Associate Director – Project Management

The Associate Director is responsible for leading multiple engagement teams, all of which play a critical role in supporting the objectives of Vercity’s Programme & Project Management practice. The Associate Director ensures that resources are effectively prioritised and allocated across engagements, aiming to deliver strategic outcomes fully aligned with departmental goals.

UK

Head of Project Management

35 h / week - 9-5, Monday to Friday

Commercial and Consulting Expertise

As a commercially minded delivery professional, the Associate Director demonstrates a strong consulting ethos. This role requires the ability to identify and shape new opportunities in both the public and private sectors. The Associate Director brings senior‑level credibility and depth of advisory skills, with a proven record of securing and successfully delivering complex programmes within live operational environments.

Project Management Experience

The Associate Director is an experienced Project Management professional, particularly skilled in overseeing multi‑disciplinary and multi‑location projects. This includes managing complex, high‑risk, or lead consultancy projects. The role involves leading projects valued at +£500,000 and assumes responsibility for managing large teams.

Professional Qualifications

A recognised Project Management qualification, such as PMQ or an equivalent certification, is required for this position. Full individual membership of the Association for Project Management (APM) or a comparable professional project management body is considered standard for the Associate Director.

Delivery

• Accountable to the Head of Project Management function for creating and leading the project (‘engagements’) to deliver agreed outcomes agreed in the engagement within the time, cost, and quality constraints.
• Delivers engagements in line with Vercity VMS and SOPs and suggests improvements where appropriate.

Project / Engagement Management

• Provides day‑to‑day management and leadership for the project (engagement) and team. Offers effective leadership and management controls, follows the VMS, sets project controls and ‘stop/go’ decision points, designs the project structure appropriate for its stage, sets delivery methodologies, and manages transitions between project phases.
• Manages the Engagement Delivery in accordance with the financial controls and operational excellence KPIs set by Vercity, e.g., Timesheets, Utilisation, Fee burn‑down, Invoicing and Billing, Margin and Quality.

Business case

• Develops the business case for Client needs as engagement services, e.g., in line with HMT Greenbook or alternatives as required by the engagement.
• Develops specific engagement proposals as the engagement case to detail services for the client via the standard scope of services and terms of appointment.

Budget

• Develops the budget and tracks progress within it.

Resources

• Identifies skill requirements for all project stages, recruits resources within budget, and oversees resource deployment. This includes building the project team, delegating roles and responsibilities, developing capability, and fostering innovation.
• Manages resource forecasting, actuals and controls changes across this via monthly reviews to ensure change management is followed.
• Delivers the agreed benefits and outcomes from the business case. Identifies, understands, measures, tracks, and owns benefits. Ensures a benefits realisation strategy is in place and monitors long‑term benefit delivery against the client’s business case and the Vercity engagement proposal.
• Collaborates with the Head of Project Management to manage senior stakeholders. Identifies and addresses stakeholder interests, manages communications, secures buy‑in, and builds collaborative relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including, but not limited to, GMs, Trusts, and Local Authorities. Builds consensus among a diverse group of stakeholders.

Risks and issues

• Manages risks and issues, escalating to the Head of Project Management as needed. Ensures strategic and operational risks are identified, prioritised, assessed, and mitigated throughout the…