Senior Governance & Assurance Lead

In this role, you will be managing multiple portfolios of strategic capital programmes and projects through governance and assurance initiatives. Understand and exert influence and provide expert advice in a highly complex environment.  Facing off against multiple Strategic Sponsors, and supporting the Strategic Sponsor delivery model by formally controlling strategic outcomes and benefits. 

What you’ll be doing as a Senior Governance & Assurance Lead

• Develop and implement prioritised governance & assurance reviews of several strategic programmes to evaluate the integrity of scope, cost, risk, time & outcome
• Drive performance improvement. Act as a critical friend to strategic sponsors/sub-programme managers. to ensure best practice, & to highlight & challenge trends, performance, & deviation from strategic programme and sub-programme baselines.
• Influence, advise and drive behaviour in a highly complex environment. Understand complex issues, dependencies and relationships across several portfolios and provide expert advice and challenge to related strategic sponsors
• Line management responsibility for 5 x analysts, who provide pooled support to the five G&A Leads
• Develop and implement robust methodology to assure benefit & outcome delivery
• Ensure line of sight for funding back to the current plan
• Work with colleagues across PMO to ensure a consistent approach to QRF / budget
• Assure the change control of Strategic Intent documents (owned by the sponsor teams). Ensure alignment between change-controlled intent documents and delivery plans.  Challenge and address inconsistency
• Support other teams across PMO and across the wider business to deliver robust assurance and governance processes and systems, drive behaviour & best practice, and support the implementation of the strategic sponsorship model
• Optimises management of project/programme stage gate process in conjunction with the Head of AM&E, spoke and sponsors

 
Base Location: Reading – Hybrid
Working Pattern or hours:  36 hours
 
What you should bring to the role
To thrive in this role, the essential criteria you’ll need are:

• Comprehensive knowledge and understanding of portfolios and programmes governance and assurance
• Able to exercise expert judgement in highly complex situations
• Experience of delivering portfolio or programme governance and assurance processes and standards
• Ability to manage and provide value-added information and recommendations to senior stakeholders, including strategic sponsors
• Ability to make risk-based decisions where the parameters are unclear, and judgment is needed
• Experience of influencing and working across multidisciplinary teams
• Delivery of activities to build capability, improve efficiency and increase maturity
• Ability to manage complex portfolios and programmes, anticipating and managing high-level risks and uncertainties
• Experience in identifying and implementing robust business solutions in collaboration with teams

Additional skills and experiences would be great to have/bring:

• Higher education, preferably in Business Management, Commercial, Engineering, Project Management or Finance-related subject
• Technical proficiency of IT solutions required to manage, control and report on project, programme and portfolio scope, schedule, resource requirements, budgets, risks, opportunities and issues, benefits, and quality
• Proficiency in project management methodologies and tools (EVM, risk management, scheduling software)

 
What’s in it for you?

• Competitive salary up to £90,000 per annum, depending on experience
• Annual Leave - 26 days holiday per year, increasing to 30 with the length of service (plus bank holidays) 
• Car Allowance 
• Private Medical Health Care
• Performance-related pay plan directly linked to company performance measures and targets
• Generous Pension Scheme through AON
• Access to lots of benefits to help you take care of you and your family’s health and wellbeing, and your finances – from annual health MOTs and access to physiotherapy and counselling, to Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance.

Find out more about our benefits and perks

Who are we?
We’re the UK’s largest water and wastewater company, with more than 16 million customers relying on us every day to supply water for their taps and toilets. We want to build a better future for all, helping our customers, communities, people, and the planet to thrive. It’s a big job, and we’ve got a long way to go, so we need help from passionate and skilled people, committed to making a difference and getting us to where we want to be in the years and decades to come.

Learn more about our purpose and values

Working at Thames Water
Thames Water is a unique, rewarding, and diverse place to work, where every day you can make a difference, yet no day is the same. As part of our family, you’ll enjoy meaningful career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and excellent benefits.

If you’re looking for a sustainable and successful career where you can make a daily difference to millions of people’s lives while helping to protect the world of water for future generations, we’ll be here to support you every step of the way. Together, we can build a better future for our customers, our region, and our planet.

Real purpose, real support, real opportunities. Come and join the Thames Water family. Why choose us? Learn more.

We’re committed to being a great, diverse, and inclusive place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and want to ensure you feel supported throughout the recruitment process. If you need any adjustments, whether that’s extra time, accessible formats, or anything else, just let us know. We’re here to help and support.

When a crisis happens, we all rally around to support our customers. As part of Team Thames, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up to support our customers on the frontline as an ambassador. Full training will be given for what is undoubtedly an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about our business and meet colleagues.

Disclaimer: Due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.