Project Management Team Leader

Position Summary

As the Customer Project Management Team Leader, you will lead a team of Customer Project Managers, supporting them to deliver customer projects on time, in budget, per scope and to the satisfaction of the customer. The team work closely with multiple stakeholders across Claranet, to ensure Claranet give Customers a delivery experience they want to repeat. This practice orchestrates the delivery of the overall portfolio of customer projects of varying size and complexity. This is a critical role which will be responsible for leading and developing a centralised team of project managers.

Objectives and Key Results

• Provide effective and inspiring line management of the Customer Project Management team, facilitating the successful delivery of the customer project portfolio and contributing to Claranet revenue growth and positive customer and colleague net promoter score (NPS).
• Drive Project Management discipline, embedding the agreed customer Project Management framework, driving a consistent approach and ways of working across all projects.
• Work collaboratively with other Team Leaders to deliver on capability, building expectations and ensure best practices and learning are implemented and embedded routinely
• Lead the team to deliver multiple customer projects within time, budget, scope and customer satisfaction.
• Ensure risks, issues and dependencies are actively communicated and managed, escalations are successfully mitigated and lessons captured and built upon.

People Leadership

• Lead the team of Customer Project Managers by providing clear objectives and regular performance reviews to ensure all staff are performing in line with set standards
• Actively develop role specific skills, capabilities, competencies / qualifications of Customer Project Managers through creation of learning and development plans in line with Claranet strategy
• Role model and promote behaviours and culture in line with Claranet’s people strategy
• Foster a sense of trust, accountability, collaboration, respect, inquisitiveness, compassion and communication across the team
• Adhere to Claranet best practice in the management and support of team members, in line with prevailing policies and procedures

Operational Leadership

• Promote and ensure adherence to Project Management governance, processes, tools, and templates to ensure a consistent Project Management experience whether it’s a single product, practice or cross portfolio customer project
• Facilitate the successful delivery of customer projects to the agreed timelines, effort, scope, and cost to the satisfaction of the customer, in line with the contractual obligations
• Monitor, track and report the progress of projects, providing regular updates to senior stakeholders
• Identify, flag and address any material issues or risks that may impact delivery
• Act as the 1st point of project escalation for customers and team members, leading dispute, negotiation and risk mitigation as required
• Support Customer Project Managers in successfully discharging their roles and responsibilities, providing coaching, mentoring, guidance to empower and enable them to achieve success
• Monitor, track and manage Customer Project Manager performance against published roles, responsibilities and objectives
• Enable and ensure Customer Project Managers keep all project documentation (i.e. project plans, RAID logs, project workbooks, status reports etc.) up to date
• Enable and ensure Customer Project Managers keep all key project data (i.e. estimated delivery dates, delivery status, project updates, resource forecasts etc.) and systems (i.e. time recording, professional services invoicing and order management systems) up to date

Behavioural competencies - organisational and behavioural fit

• Able to analyse and diagnose issues and make decisions swiftly whilst considering multiple factors including company strategy, team objectives, commercial situation, customer and colleague impact
• Ability to guide others in resolving issues, fostering learning, adaption and resilience
• Ability to work independently or closely with colleagues and leaders dependent on situation at hand (for example complex problems, sensitive / challenging topics, departmental initiatives)
• Acts as a coach, mentor and advisor, applying knowledge and experience within own discipline / area of expertise
• Has a working knowledge of related disciplines / areas of expertise, and is keen to continue professional development
• Ability to work across teams and geographies and drive customers, other departments and suppliers
• Champions positive behaviour, acts as a role model and fosters a "lead from the front" ethos
• Good negotiating and influencing skills with the ability to build credibility quickly with customers and colleagues

Critical competencies - technical fit

• Experienced in line managing functional teams of 4+ colleagues.
• A successful people manager, able to manage a geographically distributed team
• Proven track record of successfully managing the delivery of customer facing projects and managing customer facing project teams
• Confident presenter with excellent written, verbal and inter-personal communications skills
• Strong understanding of Project Management methodologies, documentation and best practices
• Strong project planning and financial management skills
• Good awareness of the Cloud, Network, Security, Data, Workplace or Business Applications markets and an understanding of the technologies and skills needed to deliver high quality customer service and successful project delivery

In addition, the following are highly desirable

• Experienced in delivery of Cloud, Network, Security, Data, Workplace or Business Applications projects
• Certified in Project Management (i.e. Prince 2, Agile)
• Previous experience within a managed service provider, professional services or technology provider