Programme Manager

For more than 50 years, Verisk has been the trusted technology, data and analytics partner to the global insurance industry. Our software and insights help insurers, brokers and reinsurers make smarter decisions, manage risk more effectively and navigate an increasingly complex world.

As a Programme / Senior Project Manager, you will lead the delivery of customer implementations, product enhancements and internal change initiatives for Verisk General Insurance UK and Ireland. You will own plans, budgets, risks and governance, bring together colleagues from Delivery, Product, Operations and Sales, and be the senior point of contact for customers and executives on delivery. You will bring a structured approach to planning and control, and the judgement to adapt it to an Agile delivery environment.

Key objectives

• Deliver projects and programmes on time, within budget and to the agreed scope and quality.
• Give customers and executives clear, honest and timely visibility of progress, risks and decisions.
• Manage dependencies, risks and changes across projects so that delivery stays predictable.
• Improve how we deliver by sharing good practice and lessons learned with the wider Delivery Team.

Planning and initiation

• Define project and programme scope, objectives, deliverables and success criteria with sponsors and stakeholders.
• Build and maintain plans, schedules, milestones and roadmaps, including dependencies between projects.
• Estimate and agree budgets, and track forecast and actual spend
• Produce business cases, project briefs and initiation documents appropriate to the size of the work.

Delivery and team leadership

• Lead cross-functional delivery teams, assigning work based on skills and capacity and keeping the team motivated and focused.
• Work closely with Implementation Analysts, Product Owners / Managers and development teams, agreeing clear ownership of requirements, backlog, configuration and testing.
• Oversee day-to-day progress and resolve blockers, escalating where necessary.
• Help the team to resolve conflicts and priorities across competing demands.

Governance, risk and control

• Track progress against KPIs and baseline plans, and take corrective action when delivery drifts.
• Identify, assess and manage risks, issues and dependencies, with clear mitigation plans and owners.
• Run change control: assess the impact of change requests and take them to the [change board / Director] for approval where they affect scope, cost or time.
• Make sure deliverables meet agreed quality, compliance and testing standards before release to live.
• Where managing a programme, oversee benefits, interdependencies and overall programme governance.

Stakeholder communication

• Provide regular, accurate status reports to customers, the Executive Team and wider stakeholders.
• Build strong relationships with customers and internal stakeholders, and hold stakeholders to account for their commitments and decisions.
• Lead steering groups, client meetings and project boards.

Closure and continuous improvement

• Manage handover to the customer and to support and operational teams, with a clear acceptance process.
• Run post-implementation reviews, document lessons learned and release remaining resources.
• Close out project financials and archive project records.
• Keep up to date with Agile, Scrum and project management good practice, and encourage its use across the Product and Delivery teams.

Essential

• Prince2 Practitioner, or an equivalent project management qualification or demonstrable equivalent experience (for example APM PMQ or PMP).
• Agile project management or Scrum certification (for example AgilePM, PSM or CSM)
• 10+ years' experience managing software, technology or business change projects from initiation to close.
• Track record of delivering to time, budget and quality, with budgets and teams of people.
• Experience of managing projects in an Agile or hybrid (Agile and waterfall) environment.
• Experience of reporting to and influencing senior stakeholders, including customers and executives.
• Strong planning, risk management and change control skills.
• Experience working in or alongside a Programme Management Office (PMO), including PMO standards, governance, reporting, and the tools and templates used to plan and control delivery.
• Experience of using AI tools in your day-to-day work, for example to plan, draft documents, analyse information or report, and sound judgement on using them responsibly and checking their output.

Desirable

• Programme management qualification (for example MSP).
• ITIL 4 Foundation or equivalent understanding of service management.
• Experience in insurance, claims or financial services technology.
• Experience managing several projects at the same time, or running a programme of linked projects.
• Knowledge of software platforms, integration and data migration.
• Working knowledge of how AI is applied in software products and business processes.