Project Management Lead

Project Management Lead – EU Pay Transparency Directive

Location: London or Sheffield, in line with the hybrid working policy.

Start Date: ASAP

End Date: 12 months

Payroll provider: Rockford Payroll Info for Contingent Workers – Rockford Pay

This role leads the bank’s coordinated, cross-functional response to evolving pay transparency legislation across the EU. The successful candidate will deliver practical, sustainable solutions that meet regulatory requirements, manage risk and strengthen the bank’s culture of equity and transparency.

This is a delivery and orchestration role, requiring the ability to engage the right experts, convert advice into clear decisions and connect actions across the programme. Success depends on collaborative leadership, disciplined delivery and the ability to influence across a complex stakeholder landscape while upholding the bank’s values.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead integrated delivery of the bank’s response across relevant countries and entities, in partnership with the Sponsor and specialist teams.
  
• Own the project view of objectives, scope, outcomes, principles, milestones, risks, dependencies and critical path.
  
• Translate evolving requirements into coordinated delivery plans, practical options and recommendations with subject-matter experts.
  
• Facilitate timely, risk- and principle-based decisions that balance regulation, employee experience, operational sustainability and risk appetite.
  
• Maintain momentum despite legislative uncertainty; align conflicting assumptions and challenge plans that could create risk, delay or rework.
  
• Embed equity, transparency, agility, inclusion, continuous improvement and accountability throughout delivery.
  
• Build trusted relationships with senior management, country representatives, People and Technology teams, Delivery Services and external specialists.
  
• Anticipate differing perspectives on pay transparency and equip leaders to be advocates of the evolving culture around transparency.
  
• Provide concise, evidence-based updates on priorities, progress, decisions, risks and changes, with clear recommendations where approval is required.
  
• Facilitate constructive challenge and combine country and functional perspectives into a coherent programme direction.
  
• Bring the right people together to design, build, test and embed solutions, with explicit roles, responsibilities and deliverables.
  
• Monitor EU Member State legislation, regulatory guidance and implementation developments, and coordinate the project response.
  
• Work with Legal and other subject-matter experts to assess implications; the role does not provide legal advice.
  
• Coordinate country impact assessments and implementation plans, balancing local requirements with the bank’s wider principles, processes, data constraints and technology capabilities.
  
• Maintain a clear record of country decisions, their relationship to the project approach and any justified local variation.
  
• Escalate unresolved interpretation, risk acceptance or policy decisions to the accountable owner or forum.
  
• Track industrial relations engagement and reflect consultation or negotiation outcomes, commitments and dependencies in project decisions and implementation plans.
  
• Maintain the project governance framework, including forums, membership, terms of reference, decision rights, approval pathways and escalation routes.
  
• Maintain a delivery cadence covering workstream meetings, cross-functional forums, steering updates, decision checkpoints and country implementation reviews.
  
• Maintain an integrated view of regulatory, financial, reputational, operational, data, technology, employee relations and delivery risks, including mitigations and escalations.
  
• With the Project Manager, ensure agendas, papers, status reports and action, decision, risk, issue and dependency logs are accurate, concise and current.
  
• Document decisions, assumptions, trade-offs, advice and approvals; track actions to completion and hold owners accountable.
  
• Keep governance and implementation evidence complete, accessible and ready for assurance or audit.
  
• Coordinate the project solution with the bank’s wider technology, data and operational landscape.
  
• Oversee agile development of the existing minimum viable product and subsequent enhancements against agreed outcomes, design principles, controls and implementation plans.
  
• Work with Technology, Data, Payroll, People Services and operations to establish sustainable business-as-usual ownership and support.
  
• Ensure implementation plans cover readiness, communications, training, support and early-life activity where required.
  
• Anticipate late-stage risks early enough to prevent avoidable rollout disruption.
  

Key Experience

• Experience leading complex, cross-functional change or regulatory implementation programmes across multiple countries or stakeholder groups.
  
• Experience leading cultural and behavioural change as well as process or technology change.
  
• Strong project governance, planning, reporting and risk, issue and dependency management skills.
  
• Excellent written and verbal communication, facilitation and influencing skills, including constructive challenge and escalation.
  
• Ability to connect related activities, clarify accountability, identify gaps and align teams around shared outcomes.
  
• Strong attention to detail in maintaining decisions, actions and audit-ready records.
  
• Experience influencing senior stakeholders and subject-matter experts while delivering at pace within appropriate controls.
  

Desirable Experience

• Working knowledge of pay transparency, employment legislation, reward, employee relations or a related regulatory topic.
  
• Experience working with Legal, Reward, Industrial Relations, Payroll, People Services, Data or Technology teams.
  
• Experience delivering technology-enabled change, testing, operational readiness or country rollouts.
  
• Experience in a large, regulated or international organisation.
  
• A recognised project, programme, change or delivery qualification.
  

Relevant Qualifications

• PRINCE2 Practitioner or PRINCE2 Foundation
  
• APM Project Management Qualification (PMQ) or APM Project Fundamentals Qualification (PFQ)
  
• AgilePM or equivalent agile delivery certification
  
• Prosci Change Management or equivalent change management qualification
  
• PMP (Project Management Professional) or PgMP, where applicable
  
• Lean Six Sigma qualification, where process improvement experience is relevant
  
• Qualification in HR, Employment Law, Reward, or People Change would be advantageous
  

What You’ll Bring

You will be a connector and integrator who sees the whole system, works confidently with specialists and knows when to question, involve others or escalate.

You will combine disciplined delivery with sound judgement, pragmatism and curiosity, keeping teams aligned and treating coordination as a core risk control.