Programme Manager

Job Description

PR29 Programme Manager

• Working hours - Full time 37 hours per week (flexible working arrangements including part time will be considered)
• Fixed term contract or secondment - 2 years
• Salary circa £73,000 (depending on experience)
• Location hybrid working with office location at Pity Me, Durham

At Northumbrian Water, our customers are at the heart of everything we do. Every day, we provide essential water and wastewater services to millions of people, and we are committed to delivering reliable, affordable and sustainable services while supporting our communities and protecting the environment. By focusing on the outcomes that matter most to our customers, we are also working towards our ambition to be the National Leader in sustainable water and wastewater services.

We are building a dedicated team to create our PR29 business plan, which will set out what we will deliver for customers and the environment, and the investment needed to achieve it, between 2030 and 2035. We are recruiting a number of key roles to join this team, offering an exciting opportunity to work with colleagues across Northumbrian Water, influence important decisions and help develop an ambitious and compelling plan that delivers lasting value for our customers and communities.

About The Role

As part of our joint PR29 team, the Programme Manager will lead, coordinate and control delivery of ensuring our Schedules, Costs and activities, stakeholder communication and documentation to support the successful delivery of PR29.

This role shall focus on driving pace, schedule achievement and ensuring we successfully deliver a high complex, interconnected programme across multiple different teams. You will provide effective leadership for the programme, through development of a high performing team, driving a culture of innovation and continuous improvement demonstrating delivery of efficiency, best practice development and sharing.

You will own and lead development of the Programme Delivery Plan include planning optimisation and ongoing management and maintenance of the plan throughout the programme lifecycle. You will develop and manage exemplary programme and project delivery environments across any or all stages of programme lifecycle.

You will oversee maintenance of all layers of core Project delivery information (RAID logs, action lists, schedule, budget management) and manage the costs of the programme within the approved capital budget and tolerance levels. You will actively manage and escalate risks and issues, including maintenance of the RAID register and reporting of Programme performance. You will co-ordination outsourced activity ensuring scopes and costs are controlled and within budget.

You will ensure timely compliance of your team with all business authorisation and governance.

You will ensure that appropriate contract mechanisms are applied correctly enabling the efficient delivery of the works. You will ensure effective application and continuous improvement of procedures and practices within the team and ensure customer, performance and asset data created by your team is accurate and recorded following BIM protocols to keep asset data up to date at all times.

The Programme Manager will deliver unrivalled customer experience to both internal and external customers, demonstrating effective measurement, monitoring and reporting and influence delivery teams and engage senior leaders to build support for programme delivery.

You will manage stakeholder relationships while ensuring stakeholders are well-informed and aligned to the programme.

In this role you will achieve collaborative alignment and high performance of supply partner resources and provide effective engagement of supply partners, operational service, maintenance and relevant support teams in the definition, design and delivery of required outputs.

About You

If you have demonstrable relevant experience of project management and programme management delivery, we would love to hear from you!

You will have experience of industry standard programme and project management techniques including planning, resource allocation, budgeting, performance monitoring and control.

You have experience managing external supplier relationships as well as contract management and procurement of services, applying appropriate contracts for efficient delivery. You will have knowledge of commercial assurance, engineering contract management and different contract forms that can be used. You can write and present compelling and unambiguous documents.

You will have strong leadership and team building skills in a complex, dynamic environment. You have proven experience managing teams at senior levels.

You will have an appropriate project management qualification or experience commensurate with this level and ideally you will be degree qualified in a relevant subject.

You can engage and communicate persuasively with a broad range of stakeholders up to and including executive level, Framework partners and the supply chain and adopt suitable strategies for their engagement.

We will be hosting an Open Evening session to learn more about PR29 roles at our Northumbria House office in Pity Me, Durham on Tuesday 10th November 2026. Please register your interest at: recruitment@nwl.co.uk

Please note this role will require a DBS to be completed prior to employment.

This is as a safety or security critical role and as a condition of a formal offer of employment you’ll be required to undergo a drug and alcohol test after the job offer has been made. This will be prior to or within four weeks of their start date.

Prospective employees and agency workers who fail a pre-employment urine drug screen will have their sample analysed by the Company appointed laboratory as a matter of course. Failing a pre-employment drugs or alcohol test may lead to the job offer being revoked.