Manager - Project Manager
ICF · London
The Project Manager will support the mobilisation and delivery of complex consulting programmes across ICF’s UK & India Consulting Division. The role will provide flexible project management capacity across a diverse portfolio of work, including education, skills and sport, environment and climate, health, energy and wider public policy programmes.
The postholder will work with programme directors, technical leads, commercial colleagues and delivery partners to establish effective governance and controls, coordinate multidisciplinary delivery, and keep programmes on track. This is a hands-on delivery role requiring strong organisation, sound judgement, commercial awareness and confidence working in a fast-paced consulting environment. For larger programmes, the role may take ownership of a defined workstream, project-management office function or portfolio of connected activities.
Key responsibilities
Programme mobilisation and planning
- Support rapid mobilisation of newly secured programmes, translating contractual commitments into practical delivery plans, governance arrangements, milestones and controls.
- Develop and maintain integrated workplans, mobilisation trackers, responsibility matrices and decision logs.
- Coordinate onboarding of team members, subcontractors and delivery partners, ensuring roles, interfaces and delivery expectations are clear.
- Establish proportionate programme management processes that support pace and control without creating unnecessary administrative burden.
- Support mobilisation readiness reviews and ensure key actions, dependencies and risks are resolved or actively managed.
Project and programme delivery
- Manage day-to-day delivery across assigned projects or workstreams, coordinating multidisciplinary and geographically distributed teams.
- Track milestones, deliverables, actions, dependencies, assumptions, risks and issues, escalating promptly where required.
- Maintain clear reporting for programme leaders and clients, converting delivery data into concise, decision-focused updates.
- Coordinate governance meetings, prepare agendas and papers, record decisions and ensure agreed actions are completed.
- Support change control, benefits tracking, lessons learned and continuous improvement throughout the delivery lifecycle.
- Maintain effective document management, version control and audit-ready programme records.
Commercial, financial and resource management
- Support budgeting, forecasting, invoicing, cost monitoring and financial reporting, working closely with programme and commercial leads.
- Monitor performance against budget and delivery assumptions, identifying emerging pressures and supporting corrective action.
- Maintain resource plans and work with team leads to align capacity and capability with programme priorities.
- Support management of supplier and subcontractor inputs, including deliverables, dependencies, performance information and approvals.
- Promote disciplined delivery and commercial awareness across project teams.
Client and stakeholder coordination
- Build constructive working relationships with clients, delivery partners and internal stakeholders.
- Coordinate inputs across technical, operational, digital, data, evaluation and commercial teams.
- Support workshops, delivery reviews and client meetings, ensuring preparation is effective and follow-up is timely.
- Communicate clearly and calmly when priorities shift, resolving routine issues directly and escalating material concerns appropriately.
- Help create a collaborative, accountable and inclusive delivery culture.
Large-scale programme delivery
- Support the mobilisation and delivery of large, complex public-sector programmes, including programmes involving multiple delivery partners and stakeholders.
- Coordinate interdependent workstreams and interfaces across programme governance, operations, digital, data, assurance, communications and reporting.
- Support partner onboarding, delivery tracking, governance, risk and issue management, and performance reporting.
- Maintain a clear line of sight between contractual requirements, programme milestones, operational activity and delivery performance.
- Work flexibly as programmes scale, taking ownership of defined PMO, mobilisation or delivery-management responsibilities.
Qualifications and experience
- Relevant degree, professional qualification or equivalent experience.
- Strong experience managing projects or substantial workstreams in consulting, professional services, public-sector delivery or another complex environment.
- Experience of education, children and young people, sport, health, environment and climate, energy, evaluation, economics, or other social policy programmes.
- Demonstrable experience of mobilisation, delivery planning, governance, risk and issue management, reporting and project controls.
- Good commercial and financial management skills, including budgeting, forecasting, resource planning and cost monitoring.
- Experience coordinating multidisciplinary teams and managing multiple priorities, dependencies and deadlines.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to produce concise, accurate and decision-focused materials.
- Sound judgement, attention to detail and the confidence to challenge constructively when delivery is at risk.
- Strong working knowledge of Microsoft 365 project delivery tools, including Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Teams and SharePoint.
Desirable experience
- Experience delivering UK central government or wider public-sector programmes.
- Experience supporting a large-scale mobilisation or transition into business-as-usual delivery.
- Experience working with subcontractors, delivery networks, grants or distributed delivery models.
- Experience supporting PMO, programme assurance, service management or performance-improvement functions.
- A recognised project management qualification such as APM PMQ, PRINCE2 Practitioner or equivalent practical experience.
Personal qualities
- Acts with integrity and sound ethical judgement, maintaining high standards of transparency, accountability and professional conduct.
- Highly organised, proactive and comfortable working at pace across several priorities.
- Pragmatic and delivery-focused, able to apply proportionate controls rather than process for its own sake.
- Collaborative and relationship-driven, while maintaining clear accountability for actions and outcomes.
- Resilient and adaptable in ambiguous or rapidly changing delivery environments.
- Committed to quality, inclusion, learning and continuous improvement.
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Bot and Third-Party Applications
Please note that this application must be submitted directly by the applicant for consideration. Failure to do so may result in the application being excluded for consideration. Applicants needing an accommodation for disability or religious purposes in connection with the application process should contact Candidateaccommodation@icf.com for assistance.
About us:
Working at ICF means applying a passion for meaningful work with intellectual rigor to help solve the leading issues of our day. Smart, compassionate, innovative, committed, ICF employees tackle unprecedented challenges to benefit people, businesses, and governments around the globe. We believe in collaboration, mutual respect, open communication, and opportunity for growth.
We can only solve the world's toughest challenges by building an inclusive workplace that allows everyone to thrive. We are committed to creating a culture where we embrace our differences in ideas and identities. Together, our employees are empowered to share their expertise and collaborate with others to achieve personal and professional goals.
Learn more about what we do and our commitment to inclusion.
The benefits of joining ICF:
Our people at ICF are our most important asset, so we invest in them from the moment they arrive. When you join our team, you’ll have access to a vast array of benefits to help you live your life well.
We offer a hybrid working policy, which will provide you with the flexibility to collaborate in the office, as well as in the comfort of your own home, ensuring you are able to successfully deliver the requirements of your role.
To support you, our employee wellbeing hub is designed to provide highly personalised support across a comprehensive range of wellbeing issues, such as mind, body, finances, community, career programs and HR support.
We enjoy celebrating success, which is why we have a competitive recognition program called ‘You Matter’, which awards points as a ‘thank you’ for your work achievements. These can be spent on a large variety of high-quality items, as well as online or high-street vouchers, all with zero tax payable by the employee.
ICF also offers a range of competitive benefits, which include:
- Single Private Medical Insurance cover with no restrictions on existing conditions.
- Dental insurance and an online GP service.
- 25 days annual leave, plus UK bank holidays (annual leave increases with years of service).
- Pension scheme with 5% of salary employer contribution
- Life assurance paying 4x annual salary and Group Income Protection paying 66% of salary for up to 5 years if you are off work on long-term sick.
- Enhanced parental leave policies, enhanced maternity, paternity, adoption, and shared parental pay.
At ICF, we are committed to ensuring a fair and equitable interview process for all candidates based on their own skills and knowledge. As part of this commitment, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to generate or assist with responses during interviews (whether in-person or virtual) is not permitted. This policy is in place to maintain the integrity and authenticity of the interview process.
However, we understand that some candidates may require accommodations that involve the use of AI. If such an accommodation is needed, candidates are instructed to contact us in advance at candidateaccommodation@icf.com. We are dedicated to providing the necessary support to ensure that all candidates have an equal opportunity to succeed.