Birmingham City Council
Major Procurement Programme and Projects Office Lead

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Permanent
Grade 6 - £54,495 - £64,811
Consultation grade - subject to formal evaluation under the Pay Equity Review
Working 36.5 hours per week
Sponsorship is not available for this post. Applicants must have the right to work in the UK that does not require employer sponsorship for the duration of the appointment.
Lead the governance that delivers Birmingham's most significant procurement programmes
Are you an experienced PMO or programme governance professional with a passion for driving excellence across major projects? Birmingham City Council is looking for a Major Procurement Programme and Projects Office Lead to establish and lead our newly created Major Procurement Programme and Projects Office (MPPPO).
This is a unique opportunity to shape the governance, assurance and reporting framework that supports some of the Council's largest and most strategically important procurement programmes. You'll provide leadership across programme governance, commercial oversight and performance reporting, ensuring procurement activity is coordinated, transparent and delivers outstanding value for Birmingham's residents.
About The Role
As the Major Procurement Programme and Projects Office Lead, you'll provide strategic leadership by:
- Establishing and leading the Major Procurement Programme and Projects Office, embedding consistent governance, reporting and assurance across major procurement programmes.
- Developing and implementing robust project management processes, reporting frameworks, templates and systems that support effective programme delivery.
- Acting as the link between procurement professionals and project teams, ensuring commercial considerations are fully integrated into programme planning and governance.
- Leading portfolio reporting, risk management, resource planning and benefits realisation, providing strategic insight to senior leaders and governance boards.
- Overseeing programme governance meetings, assurance reviews and commercial reporting, ensuring key decisions are supported by accurate, high-quality information.
- Providing commercial assurance across major projects, identifying risks, challenging delivery where appropriate and promoting continuous improvement.
- Leading and developing the Programme Office team, creating a high-performing culture focused on collaboration, innovation and excellence.
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About You
We're looking for an experienced programme governance leader who combines strategic thinking with exceptional organisational and stakeholder management skills. You'll bring:
- Significant experience leading a Programme Management Office (PMO), Programme Office or similar project governance function within a complex organisation.
- Experience establishing governance frameworks, reporting processes and assurance arrangements across large portfolios of projects or programmes.
- Strong leadership skills with experience managing and developing high-performing teams.
- Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, building trusted relationships across project, commercial and executive leadership teams.
- Strong analytical capability, interpreting complex programme information, identifying risks and providing meaningful insight to support decision-making.
- Experience designing and implementing business processes that improve governance, coordination and organisational performance.
- A recognised project or programme management qualification (such as P3O, PRINCE2, MSP or APM), or equivalent professional experience.
Why Join Us?
Role
At Birmingham City Council, you'll play a pivotal role in establishing a new Programme Office that will underpin some of the city's most significant procurement and investment programmes. In return, we offer:
- The opportunity to design and lead the governance function supporting major procurement programmes across one of Europe's largest local authorities.
- A senior leadership role within a modern, ambitious Commercial and Procurement Service committed to innovation, excellence and continuous improvement.
- Opportunities to further develop your expertise in programme governance, commercial assurance and strategic leadership.
- Flexible and hybrid working opportunities where service needs allow.
- A competitive Local Government Pension Scheme and generous annual leave entitlement.
- Access to a wide range of employee wellbeing initiatives and staff benefits.


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A rewarding career where your leadership will strengthen governance, improve programme delivery and help deliver transformational projects that benefit Birmingham's residents.
Application Process
Please upload your up-to-date CV via the attachments part of your application, this is required for shortlisting. Unfortunately, we cannot consider any applications without a CV attached.
We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the communities we serve. Our data tells us that for this level of role, ethnic minorities are underrepresented and therefore we will use positive action to support us to achieve diverse shortlists. This may mean that recruitment times are a little longer, but we think this is worth it to achieve our aim.
Birmingham City Council is an accredited Disability Confident Leader employer, and we are committed to employing, retaining and developing all of our people.
We want to ensure your recruitment journey with us is a positive and equitable one, so please let us know if there are any reasonable adjustments, additional support, accessibility needs, or if there is any way in which we can support you through your application.
For any informal enquires please contact: Resourcing@birmingham.gov.uk
A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check will be undertaken.
Proof of Right to work in the UK will be required for all applicants in accordance with UK Home Office requirements, before any employment offer can be confirmed.
Job Description and Person Specification - RM-00137130-Major Procurement Programme and Projects Office Lead-Job Description.pdf
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