Programme Manager

Location: London or Bristol (candidate choice) -though note we operate an ‘employee choice’ working environment and so the amount of time you spend in the office is flexible to suit you

We launched in 2009 with a mission to change energy for the better. Since then, we’ve welcomed over a million members, planted a million trees, and set our sights on helping save the planet.

As a Group, we’re working to become a net zero carbon business by 2030, while helping our OVO Energy members halve their carbon footprints at the same time. 

Green energy and technology are great tools to fight the climate crisis with. But it’s people power that will rewrite history.  

So we’re building a zero carbon team inside and out. Of people who share our values, feel inspired by our mission, and want to make change happen. When you work for OVO, it’s not just a job. It’s the work of a lifetime. And we want the sharpest minds to help. 

Up for the challenge?

Where in the world of OVO will I be working? 

You’ll be part of the Finance Transformation function at OVO, which sits within ‘One Finance’. In 2020, OVO bought SSE Retail and our business grew massively in size and complexity. We have created a Finance Transformation Programme to enable us to build a world class Finance function that provides awesome service to our partners across the business and to our suppliers.

What will I be doing?

We are looking for an experienced Programme Manager to join OVO’s Finance Transformation Team. You will have extensive experience of project delivery and business change / transformation and have the ability to work in a fast-paced Agile environment. You will be comfortable in developing and leading multiple projects but also getting truly stuck in to the delivery yourself. Finance experience would be beneficial but it is not a necessity.

Your direct reporting line will be to the Head of Finance Transformation. You will work across ONE Finance and the OVO Retail businesses to deliver varied types of change that will impact processes, systems, people and culture.

Key responsibilities include:

• Working with the Finance business to identify areas of transformation opportunity. Taking these opportunities and creating projects with defined scope, success criteria and partner consensus
• Taking full end to end ownership of your projects. Delivering at speed but never compromising on quality. Delivering in a highly Agile environment 
• Leading project governance and keeping this appropriate to the audience and the need - creating plans, business cases, RAID, actions, workshop and strategy packs 
• Facilitating workshops to explore options and drive deliverables, and bringing your own ideas to the table. Supporting the Head of Transformation in developing the department strategy
• Having really strong partner management skills. Building trusted relationships, working with them to support delivery in a challenging environment and holding them to account. Exhibiting drive to deliver and to challenge, but also showing understanding to people’s own workloads
• Working collaboratively across the transformation team to ensure projects work in harmony with one another and areas of efficiency are identified
• Rolling up your sleeves and getting involved in ‘doing the do’ with the business where needed
• Managing multiple projects at any one time and taking line management responsibility for Senior Project Managers as needed

Is this the job for me? 

Life at OVO is pretty fast-paced so you’ll be comfortable in a dynamic high growth business. You're confident working in a constantly evolving environment and are comfortable proposing, justifying, initiating and implementing change.

We're looking for an experienced project manager who influences whilst bringing people on a journey; you're used to managing multiple projects end to end, selecting the most appropriate project management tools.

You're organised and detailed but pragmatic and realistic while balancing governance with delivery. You're a creative problem-solver with a solutions-orientated approach who is able to challenge ways of working, driving standard methodologies.

Ideally you will have:

• Outstanding communication skills, with experience in influencing key project decisions with sponsors and partners
• Strong eye for business, with an understanding of commercial strategy and financial drivers and the appreciation of overall business pressures and priorities
• Strong facilitation and conflict resolution skills, specifically enabling partners to align quickly around project objectives
• The ability to simplify complexity / readily find opportunities and translate into strategic decisions / recommendations
• The ability to time-manage and prioritise workload with experience in Agile methodology

From us you’ll get*

• An annual discretionary bonus
• 4% of your salary to spend on flexible lifestyle benefits
• 5% matched employer contribution to your pension
• 25 days holiday + 1 for your birthday
• And many more... 

(*) Please note that certain benefits kick-in once you have passed probation which can be up to 6 months after your start date.

We want the best people 

At OVO, we empower our people to have choice around where and when they work - flexible working arrangements can be discussed for all of our roles. Please speak to the Talent Acquisition team for more info.

We’re keen to meet people with varied backgrounds - our view is the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We want to build teams which represent a variety of experiences, perspectives and skills, and we recognise talent on the basis of merit and potential.

We understand some people may not apply for jobs unless they tick every box. If you're excited about joining us and think you have much of what we're looking for, even if you're not 100% sure… we'd love to hear from you.

Learn more about working in the OVO family of companies on our careers page and Glassdoor. We’re also delighted to have received a Top Employers certificate in 2018, 2019 and 2020!