Project Manager

Working hours: Full time - 37 hours per week

Schedule type: Hybrid working - Office days 2-3 days per week, however this is dependent on business needs

Are you looking for a role where you can help shape something new, make a visible difference and work alongside people who care deeply about their place? If so, the HSCCA could be a brilliant next step. We are building a new Combined County Authority for Hampshire and the Solent, bringing together partners across Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton to bring investment to the region and to create opportunities for our people, places, communities and businesses.

The Role

As a Project Manager, you will play a key role in translating strategic objectives into practical, deliverable change across programmes, projects, and organisational initiatives. Working closely with stakeholders, you will analyse business needs, define requirements, map current and future processes, and support informed decision-making around services, systems, operating models, and ways of working. By reducing ambiguity, identifying improvements, and ensuring solutions align with user needs, statutory requirements, and organisational priorities, you will help strengthen change delivery, improve organisational readiness, and support the development of sustainable and effective new arrangements across the HSCCA.

What you'll be doing?

In this role, you’ll play a crucial part in ensuring our teams have the tools, knowledge, and processes they need to deliver a high‑quality service. You will:

• Lead defined projects, work packages or implementation activities from mobilisation to closure, establishing clear scope, outputs, outcomes, plans, milestones, dependencies, resources, risks, decisions, handover requirements and evidence of delivery impact.
• Maintain strong project control and delivery confidence, actively managing plans, risks, issues, assumptions, dependencies, changes, reporting requirements and escalation routes so that projects remain coherent, affordable, paced and aligned to intended outcomes.
• Support effective governance, assurance and decision-making, preparing clear progress updates, highlight reports, RAID information, options and recommendations so Programme Managers and governance forums can understand delivery confidence, risks, choices and next steps.
• Coordinate delivery across teams and organisational boundaries, bringing together colleagues, partners, suppliers and stakeholders so responsibilities are clear, activity is sequenced, dependencies are understood and delivery remains focused on completion and outcome achievement.
• Support implementation, readiness and transition into business as usual, ensuring operational impacts, adoption needs, handover arrangements, evidence requirements, lessons learned and closure activity are planned and followed through.

What you’ll bring?

We’re looking for someone with:

• Strong experience managing projects, work packages or implementation activity in complex multi-stakeholder environments, including projects that are significant in size, complexity, profile or organisational impact.
• Proven ability to translate programme priorities, service requirements and organisational objectives into practical project plans, milestones, tasks, products, decisions and delivery evidence.
• Strong project delivery capability, including mobilisation, planning, scheduling, RAID management, dependency tracking, reporting, governance coordination, implementation and controlled closure.
• Strong stakeholder management and coordination skills, including the ability to work with colleagues, partners, suppliers, subject matter experts and decision makers where success depends on alignment and follow-through.
• Ability to prepare clear, accurate and decision-ready reports, briefings, plans, RAID information, options and recommendations for programme governance and project decision-making.
• Ability to work effectively in a politically sensitive, ambiguous and fast-moving public service environment, using sound judgement, resilience, professional credibility and proportionate project discipline.
• Experience working in local government, combined authorities, central government, public bodies, regulated sectors or partnership environments subject to formal governance, assurance and public accountability.
• Highly desirable: Experience of devolution, local government reform, public sector reorganisation, transition, digital transformation, infrastructure delivery, service change or implementation in a complex environment.

Why join the HSCCA?

We are building the HSCCA on the basis that how we work is as important as what we deliver. We want people who bring enthusiasm, drive, and authenticity - who are proactive, open to challenge, and motivated by progress rather than process. We value collaborative leadership: the ability to bring people together across organisational boundaries, respect the expertise of others, and create shared direction without needing to own everything.

We act in line with the Nolan Principles. We use public money responsibly, make evidence-based decisions, and hold ourselves to high standards of integrity, inclusion, and accessibility. We expect feedback to be given and received constructively, challenge to be welcomed, and relationships to be built on openness, trust, and mutual respect.

This is a complex, fast-moving environment. We need people who are energised by that, not unsettled by it.

What the HSCCA will offer in return?

As we take on new responsibilities devolved from Government, you will have a genuine opportunity to contribute to building a public service organisation that does things differently.

Our reward package includes:

• A flexible working environment, with hybrid working arrangements as standard (min. 2 days per week in our office)
• A competitive salary and benefits package
• Investment in your professional development and leadership growth
• The chance to work alongside a leadership team that is committed to building an organisation where people thrive
• Membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme

The HSCC are focused on creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. We encourage applications form all candidates, including minority ethnics, the LBGTQ+ community, people with disabilities and long-term health conditions, neurodivergent people, parents, carers, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Selection process

Your application will progress through the following stages:

• Application Review

Your CV and supporting documents will be reviewed by Reed Recruitment against the essential criteria outlined in the Skills & Experience section of this advert.

Please ensure your CV clearly demonstrates how you meet the required criteria in order to be considered.

• Telephone Interview

If shortlisted, you will be invited to an initial telephone interview. During this stage, you will be assessed against the Skills & Experience criteria and your overall suitability for the position.

• Face-to-face Interview

If shortlisted, you will be invited to an initial telephone interview. During this stage, you will be assessed against the Skills & Experience criteria and your overall suitability for the position.

This is the final stage of the selection process and will determine the outcome of your application.

• Feedback

Feedback will be provided following the final face-to-face interview stage.

Please note that feedback is only available to candidates who attend the final stage interview stage. Successful candidates will then be considered for an offer.

Further information

As a Disability Confident Committed employer, we run a guaranteed interview scheme for disabled applicants. If you meet the essential criteria listed in the job description for this position and would like to be considered under this scheme, please state this in your application.

All data collected is anonymous and has zero bearing on your application. If there is anything we can do to accommodate your specific situation, please let the recruitment team know.

We are committed to fair and inclusive recruitment. As part of this, we use anonymous shortlisting to ensure candidates are assessed solely on their skills, experience, and suitability for the role.