Project Delivery and Improvement Manager

Social Work England are the specialist regulator for social work in England, focused on enabling positive change in social work. Every day, social workers support millions of people to improve their chances in life. We are taking a new approach to regulating social workers in their vital roles. We believe in the power of collaboration and share a common goal with those we regulate – to protect the public, enable positive change and ultimately improve people’s lives.

You will play a crucial role in the organisation by leading a range of projects and improvement activities which support the achievement of our strategic aims and business objectives. Your contributions will have a significant and long-term impact on organisational efficiency and effectiveness.

We're looking for an experienced and adaptable individual who can quickly familiarise themselves with regulation and our organisational ways of working. Working to support project leads and senior responsible owners, you will analyse challenges and opportunities for improvement, and identify and deliver the necessary changes with appropriate controls and stakeholder management techniques.

Our project delivery and improvement managers support in both a project management and process improvement capacity. Your experience of successful project delivery to time, cost and quality, alongside knowledge of identifying and delivering improvements, will assist us in delivering the change we need to continue to develop our organisation. Our project delivery and improvement mangers also act as digital delivery managers leading multidisciplinary teams to successfully deliver digital products and services by coordinating people, processes, and technology, removing delivery obstacles, managing stakeholders, and driving continuous improvement using Agile and Lean practices.

• Independently manage the projects assigned to you, adapting your project management approach to fit our organisation and the projects. Use your initiative to plan your work, manage conflicting priorities and maintain pace of delivery.
• Proactively work alongside project leads and senior responsible owners to deliver outstanding project leadership and governance.
• Utilise exceptional communication skills to develop, maintain and manage effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders at all levels of seniority.
• Lead and develop high-performing digital delivery teams, removing obstacles, prioritising successful product and service delivery and driving continuous improvement.
• Collaborate with the other project delivery and improvement managers to share knowledge, learning and best practice.
• Define, scope and plan projects to deliver outcomes and benefits that align with the organisation's strategic and business plan objectives and/or mitigate corporate risk.
• Track and manage project progress against plans, identifying risks and issues throughout, implementing appropriate mitigations, contingencies and resolutions.
• Identify and quantify the business benefits expected from the successful delivery of project objectives. Work with the project lead to deliver outputs and outcomes that will enable the realisation of the intended benefits.
• Identify and control the impact of changes and interdependencies on existing systems, processes, future developments, and other projects within the wider organisation. Provide support and guidance to stakeholders during periods of change.
• Produce and maintain key project documentation in line with the project management methodology.
• Produce clear and accurate papers and other reports for key stakeholders including the executive leadership team and Social Work England's board.
• Use a variety of methods, including recognised continuous improvement tools, to analyse and understand problems and identify and deliver solutions.

• Experience of working independently to manage successful projects to time, cost and quality in complex and developing organisations.
• Ability to use your initiative to plan your work, manage conflicting priorities and maintain pace of delivery.
• Hold a recognised project management qualification or able to demonstrate a sound understanding of the principles of project management.
• Experience of applying Agile and Lean practices to deliver value, adapting delivery approaches to context, measuring and improving outcomes, effectively communicating and managing expectations across technical and non-technical stakeholders, and overseeing digital products is preferred.
• Ability to analyse highly complex, cross-organisational problems and design and implement innovative and effective solutions that enable delivery of strategic objectives.
• Experience of implementing continuous improvement methodologies, principles and techniques. A relevant qualification would be desirable.
• An understanding of the concept and process of benefits management.
• Experience of managing ongoing change, including process and system…