Summary

We are the public body that looks after England’s historic environment. We champion historic places, helping people understand, value and care for them.

Historic England have a fantastic opportunity for you to become our Head of Major Projects (Delivering Work in Places). You will lead the successful and timely delivery of major internal projects and programmes to budget and within the Public Value framework.

This means taking an entrepreneurial and visible programme leadership role on implementing the recommendations from our Grants Review, and putting in place governance and delivery mechanisms to enable the funding, delivery and governance of our work in places in future, including our approach to heritage at risk.

The role sits in the Programmes Department, which has responsibility for managing major programmes and projects of organisationally significant areas of work. Programmes sit in Business Improvement Group – a dynamic part of Historic England that ensures HE is an adaptable, fundable and sustainable organisation that delivers for heritage by facilitating joined up working, inspiring, challenging and equipping people, nurturing innovation and productivity, managing grant spend and growing income.

You will build productive relationships across the rest of Business Improvement Group and the wider organisation, ensuring that internal and external stakeholders are kept up-to-date and engaged with our projects.

The location of this role is National where we offer hybrid working, you will be based in one of our following offices and from home - London, Newcastle, York, Manchester, Birmingham, Swindon, Bristol, Portsmouth and Cambridge. 

What you will be doing

Develop and lead the planning, implementation, and closure of major projects and programmes. This will include implementing the recommendations from our Grants Review and putting in place governance and delivery mechanisms to enable the funding, delivery and governance of our work in places in future, including our approach to heritage at risk.

Lead and motivate cross-departmental programme and project teams, taking a leading role in maintaining effective relationships with selected partners as part of the HE-wide relationship management plan.

Take responsibility for ensuring that work is progressed to schedule and that appropriate risk, opportunity, issue and dependency management, quality control procedures and benefits realisation approaches are in place for all programmes and projects, and to recommend and implement corrective measures where necessary.

Ensure the monitoring of performance, including any associated outputs, outcomes and spend, in the individual programmes and projects are conducted in a consistent and appropriate manner.  This includes providing timely written and verbal progress reports to the Executive Team and other governance structures when required, and leading responses to internal audits.

Work proactively with the Head of Programmes to creatively identify priorities for provision of national project or programme management resource to deliver large projects and programmes.

Be a full member of the Programmes Department leadership team, championing a consistent approach to project management by offering mentoring and coaching support to colleagues delivering small to medium-size projects elsewhere in the organisation, promoting our online project management resources, and participating in communities of practice.

Recruit or tender for appropriate resource when required.

Line manage any direct reports effectively and fairly, ensuring a goal orientated team.

Be a powerful advocate for Historic England and work collaboratively across the organisation to maximise our efficiency and effectiveness.

Undertake any other reasonable duties commensurate with the grade and competencies required of the post.

Who we are looking for

• Experience in developing, project managing and delivering major cross-functional projects across a complex range of internal and external stakeholders

• Ability to lead and manage matrix teams, and maintain effective relationships across a complex organisation where line management of team members is dispersed

• Strategic thinker with sound judgement - able to make decisions involving the analysis and interpretation of complex situations and information

• Able to work with people in a variety of different roles and levels, with a strong track record of building successful collaborations

• Entrepreneurial and flexible – able to creatively problem solve and deal with pressure and challenge

We are an equal opportunity employer which values diversity and inclusion. If you have a disability or neurodiversity, we would be happy to discuss reasonable adjustments to the job with you. Having just won the Gold Award from MIND, we also recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance.

We are an inclusive employer and believe that flexible working options are for everyone. We want to make sure our working arrangements don’t prevent anyone from joining us because of their personal circumstances. We also want to provide you with the best balance in your home and work life that we can.

We are open to considering options including job sharing, part-time working, compressed hours working and different working locations, including hybrid working. Please visit our jobs pages or contact us to find out more.

Why work for Historic England

We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive pension scheme starting at 26% contributions, a generous 28 days holiday, corporate discounts, free entry into English Heritage sites across the country and development opportunities to ensure you achieve your goals.

We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for everyone. Diversity helps us to perform better and attract more people to support our work. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.

We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and candidates with disabilities as they are underrepresented within Historic England at this level.

Historic England want all of our candidates to shine in the recruitment process. Please tell us what we can do to make sure you can show us your very best self. You can contact us by email at recruitmentTeam@Historicengland.org.uk if you have any recruitment queries. 

To ensure a fair and inclusive recruitment process for everyone the use of AI or automated tools is not permitted.

Interview dates: 08/04/2024

Please follow the link for a full copy of the Job Description –

https://historicengland.org.uk/media/2yxbzj2m/head-of-major-projects-delivering-work-in-places.odt