Thesis SM
Program Management Office Lead
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PMO Lead - Maternity Leave Cover
Thesis is looking for a PMO Lead to cover a period of maternity leave. This is someone who can take the reins of our implementation portfolio, lead the Project Management team, and still roll their sleeves up on the projects that matter most. This is a genuinely dual role. You will own the governance, standards, reporting, and resource planning that keep a book of concurrent Thesis SM implementations predictable and profitable across the UK and North America. You will also personally project manage a small number of strategic or complex implementations, working directly with senior stakeholders at some of our most significant institutions.
You will line manage and develop a team of Project Managers spread across UK and North American time zones, setting the expectations, decision rights, and ways of working that make delivery consistent wherever it happens. You will report to the VP of Customer Experience, and your view of portfolio health will be the one the leadership team relies on. Stakeholder management runs through the whole role. Externally, you will be a credible senior contact for client sponsors and executives, holding relationships steady when delivery gets difficult. Internally, you will depend on colleagues in Support, Product, Solutions Consulting, and Sales who do not report to you, and a good deal of the job is making those relationships work in the customer's interest.
It is a 9-month fixed-term appointment, so we are looking for someone who can land quickly, build trust fast, take real ownership from a standing start, and who will leave the function in better shape than they found it.
Job Requirements
- Experience leading a PMO or delivery function accountable for a portfolio of concurrent client implementation projects
- Line management, coaching, and development of project managers, ideally across more than one country or time zone
- Hands-on senior project management of full lifecycle SaaS implementations: Student Information System, ERP, or comparable enterprise platforms
- A track record of building portfolio governance that drives outcomes: stage gates, delivery assurance, portfolio RAID, steering committees, and executive reporting
- Strong resource forecasting and capacity planning across a multi-project delivery book, including utilization and planned versus actual effort
- Commercial delivery discipline: change control, scope protection, effort, and margin management
- Experience leading escalation and recovery on projects that have gone off track, including direct engagement with executive client stakeholders
- Confidence managing senior client stakeholders: resetting expectations, delivering unwelcome messages, and rebuilding confidence where it has been lost
- A track record of working effectively across internal functions you depend on but do not control, such as Support, Product, Solutions Consulting, and Sales
- Confident with a PSA or portfolio tool (Projector, Kantata, Certinia, or similar), plus Smartsheet, MS Project, Excel, and PowerPoint
- Formal project or programme management certification (PRINCE2, APM PMQ, PMP) or portfolio certification (P3O, MSP, MoP) is desirable
- Higher education, EdTech, or public sector delivery experience is desirable but not essential
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Job Responsibilities
- Own the health of the implementation portfolio across the UK and North America, and maintain a single, trusted view of status, risk, and delivery confidence
- Chair portfolio reviews and report portfolio performance into the Customer Experience leadership team
- Own and improve our delivery methodology, stage gates, templates, and PM toolkit, and make sure they are applied consistently in both regions
- Personally project manage a small number of strategic, complex, or at-risk implementations end to end
- Line manage, coach, and develop a team of Project Managers across UK and North American time zones
- Own resource forecasting and allocation, balancing capacity against the forward book and resolving contention with clear trade-offs
- Monitor effort, utilization, and margin, and act early where planned and actual diverge
- Act as a senior point of contact and escalation for client sponsors, programme boards, and executives
- Build the internal relationships the role depends on, Support, Product, Solutions Consulting, Sales, and Finance, including clean handover from implementation into support
- Lead escalation and recovery where delivery confidence has dropped, and keep reporting honest when projects are under pressure
- Turn lessons learned into real changes to how we deliver
- Hand over and hand back cleanly, leaving a documented portfolio position at the end of the cover period
Benefits
- Competitive Base Salary
- Work from home allowance to contribute towards your monthly bills
- Annual Discretionary Bonus/Commission Plan
- Salary Exchange Pension Scheme with 8% contribution from Thesis and 3% minimum employee contribution
- Enjoy flexible, trust-based time off to recharge and maintain a healthy work-life balance
- Private Medical Insurance
- BHSF Health Cash Plan which allows you to claim back the costs of the excess on Private Medical, various other health benefits such as dental, optical, private prescriptions
- Yu Life Long Term Health Insurance & 4x Base Salary Life Insurance
- Mortgage Benefit
- EAP
- Enhanced Family Leave policies
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Why Thesis?
At Thesis, we are passionate about transforming higher education institutions through innovative student information management solutions. With a focus on best-practice standards and process simplification, we empower faculty and staff to concentrate on their core mission by freeing them from administrative work. Thesis SM represents a modern software suite that breaks away from the constraints of legacy systems. This gives Universities the flexibility to scale and evolve, adapting to new marketplace realities with ease, thanks to our purpose-built software-as-a-service solution.
But what really sets us apart? Relationships. Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do—within our team and with every institution we partner with. Together, we’re creating a brighter, more connected future for higher education, one student information system at a time.
We are an equal opportunities employer and are committed to making Thesis a diverse and inclusive workplace. We believe in continuous improvement and are making changes to ensure that all voices are heard, supported, and celebrated. Our work doesn't stop at hiring; we provide every employee with training, support, and development throughout their career. We have a family-first culture with enthusiastic colleagues who like to encourage and learn from each other. This is supported by our generous annual leave/vacation policy in addition to our very competitive benefits package. We work fully remotely around the globe and support flexible working in terms of hours and patterns. This opportunity is a chance to participate in the development of an international software firm. At Thesis, you genuinely have the freedom and autonomy to be successful, whilst we also invest in your personal and professional growth.
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