Careers

About Ashurst

Ashurst is a leading progressive global law firm with a rich history spanning more than 200 years. We are proud of our history and are future-focused, having expanded into new technologies through our NewLaw division, Ashurst Advance, and our consulting arm. Our in-depth understanding of our clients and commitment to providing excellent standards of service have seen us become a trusted adviser to local and global corporates, financial institutions, and governments in all areas of commercial law. To find out more please visit www.ashurst.com .

Department/Role overview

The Transformation Management Office (TMO) is an integral part of shaping, defining, and delivering a portfolio of initiatives aligned to Ashurst's Strategy.

Ashurst's TMO is looking for an initiative-taking individual to work with its Central PMO with potential opportunities to be seconded to other departments such as the IT team. Potential secondments will be to embed the Central PMO structure and governance throughout Ashurst.

The portfolio of projects includes at any one-time strategic initiatives with formal TMO programme/project resource assigned to them and a number of initiatives managed within individual departments. Projects and initiatives may be incepted and driven by TMO or be led by another Ashurst function. All require PMO support and guidance.

The role requires strong skills in coordination, communication, and collaboration. It involves working across the multiple functions, promoting the Central PMO and TMO Teams, embedding governance and reporting.

Main responsibilities

The main responsibilities will include, but not be limited to, the following:

• Support the PMO Lead and Directors of Functions to review and set up or continuously improve an effective governance framework for the portfolio of projects and initiatives, including support in stakeholder management, financial, risk and issue management and change control.
• Support the oversight of the projects and initiatives and associated roadmap across Ashurst globally from pipeline planning to closure, documenting timelines, and dependencies, including running health checks for projects.
• Provide governance oversight of projects and initiatives, including assisting the preparation of business cases/plans for new initiatives and other key documentation as well as proactively analysing supporting data (including benefits/ROI) and trends.
• Monitor and track progress of the projects and initiatives portfolio for reporting purposes, as agreed with the Area Director, working in conjunction with the Central PMO for the Strategic Initiatives portfolio reporting.
• Maintain and manage a central register of projects and initiatives portfolio in line with the roadmap, supporting the use of JIRA to monitor and track across the portfolio.
• Work with the finance representative and Project Accountant to enforce the project accounting principles, help understand budget allocations (including headcount) and ongoing spend, highlighting and escalating any concerns.
• Inform and contribute to the effective monitoring and reporting of operational and BAU activities.
• Support the PMO Lead in managing the induction and onboarding process for new joiners in the TMO and for enhancing the PMO and Project Delivery processes, procedures, and templates.
• Potential for line management of PMO colleagues in the future.

Essential skills and experience

We are looking for a highly motivated individual with the following skills and experience:

• High levels of competence and confidence in the project delivery lifecycle and experience of coordinating projects, programmes and portfolios, experience in the legal or broader professional services sector would be desirable.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, along with a track record of establishing and maintaining effective relationships and collaborating with stakeholders at all levels.
• A strong commitment to people development, with experience of upskilling colleagues on project management techniques and of ensuring effective ways of working across a multidisciplinary team through a positive cycle of training, coaching and feedback.
• Strong organisational skills and comfortable to work in a fast-paced environment.
• Able to take initiative and problem-solve.
• Remains calm under pressure, is confident to escalate issues or flag risks that may surface.
• Experience in working in a global environment and across multiple time-zones.
• Strong experience in working with main MS office applications (Excel, PowerPoint, Teams etc).

Desired Skills and Experience

The following skills or experiences would be desirable but not essential:

• PMO certification.
• MS Project, JIRA, or PPM experience would be helpful.
• PMP / PRINCE2 foundational understanding.
• Experience in an IT function beneficial.
• ITIL foundational understanding.

Background checks

In order to comply with regulatory and client requirements, Ashurst will undertake appropriate vetting of staff. When applicants accept a job offer, Ashurst, alongside a specialist provider, will undertake professional verification and background checks. These checks are only undertaken with consent, and in accordance with our legal and regulatory obligations.

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