Level 3 PMO

London or Darlington, with hybrid working arrangements.

At Railpen, we’re committed to helping secure our members’ future through responsible investment and effective change. As a senior PMO (Level
3) practitioner within Change & Transformation (C&T), you’ll provide leadership, oversight and constructive challenge across governance, planning, reporting, assurance and portfolio controls. Working across complex projects, programmes and portfolios, you’ll use data and insight to support informed decisions, improve delivery confidence and ensure change investments are governed effectively. You may also line‑manage and coach PMO colleagues, helping to strengthen professional capability, standards and ways of working across the function.

To learn more about Railpen including our values, culture and purpose, visit our careers page here.

• Leading PMO activities across complex projects, major programmes and portfolios, ensuring effective governance, planning, reporting and control.
• Providing independent assurance and portfolio‑level oversight of delivery performance, milestones, benefits, risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies and actions.
• Developing and maintaining integrated portfolio plans, delivery roadmaps and dependency-management processes to support strategic decision‑making.
• Producing executive reporting, dashboards and portfolio insights, analysing delivery performance, governance effectiveness, resource utilisation and delivery confidence to provide clear recommendations.
• Facilitating governance boards, steering committees and portfolio forums, ensuring decisions are well informed, documented, communicated and tracked.
• Conducting assurance reviews, governance health checks and delivery assessments to identify weaknesses and improve delivery outcomes and governance maturity.
• Horizon scanning across the change portfolio to identify emerging risks, dependencies and delivery pressures, enabling early intervention where required.
• Supporting prioritisation, capacity planning, investment decisions and financial governance in partnership with Portfolio Managers, Project Managers, Business Analysts and senior stakeholders.
• Driving the adoption and continuous improvement of PMO standards, frameworks, tools, reporting, governance and AI-enabled practices across the portfolio.
• Where appropriate, line‑managing, coaching and supporting PMO colleagues to strengthen capability, share good practice and build a collaborative professional community.

You’ll be an experienced PMO professional with a strong track record of leading governance, assurance, planning and portfolio controls across complex change. You’ll combine strategic thinking with strong operational delivery, using data and insight to bring structure to complexity, challenge constructively and provide clear recommendations to senior stakeholders. You’ll be pragmatic and outcome‑focused, able to balance robust governance with a proportionate approach.

You’ll also bring the leadership and coaching skills needed to develop PMO colleagues and continuously improve professional standards and capability.

• Proven experience leading PMO activities across complex programmes, portfolios or large‑scale change environments.
• Strong knowledge of portfolio governance, independent assurance, integrated planning, reporting, risk management and delivery controls.
• Experience designing, implementing and continuously improving PMO frameworks, standards, methodologies and governance processes.
• Ability to analyse complex portfolio data, identify trends, risks, dependencies and delivery pressures, and provide clear recommendations to senior stakeholders.
• Experience producing executive…