Lead, Programme Management

Pearson School Qualifications supports curriculum, qualifications and assessments for students in the UK and globally. As a market leader with over a century of exams experience, Pearson delivers exams to more than 3.4 million students in over 80 countries annually. We are a centre of excellence in qualifications and assessment and safeguard Pearson’s licence to operate as the awarding organisation recognised as Pearson Education Ltd. We support teaching and learning by designing and delivering resources, formative assessment and support for teachers throughout the product lifecycle.

Role purpose

The Lead, Programme Management is the senior programme leader for TOpS, accountable for creating an integrated, controlled and evidence-led view of programme delivery across the annual National Curriculum Test cycle, remediation, mobilisation and service improvement. The role leads the Programme Management Office and coordinates operational, technology, data, customer, commercial and supplier delivery so that contractual outcomes are achieved and the programme can demonstrate delivery confidence to Pearson executives and the client.

The postholder converts strategy and contractual obligations into executable plans, establishes clear ownership and decision rights, and provides transparent reporting on progress, delivery confidence, risk, dependencies and emerging threats. They are expected to lead with pace and judgement in a regulated, high-profile environment, while building a sustainable programme-management capability and a strong, collaborative relationship with STA.

Key accountabilities

1. End-to-end programme leadership and control

• Own the integrated programme-management framework, master schedule and control standards across Test Cycle delivery, remediation, mobilisation and ongoing contractual obligations.

• Maintain a single authoritative view of scope, milestones, outcomes, resources, costs, risks, issues, assumptions, dependencies, decisions and contractual commitments.

• Set reporting cadences, tolerances, escalation thresholds and decision rights, ensuring actions and decisions have named owners and dates and that approved changes are reflected consistently across plans and governance.

• Drive cross-workstream planning and critical-path management, resolving conflicts between operational delivery, remediation and mobilisation priorities and escalating trade-offs that require executive intervention.

• Assess delivery confidence continually, challenge optimistic or unsupported status, and intervene early where resources, capability, evidence or dependencies place outcomes at risk.

2. Programme and improvement planning and execution

• Lead the mobilisation and delivery control of a portfolio of change and improvement initiatives, using any agreed Improvement Plan as the programme baseline and integrating improvement milestones into the Operational Delivery Plan and wider Test Cycle plan.

• Translate strategic priorities and improvement themes into specific, sequenced and measurable work packages with clear owners, dates, dependencies, evidence requirements and objective exit criteria.

• Establish and chair the regular programme and improvement progress cadence, ensuring status, risks, issues, dependencies, maturity and delivery confidence are reviewed across all workstreams.

• Prioritise activity against contractual milestones and operational necessity, with clear criteria for what must be delivered for the next Test Cycle, what may require phased delivery, and what should move into controlled continuous improvement.

• Coordinate internal alignment before client engagement so that Pearson has a coherent position on objectives, sequencing, ownership, deliverables and evidence.

• Maintain rigorous follow-through from workshops and deep dives, ensuring outputs are incorporated into plans, actions are tracked to closure, and implemented fixes are tested to confirm that underlying causes have been addressed in practice.

• Secure dedicated capacity and subject-matter expertise, identify resource contention early, and provide options and recommendations where the volume of concurrent remediation and delivery activity exceeds available capacity.

3. Programme Board and Executive SteerCo leadership

• Chair the TOpS Programme Board as the principal integrated delivery forum below Executive SteerCo, bringing together senior workstream leaders around shared priorities, informed decisions and collective accountability.

• Ensure the Programme Board maintains an integrated view of remediation, Test Cycle mobilisation, readiness, contractual delivery and ongoing obligations; resolve cross-functional challenges and escalate material exceptions to Executive SteerCo.

• Lead preparation of decision-led, evidence-based packs for Programme Board and Executive SteerCo, integrating operational, technology, data, customer, commercial, financial, legal and supplier information into a coherent programme narrative.

• For SteerCo, provide concise executive status on key delivery activities, supported by data, client feedback and other facts rather than operational detail; clearly distinguish progress, risks, decisions required and confidence in outcomes.

• Ensure standing reporting covers the major programme priorities, including Test Cycle completion, mobilisation and remediation, with transparent RAG status, trend, forecast, evidence and recovery actions.

• Maintain decision, action and risk logs, issue timely minutes and ensure SteerCo direction is translated into owned actions and reflected in the integrated plan.

• Create a governance culture that solves problems rather than simply reports them, welcomes constructive challenge, and raises material risks and uncertainty early.

4. Client engagement and programme status

• Act as a senior programme interface with STA, working closely with the Relationship, Commercial, Legal and workstream leads to maintain aligned, timely and controlled engagement on delivery status.

• Provide a clear and consistent account of programme health, including achievements, risks, dependencies, delivery confidence, remediation maturity and decisions or support required from either party.

• Ensure client-facing status is traceable to an agreed source of truth and reconciled across reports, plans, readiness assessments, incident updates and contractual submissions before issue.

• Understand and actively manage client expectations about the level of detail, specificity, phasing and assurance required, surfacing any mismatch early and developing an agreed route to resolution.

• Coordinate responses to client feedback and formal correspondence, ensuring commitments are reviewed by the appropriate commercial, legal and accountable business owners before they are made.

• Present uncertainty transparently without creating false precision; explain how plans will mature as evidence becomes available and identify where prioritisation, phased delivery or alternative approaches may be required.

• Use client feedback and sentiment as an input to programme reporting and recovery planning, while retaining objective evidence, contractual clarity and Pearson decision governance.

• Support restoration of client confidence through reliable commitments, visible follow-through, consistent communication and demonstrable improvement in programme control.

5. Assurance, readiness, risk and incident leadership

• Own the programme-level risk strategy and ensure risks, issues, assumptions, dependencies and decisions are governed consistently across workstreams.

• Integrate readiness evidence and assurance into programme decision-making, ensuring recommendations to proceed, pause or apply conditions are supported by reconciled facts and explicit residual risk.

• Lead programme response during material incidents, establishing an effective command structure, decision cadence, stakeholder communication and recovery plan, while protecting critical delivery activity.

• Ensure lessons learned and root-cause findings are converted into funded, owned and tracked improvement actions, with evidence of sustained adoption rather than administrative closure.

• Provide timely, accurate reporting to Regulatory, Commercial, Legal and executive stakeholders and ensure appropriate handling of confidential and sensitive information.

6. People, PMO capability and supplier leadership

• Lead, develop and motivate the PMO and programme leadership team, defining objectives, role clarity, operating rhythms and standards that support high engagement and delivery performance.

• Build permanent programme-management capability and reduce dependency on temporary specialists and single individuals through documented processes, deputies, succession and knowledge transfer.

• Commission and coordinate constituent services across Pearson teams and third parties, with clear accountabilities, deliverables, acceptance criteria and performance expectations.

• Create an inclusive, programme-first culture in which leaders work across organisational boundaries, raise issues early, make timely decisions and remain accountable for outcomes.

Measures of success

• A current, integrated and credible programme baseline exists and is used consistently across workstreams, governance and client reporting.

• Programme Board and Executive SteerCo receive timely, decision-led information and can see delivery confidence, key exceptions, choices and consequences clearly.

• Remediation actions have clear ownership, dates, dependencies, evidence and exit criteria, and delivery is integrated with Test Cycle milestones and operational plans.

• Client-facing status is accurate, internally aligned and supported by evidence; commitments are controlled and follow-through is visible.

• Material risks and resource constraints are raised early, trade-offs are resolved through the correct governance route, and actions are closed with demonstrable outcomes.

• The PMO operates as a sustainable control and assurance function with reduced key-person dependency and improving programme-management maturity.

Qualifications and experience

• Significant experience leading complex, high-profile programmes with operational, technology, data, commercial and supplier dependencies.

• Qualified project or programme manager; PRINCE2 Practitioner, MSP or equivalent is preferred.

• Demonstrable experience of programme recovery, remediation or transformation in a regulated, contractual or government-client environment.

• Experience chairing senior governance forums and converting complex delivery information into clear executive decisions and actions.

• Proven leadership of multidisciplinary teams and PMO capability, including coaching, succession and performance management.

• Strong experience of risk, assurance, readiness, change control, incident leadership and evidence-based reporting.

• Experience handling confidential information and engaging credibly with senior clients, regulators, legal advisers, suppliers and executives.

• Educated to degree level or equivalent professional experience.

Skills and behaviours

• Outstanding programme leadership, integrated planning and organisational skills across multiple concurrent priorities.

• Executive judgement: able to separate operational detail from the material facts, choices and interventions required by governance.

• Evidence-led and transparent: establishes a single source of truth, challenges unsupported status and communicates uncertainty honestly.

• Client-focused and commercially aware: builds trust while maintaining contractual clarity, controlled commitments and appropriate escalation.

• Strategic problem-solving: anticipates system-wide consequences, connects dependencies and develops practical options under pressure.

• Decisive and accountable: drives timely decisions, follows through on actions and maintains momentum in complex or ambiguous situations.

• Collaborative and inclusive: builds one team across business, technology, data, suppliers and client-facing functions.

• Competent with programme and delivery tools such as Smartsheet, Jira and structured RAID, schedule and decision-management approaches.