Interim Project Manager

Interim Project Manager

Daily rate:£600 - £700 per day Inside IR35

Duration: 9 months

Location: North East - Hybrid - 2 days on site

Industry: Rail

An organisation within the rail sector is seeking an experienced Interim Project Manager to lead delivery of a workstream. The successful candidate will provide strategic analysis and knowledge management of defects, faults and system failures, and is a key component in enabling digital signalling deployment across the route.

Role overview

The Interim Project Manager will take full accountability for end-to-end delivery of the workstream. The focus will be on ensuring strong mobilisation, a robust and controlled delivery plan, and clear alignment across stakeholders. You will maintain delivery governance, reporting, RAID management and readiness activity to ensure the workstream enables successful outcomes for digital signalling rollout.

Key deliverables

• A fully baselined delivery plan covering scope, schedule, cost and RAID.
• Proactive management of project schedule, cost and risks.
• Defined stakeholder map and engagement plan across route, operations, IMT, suppliers and users.
• Engagement with end users to assure operational and business requirements are met.
• Delivery of agreed milestones and releases.
• Weekly reporting pack, including assumptions and decision log.
• Handover pack for the permanent successor, including all plans, RAID, decisions and lessons learned.

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain project schedule, cost control and risk planning.
• Drive dependencies and ensure effective change control.
• Oversee consultants and partner contributions.
• Coordinate supplier and partner inputs and ensure timely action closure.
• Capture user requirements and translate them into achievable milestones and acceptance criteria.
• Lead governance cadence, prepare papers and escalate risks, issues and decisions.
• Provide regular reporting to the Programme Manager in line with agreed controls.

Essential experience:

• Rail industry or digital signalling exposure.
• Proven project delivery experience across IT systems and business change.
• Strong governance and reporting capability, including RAID and decision logs.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication skills.
• Collaborative working style with experience leading virtual or cross-functional teams.
• Strong problem-solving approach and ability to operate under delivery pressure.

Desirable experience

• Experience with incident or fault reporting, asset systems, operational technology or similar environments.