PMO Lead (Manager)

Who we are

We are one of the largest international law firms in the world. With over 30 offices across the globe, we strive to exceed the expectations of our clients, providing them with the highest-quality advice and legal insight, which combines the firm’s global standards with in-depth local expertise.

Our firm, work and people span jurisdictions, cultures, and languages. We offer our clients a truly international perspective. We believe every career should be rewarding and stimulating - full of opportunities to learn, thrive, and grow. That’s why we’re so proud of our inclusive, friendly, and team-based approach to work.

You’ll find our clients in commercial and industrial sectors, the financial investor community, governments, regulators, trade bodies, and not-for-profit organisations. But no matter who they are or why they’ve reached out to us, we provide a world-class service every step of the way. And that’s possible thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit and conscientious approach to work that you’ll find across all of our teams.

Whichever area of the business you join, you’ll become an integral part an innovative, diverse and ambitious team of people. Clifford Chance is a place where the brightest minds and the best of colleagues meet.

The Role

This role sits in the Programme Management Office (PMO) which is part of the Global Programme Group (GPG). The GPG provides stewardship of the firm's global investment portfolio, ensuring the investments advance the firm's strategy, are effectively governed and the outcomes delivered. The GPG works across the firm's governance model, collaborating with the firm's executive leadership to define, organise, govern and deliver transformational change in a coordinated and effective way.

The GPG provides a central location and expertise to support, enable and deliver the firm’s transformation strategy. These changes may affect all functional and geographic areas within the Firm (including both legal and non-legal teams) and, as such, there are multiple complex projects and programmes that require sophisticated yet pragmatic programme and change management to ensure the delivery of successful outcomes and maximum business benefits.

The PMO establishes and oversees the institutional framework that ensures the firm's initiatives are strategically aligned, suitably prioritised, resourced and effectively governed. Overall, it sets the environments that increases the likelihood of successfully delivering the intended business outcomes.

Who you will work with

This role will work with colleagues within the PMO and primarily the GPG portfolio and project management team delivery team. Reporting to the PMO Manager the primary role of this role is to deliver the PMO's services and ensure GPG processes are consistent, effective, and efficient.

What you will be responsible for

The PMO services include:

• Governance and pipeline management: project selection, delivery, and review.

• Insight and tools: reliable and consistent management information supported by organisational learning.

• Controls: Portfolio wide, milestone, benefit, risk, and issue monitoring supported by a lifecycle-driven stage gate process.

• Methodology & Tools: PMO process and tool information and guidance.

In this role, you will bring a balance of best practice knowledge, practical experience, and empathy to help enhance and improve the PMO, to become a source of information on project delivery and to provide insight across PMO data.

What you will do

Partner with one or more Portfolio Managers to help manage the portfolio. This includes working with the portfolio stakeholders and the Portfolio Manager to manage the portfolio roadmap. This will cover the following areas:

• Planning – maintaining the roadmap of pipeline and inflight projects covering dependencies, start and end dates.

• Governance – assist in the production of business cases and senior stakeholder group messaging.

• Portfolio-wide Risk, Assumption, Issue and Dependency management – reviewing project logs for completeness and content, supporting project managers in raising issues and risk to the Portfolio Manager as appropriate.

• Resource Management – help maintain resource forecasts and utilization data.

• Financial Management – assist Portfolio managers with financial management activities ensuring accurate spend profiles.

• Benefits Management – ensure all targeted benefits are identified, logged and tracked.

• Status reporting – manage the monthly status reporting process working with project managers to ensure accurate spend profiles.

• Lead and contribute to process improvement activity to ensure GPG processes are effective and efficient.

• Lead new PMO initiatives for the GPG such as designing new processes and leading issue/escalation reviews.

• Lead and contribute to "stage-gate" meetings which form part of the PMO quality assurance.

• Own and lead core PMO processes such as lessons learned, benefits management and resource management.

• Actively seek and identify trends and similarities across PMO data to support lessons learned, prediction and process enhancement.

• Actively pursue consistent, effective and efficient processes.

• Provide support, guidance and coaching to the project delivery team and "citizen project managers" outside the PMO.

• Support the induction of new department members.

Your Experience 

• 10+ years' experience of working within a department/enterprise wide PMO.

• Experience of working directly with people in Delhi and the United Kingdom.

• Experience of enterprise PPM tools, Clarity preferred.

• Data analytics skills and experience of dashboarding tools such as PowerBI, drawing conclusions and insight from the data.

• One or more recognised portfolio, programme or project management qualifications, e.g. PRINCE2, MSP, P3O, M_o_R, PPSO, APM PMQ or RPP, PMP or PMI.

• Patience and empathy to work with people who will be subject to various pressures and demands.

• Experience of working with senior members of staff.

• Keen eye for detail and holds their work to a high standard.

• Proactive and able to self-identify future tasks and activities, able to work in a logical and methodical manner.

• Analytical and critical thinking, able to challenge and question in a constructive and empathetic manner.

• Experience of operating PMO processes and a desire to spot improvement opportunities.

• Ability to manage, capture, log and manipulate data alongside a focus on making sense of the data and “joining the dots”; and

• Willing to ‘get their sleeves rolled up’ and ‘get things done’.

How we will support you

From your first day with us, you will have varied opportunities to continuously grow and development your skills and knowledge. From formal training, informal coaching and mentoring through to skills-based and technical training and on the job learning.

Equal opportunities statement

At Clifford Chance, we understand that our true asset is our people. Inclusion is good for our team and their families, our firm and society.

We are committed to treating all employees and applicants fairly and equally regardless of their gender, gender identity and expression, marital or civil partnership status, race, colour, national or ethnic origin, social or economic background, disability, religious belief, sexual orientation, or age.  This applies to recruitment and selection, terms and conditions of employment including pay, promotion, training, transfer and every other aspect of employment.

We have a variety of flourishing employee networks. These networks are a place for colleagues to share experiences and advocate for change wherever they see an opportunity for improvement.

Our goal is to deliver an equality of opportunity, an equality of aspiration and an equality of experience to everyone who works in our firm. 

Find out more about our inclusive culture here