Project Management Officer

Job DescriptionOur Project Managers are responsible for planning, executing and overseeing projects from inception to completion, ensuring that objectives are met on time, within agreed scope and budget, and to the required quality.

Working within a structured framework, Project Managers make key decisions that support project success, provide clear direction to teams and maintain accountability. They regularly engage with team members, users, customers and stakeholders to ensure requirements remain aligned with user needs and project goals.

Beyond task management, Project Managers act as crucial points of communication, fostering collaboration among stakeholders, sponsors and cross-functional teams. They manage expectations, facilitate engagement and create positive partnerships that support successful delivery.

The Project Manager maintains the overall integrity and coherence of the project, coordinating the workstreams, milestones, dependencies, risks and governance required to deliver the agreed outcome.

Job objective

Our Project Managers are responsible for planning, executing and overseeing projects from inception to completion, ensuring that objectives are met on time, within agreed scope and budget, and to the required quality.

Working within a structured framework, Project Managers make key decisions that support project success, provide clear direction to teams and maintain accountability. They regularly engage with team members, users, customers and stakeholders to ensure requirements remain aligned with user needs and project goals.

Beyond task management, Project Managers act as crucial points of communication, fostering collaboration among stakeholders, sponsors and cross-functional teams. They manage expectations, facilitate engagement and create positive partnerships that support successful delivery.

The Project Manager maintains the overall integrity and coherence of the project, coordinating the workstreams, milestones, dependencies, risks and governance required to deliver the agreed outcome.

Main Duties & Responsibilities

Leadership & autonomy

Works under general direction within a clear framework of accountability. Exercises personal responsibility and autonomy. Influences customers, suppliers and partners and develops strong relationships at all levels within the business. May have responsibility for the work of others and for the allocation or coordination of resources. Participates in external activities related to own specialism where appropriate. Makes decisions which influence the success of projects and team objectives. Collaborates regularly with team members, users and customers and engages to ensure that user needs are met throughout delivery. Provides clear direction across project workstreams and raises resource or delivery concerns through the agreed governance route. Prepares training materials for internal PMO and business-wide use where required. Lives NIQ’s values: Client obsessed; Driven to win; Accountable for results, Committed to integrity, Fast to adapt. Stakeholder management and communication

Is a flexible and effective stakeholder manager, working to motivate, negotiate, mediate and direct to ensure positive project outcomes. Creates and maintains positive engagement with project sponsors and customers. Facilitates collaboration between stakeholders who share common objectives. Develops close and effective partnerships with specialist teams and cross-functional stakeholders. Clarifies roles, responsibilities, dependencies and expected contributions across the project. Develops and maintains appropriate project status, progress and project-health reporting. Maintains a proportionate communications plan covering who needs to know what, when and in what format. Supports client communication needs and works effectively with senior stakeholders and client counterparts. Project & change management

Investigates, defines and resolves complex issues. Defines, documents and carries out projects or sub-projects, alone or with a small team, actively participating in all phases. Agrees the project approach with stakeholders and supports the definition and sign-off of the Statement of Work or equivalent project documentation. Prepares realistic integrated plans covering milestones, activities, owners, dependencies, quality, risk and communications, and tracks delivery against the project schedule. Uses an appropriate rolling-wave view to give stakeholders clarity on upcoming activity, decisions and dependencies. Identifies, assesses and manages risks to project success and owns the issue log, ensuring actions and escalation routes are clear. Manages dependencies among teams and monitors the critical path, taking action where delivery is at risk. Monitors costs, timescales, scope, quality and resources used and takes action where these deviate from agreed tolerances. Implements a proportionate change-control process, assesses the impact of proposed changes and communicates approved changes. Escalates potential PID, scope or plan changes at the appropriate time and obtains approval through agreed governance. Implements appropriate project governance, including repositories, standard forms, artefacts, meetings and decision forums. Ensures that projects are formally closed and, where appropriate, subsequently reviewed, with lessons learned recorded. Business knowledge

Has a thorough understanding of relevant industry and specialist project-management bodies of knowledge. Independently works to gain a thorough knowledge of the organisation and the business domain surrounding the project. Applies knowledge effectively in unfamiliar situations, rapidly absorbs new information and uses it to support delivery decisions. Understands how project choices may affect users, clients, operational outcomes, costs and delivery viability. Actively maintains own knowledge, contributes to the development of others and takes responsibility for driving own development. Maintains awareness of developing practices and their application. Gathers feedback on PMO processes and generates ideas for process improvement. Contributes to the definition, implementation and communication of beneficial changes to PMO processes.

Qualifications4 years minimum of Project Management experience, or equivalent experience in business process improvement, operations, team leadership or client service. The candidate should have experience working with online project management tools such as Smartsheet, Monday.com, and Microsoft Project Online.Experience coordinating cross-functional teams and delivering agreed results. Strong written and verbal communication and facilitation skills. Ability to work effectively with senior leaders, clients and specialist stakeholders. Experience with project-management tools such as Microsoft Project, Smartsheet or Jira is advantageous. Accredited Project Management certification is advantageous. Client-facing experience and experience in Retail, CPG or FMCG are advantageous. Fluent written and spoken English; flexibility to work across stakeholder time zones where required.