finance, HR, and Internal Audit functions to ensure aligned governance and assurance

• Senior leadership experience within enterprise PMO, portfolio management, or transformation
• Proven track record establishing or maturing PMO capability and operating models
• Strong expertise in portfolio governance, prioritisation, and executive decision support
• Demonstrable success embedding benefits realisation and value tracking
• Experience implementing delivery frameworks across hybrid (predictive and agile) environments
• Strong stakeholder influence and ability to challenge constructively at executive level
• Experience leading multidisciplinary PMO or transformation teams
• Knowledge of recognised methodologies (PRINCE2, MSP, Agile, Scrum, or equivalent)
• Experience operating in regulated or complex stakeholder environments
• Financial…