Head of PMO

About Us Plentific is a property technology platform used by housing providers, local authorities, housing associations, asset managers, and contractors across the UK and Germany to manage repairs, maintenance, compliance, and contractor operations at scale. Our platform combines marketplace infrastructure, workflow software, automation, and operational analytics. It is designed for the complexity, volume, and regulatory demands of social housing, public sector property portfolios, and large residential operations. We are headquartered in London, with engineering and operations across the UK and Germany. We are growing the team to expand the platform's coverage across Europe and to integrate AI throughout the product and operating model. If you want to work on hard, real-world problems in the world's largest asset class, we would like to hear from you. Role purpose Plentific is standing up a Controlling PMO: a function with the mandate to set and enforce common delivery standards, hold a single, current view of the whole portfolio, and work directly with senior management to unblock the issues that put individual projects’ targets at risk. The PMO Lead owns this function day to day — coaching Programme and Project Managers (PMs) to a consistently high standard, building the portfolio-level reporting that gives leadership real visibility, and acting as the bridge between delivery teams and senior management when a decision or an unblock is needed. This is a hands-on, first-of-its-kind role at Plentific: the PMO Lead will stand up the standards, cadence, and reporting described below largely from scratch, and will be judged on how quickly the portfolio becomes visible, consistent, and genuinely governed as a result. Key responsibilities 1. Coach Programme & Project Managers, and hold the standard • Own and continuously improve the standard toolkit every programme uses — charter, RAID log, status report, change log. • Coach PMs on using the standards well — raising the general standard of programme management practice, not just chasing form-filling. • Own the stage-gate review process: assess whether a programme is genuinely ready to pass each gate, and issue go/no-go sign-off. • Set and enforce mandatory reporting — PMs submit standard, current status on a fixed cadence; the PMO follows up where reporting lapses. 2. Build and run portfolio-level reporting and governance • Consolidate individual programme status into one current, accurate portfolio view of schedule, spend, risk, and resourcing. • Own the portfolio tracker and the cadence of updates that feed it. • Track cross-programme risks and dependencies; make sure each has a named owner and a clear escalation threshold. • Prepare and present the portfolio report at each Steering Committee review. • Track benefits realisation — confirm delivered programmes actually produced the outcome they were funded for. 3. Work with senior management to report and unblock • Act as the primary escalation point when a programme risk or dependency needs a decision above the PM’s authority. • Bring blockers to the right senior stakeholder quickly, with a clear ask and options — not just a status update. • Represent delivery status and risk to senior management accurately and without spin, including when the news is difficult. • Chair or co-chair the portfolio review, and prepare materials for Steering Committee meetings. • Track follow-through on decisions and unblocks agreed with senior management, so they don’t silently drop. Authority and mandate This role carries a Controlling PMO mandate — meaning the successful candidate has the authority to require compliance, not just recommend it: • Authority, via the PMO charter, to require compliance with standards and mandatory reporting across all active programmes. • Owns sign-off at stage gates — a programme cannot proceed to the next phase without PMO gate approval. • Is the named escalation path for cross-programme risk and resourcing conflicts. • Does not directly manage PMs day to day: PMs remain people-managed within their business unit, with a functional (“dotted-line”) reporting relationship into the PMO for delivery standards, gate compliance, and escalation. Key relationships • Executive Sponsor / Steering Committee — monthly portfolio reporting, escalation, gate decisions. • Programme & Project Managers — coaching, mandatory reporting, gate reviews. • Senior management / business leaders — status reporting, unblocking, resourcing conversations. • PMO Analyst (future hire) — as the portfolio grows, this role would oversee a second PMO hire supporting reporting and gate reviews. How success is measured • On-time delivery rate across active programmes. • Forecast accuracy — how closely planned cost and effort track actuals over time. • Share of active programmes with an up-to-date RAID log. • Time from a risk being raised to being escalated to someone who can unblock it. • Sponsor and PM confidence in delivery, tracked each quarter. Person specification Essential • Proven experience running programme or project governance, ideally in a PMO capacity, in a fast-moving organisation. • Comfortable holding people accountable to standards without owning their day-to-day work — a coaching style, not a command style. • Strong stakeholder management skills; credible in the room with senior leadership. • Confident synthesising status across multiple concurrent initiatives into a single, honest, current view. • A clear, direct communicator, comfortable surfacing bad news early rather than letting it surface late. Desirable • A formal programme/PMO qualification (e.g. P3O, PRINCE2, MSP, PMP). • Experience standing up a PMO from scratch, or maturing one from a Supportive to a Controlling model. • Familiarity with portfolio/PPM reporting tools. Benefits As you can see, we are quickly progressing with our ambitious plans and are eager to grow our team of doers to achieve our vision of managing over 2 million properties through our platform across various countries. You can help us shape the future of property management across the globe. Here’s what we offer: • A competitive compensation package • 25 days annual holiday + 1 additional day for every year served up to 3 years. • Flexible working environment including the option to work abroad • Private health care for you and immediate family members with discounted gym membership, optical, dental and private GP • Enhanced parental leave • Life insurance (4x salary) • Employee assistance program • Company volunteering day and charity salary sacrifice scheme • Learning management system powered by Udemy • Referral bonus and charity donation if someone you introduce joins the company • Season ticket loan, Cycle to work, Electric vehicle and Techscheme programs • Pension scheme • Work abroad scheme • Company-sponsored lunches, dinners and social gatherings • Fully stocked kitchen with drinks, snacks, fruit, breakfast cereal etc. Find Jobs in United Kingdom on Arbeitnow