About us:

The Senior Project Manager role sits within the Transformation Office Directorate. The Transformation Office supports the senior leadership of the university in effective strategy execution, delivering a complex set of transformation initiatives and driving sustainable improvements to our core business.

The Senior Project Manager role is key in leading successful project delivery within the Transformation Portfolio, in line with the University's wider ambitions set out in Strategy 2030.

As Senior Project Manager you will be responsible for the day-to-day running of a number of large and complex projects to deliver to the needs of the organisation, within set budgets, timescales, and quality standards. You will build collaborative relationships across a wide stakeholder community, engaging with colleagues across Professional Services, faculties and with external partners.

The portfolio includes a wide range of projects, and you will be required to deliver across all stages of the project lifecycle, as well as supporting broader strategic developments, benefits realisation and change management approaches. The team also contributes to the transformation agenda across the university, encouraging best practice and common standards.

About the role:

The role involves leading the delivery of large and complex projects within the Transformation portfolio, ensuring they support strategic objectives and benefits, prioritising activities across the portfolio, and working within the overall allocation of resources. The postholder will work with business leads to scope new projects within the portfolio, conduct data analysis, agree on acceptance criteria, identify change requirements and business benefits, evaluate delivery options, and ensure equality, diversity, and inclusion requirements are incorporated into project planning and delivery.

The Senior Project Manager will develop business cases, project briefs, project plans, and work packages, including change management requirements, while monitoring and controlling scope, quality, and resources, and managing risks and issues within agreed frameworks. Building strong relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, including academic staff, professional services staff, and external partners, is essential.

The role also includes managing project governance structures such as project boards, working with the Transformation Management Office (TMO) to provide detailed project reporting, including financial reporting, and developing and monitoring benefits realisation plans to track delivery against overall portfolio targets.

The postholder will be responsible for planning and delivering communications related to projects as per the programme communications plan, ensuring successful change management outcomes, and leading, motivating, and directing staff assigned to projects. Additionally, they will act as a line manager or mentor for team members and manage the transition of projects into "business as usual," ensuring new ways of working are embedded into operational teams.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

This is a hybrid working role where the role holder will spend 3 days of their working week on campus and 2 days working remotely.

About you:

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Educated to Degree Level standard or equivalent relevant experience.
2. Significant, demonstrable skills and experience of project management tools and techniques including scoping, business case development, planning, controls & reporting, risk management and benefit management.
3. A recognised project management or change management qualification e.g., Prince2, PROSCI and / or equivalent experience.
4. Strong networking, interpersonal and communication skills, with an ability to engage and collaborate with stakeholders across all levels.
5. High level of strategic and analytical skills, with the ability to synthesise and interpret information and communicate effectively to a variety of audiences.
6. Significant experience of managing, engaging and motivating teams, with an ability to liaise effectively with colleagues from different professional backgrounds.

Desirable criteria

1. Experience of process review and improvement methods e,g., Lean Six Sigma.
2. Experience of using Microsoft Project.
3. Knowledge and understanding of the UK Higher Education sector.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further information:

At King's, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university. The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination. When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King's guidance.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.

We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our 'How we Recruit' pages.

Interviews are due to be held in the week of 20th April 2026.