Project Manager

Are you looking for a role where you can help shape something new, make a visible difference and work alongside people who care deeply about their place? We are building a new Combined County Authority for Hampshire and the Solent, bringing together partners across Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton to bring investment to the region and to create opportunities for our people, places, communities and businesses.

The Role

As a Project Manager, you will play a key role in translating strategic objectives into practical, deliverable change across programmes, projects, and organisational initiatives. Working closely with stakeholders, you will analyse business needs, define requirements, map current and future processes, and support informed decision-making around services, systems, operating models, and ways of working.

What you'll be doing?

In this role, you’ll play a crucial part in ensuring our teams have the tools, knowledge, and processes they need to deliver a high-quality service. You will:

• Lead defined projects, work packages or implementation activities from mobilisation to closure, establishing clear scope, outputs, outcomes, plans, milestones, dependencies, resources, risks, decisions, handover requirements and evidence of delivery impact.
• Support effective governance, assurance and decision-making, preparing clear progress updates, highlight reports, RAID information, options and recommendations so Programme Managers and governance forums can understand delivery confidence, risks, choices and next steps.
• Support implementation, readiness and transition into business as usual, ensuring operational impacts, adoption needs, handover arrangements, evidence requirements, lessons learned and closure activity are planned and followed through.

What you’ll bring?

We’re looking for someone with:

• CVs must demonstrate your proven ability to translate ambiguity into a structured delivery plan and communicating that clearly across senior, political and partnership environments.
• Demonstrable experience leading complex, high-profile change programmes, including the project management of multiple workstreams, stakeholders, governance requirements, and organisational dependencies.
• Your experience would include organisational transition, workforce transfer, service transformation, or public sector reform activity, where organisational integration formed a significant delivery workstream.
• Strong experience managing projects, work packages or implementation activity in complex multi-stakeholder environments, including projects that are significant in size, complexity, profile or organisational impact.
• Strong project delivery capability, including mobilisation, planning, scheduling, RAID management, dependency tracking, reporting, governance coordination, implementation and controlled closure.
• Strong stakeholder management and coordination skills, including the ability to work with colleagues, partners, suppliers, subject matter experts and decision makers where success depends on alignment and follow-through.
• Highly desirable: Experience of devolution, local government reform, public sector reorganisation, transition, digital transformation, infrastructure delivery, service change or implementation in a complex environment.

Why join the HSCCA?

We are building the HSCCA on the basis that how we work is as important as what we deliver. We want people who bring enthusiasm, drive, and authenticity - who are proactive, open to challenge, and motivated by progress rather than process. We value collaborative leadership: the ability to bring people together across organisational boundaries, respect the expertise of others, and create shared direction without needing to own everything.

We act in line with the Nolan Principles. We use public money responsibly, make evidence-based decisions, and hold ourselves to high standards of integrity, inclusion, and accessibility. We expect feedback to be given and received constructively, challenge to be welcomed, and relationships to be built on openness, trust, and mutual respect.

This is a complex, fast-moving environment. We need people who are energised by that, not unsettled by it.

What the HSCCA will offer in return?

As we take on new responsibilities devolved from Government, you will have a genuine opportunity to contribute to building a public service organisation that does things differently.

Our reward package includes:

• A flexible working environment, with hybrid working arrangements as standard (min. 2 days per week in our office)
• A competitive salary and benefits package
• Investment in your professional development and leadership growth
• The chance to work alongside a leadership team that is committed to building an organisation where people thrive
• Membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme

The HSCCA is committed to creating a diverse, inclusive and accessible workplace where everyone feels valued and able to thrive. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and lived experiences, particularly those from groups that are currently underrepresented in our workforce. This includes people from ethnic minority communities, disabled people, neurodivergent people, LGBTQ+ people, parents and carers, and individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds. We are committed to removing barriers to employment and encourage candidates to let us know about any reasonable adjustments they may need at any stage of the recruitment process.

Further information

As a Disability Confident Committed employer, we run a guaranteed interview scheme for disabled applicants. If you meet the essential criteria listed in the job description for this position and would like to be considered under this scheme, please state this in your application.

We are committed to fair and inclusive recruitment. We use anonymous shortlisting to ensure candidates are assessed solely on their skills, experience, and suitability for the role.