Lead PMO Planner

We have a great opportunity for a Portfolio/Programme Planner to join Capita Public Services – Central Government as part of our team of PMO professionals. Working within the Portfolio Office planning team, you will work closely with Senior Portfolio and Programme stakeholders to develop, maintain and assure integrated plans across complex programmes. The role will help ensure planning coherence, support effective governance, and enable robust monitoring and control of delivery across the portfolio. You will help champion planning and scheduling best practice, providing assurance over plans and guidance to team members on the application of planning standards across Portfolio and Programme environments. Job title: Lead PMO Planner Job Description: We have a great opportunity for a Portfolio/Programme Planner to join Capita Public Services – Central Government as part of our team of PMO professionals. Reporting into the Head of Portfolio Office, this role will work as part of a team of Lead Planners supporting the definition and delivery of a planning function that enables the successful delivery of large, complex transformation programmes. Working within the Portfolio Office planning team, you will work closely with Senior Portfolio and Programme stakeholders to develop, maintain and assure integrated plans across complex programmes. The role will help ensure planning coherence, support effective governance, and enable robust monitoring and control of delivery across the portfolio. You will help champion planning and scheduling best practice, providing assurance over plans and guidance to team members on the application of planning standards across Portfolio and Programme environments. This role will require Security Clearance to be put in place that will need to remain valid throughout the entire duration of the role Responsibilities Develop, Maintain and assure integrated plans across complex programmes Supporting complex programmes and portfolios in managing various levels of plans and schedules Collating, analysing and challenging schedules at varying levels to create a ‘helicopter’ view for internal and external consumption Quality assuring schedules, coaching colleagues in best practice, and maintaining portfolio and programme level schedules to reflect delivery progress Providing planning and schedule insight for executive-level reporting, including measurement of progress against schedule and highlighting key delivery risks, dependencies and milestones Identifying, capturing and tracking dependencies, milestones, critical paths, resource constraints and risk impacts within plans, schedules and reporting Facilitation of planning workshops with senior internal and external stakeholders Contributing to PMO maturity and continuous improvement by supporting the definition and adoption of consistent planning and scheduling frameworks at divisional level as part of the P3O Profession Essential skills, experience and behaviours Expert level experience of planning and scheduling within complex delivery environments Expert-level proficiency in MS Project - you will be a flagbearer for the tool, ensuring the appropriate use and coaching those around you to get the most out of it. Experience in managing complex schedules (>£5m projects) and cross-functional dependencies. Excellent stakeholder management skills – you will be able to pro-actively manage the conversation with a varying range and seniority of stakeholder, tailoring your outputs and requests to meet their requirements. Experienced in defining planning & scheduling best practice – you will support improvement and clarification of the wider Capita standards, working with planning peers to continually improve the planning service provided by the PMO profession. Knowledge of planning maturity, planning governance and schedule quality standards. Experience using planning approaches such as critical path analysis, dependency mapping and milestone management. Ability to coach or support colleagues in applying consistent planning disciplines. Experience working in a portfolio, programme or enterprise PMO environment. This is a home-based role but you will need to have flexibility to travel on an ad hoc basis About Capita Capita is an outsourcer, helping clients across the public and private sectors run complex business processes more efficiently, creating better consumer experiences. What’s in it for you? A competitive basic salary Work from home 23 days’ holiday (rising to 27) with the opportunity to buy extra leave The opportunity to take a paid day out of the office, volunteering for our charity partners or a cause of your choice Auto-enrolment to our company pension, life assurance, a cycle2work scheme, 15 weeks’ fully paid maternity, adoption and shared parental leave, paternity pay of two weeks…and plenty more Voluntary benefits designed to suit your lifestyle – from discounts on retail and socialising, to health & wellbeing, travel and technology Access to our Employee Network Groups, which represent every strand of diversity and allow colleagues to connect and learn from each other on an open, inclusive platform Unlock Your Potential with Capita At Capita, your career can take you wherever your ambition leads. You'll become part of a diverse network of talented, forward-thinking professionals working across a wide range of disciplines and sectors. We’re committed to your growth — offering endless opportunities to expand your skills, explore new paths, and advance your career. Join us and discover a career with purpose. #CareersWithPurpose 🤝 Customer first, always​🧑‍💻 Fearless innovation​✅ Achieve together​💙 Everyone is valued What we hope you’ll do next: Choose ‘Apply now’ to fill out our short application, so that we can find out more about you. Equal Opportunities At Capita, we’re committed to providing an inclusive, barrier-free recruitment process and working environment for everyone. We want everyone to have the best chance of succeeding as they move through their application and start their career with us. We are an equal opportunity and Disability Confident employer; we want to hear from you if you’d like to discuss any adjustments you might need during your recruitment process. Please email [email protected] or call 07784 237318 and we’ll get back to you to discuss. For more information about equal opportunities and the types of adjustments we can offer, please visit the Capita Careers website. If you have a question that does not relate to adjustments during your recruitment process, please email our Talent Acquisition team - [email protected] AI & Fair Recruitment at Capita At Capita, we use technology, including AI-enabled tools, to help us manage applications consistently and fairly. These tools support our recruitment teams, they do not make hiring decisions. Every application is reviewed by a trained member of our Talent Acquisition team, and all decisions are made by people. If you need any adjustments during the process, we’re here to support you. How We Use AI in Our Hiring Process To help us deliver a fair, consistent and efficient recruitment experience, Capita uses AI-assisted technology at some stages of the process. These tools simply help us organise and assess information, they do not replace human judgement. All decisions are made by our recruitment team and hiring managers. If you have any questions or need adjustments, please let us know and we’ll be happy to support you. Location: Home-Based - GBR , United Kingdom Time Type: Full time Contract Type: Permanent