As a Project Manager, you will be responsible for leading the Enrolment and Student Support Delivery workstream within the University's Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) Programme, a major strategic transformation and compliance programme delivering the operational, systems, policy and service changes required to support the new student finance model in England.

The Enrolment and Student Support workstream has successfully delivered the Registration Open milestone and established the core capability required to identify, inform and support LLE students. The focus of the role is now on delivering the remaining programme milestones, including SLC Systems Launch (September 2026), Full LLE Launch (January 2027) and the transition to business-as-usual operations.

Working across Academic Services, Digital Services, Student Support, Finance, Marketing and Communications and external stakeholders, you will lead delivery of the remaining LLE programme milestones, ensuring operational readiness and successful implementation of enrolment, student support and student finance-related changes.

You will manage delivery across a complex landscape of business, policy and technical dependencies, ensuring that operational processes, student-facing services and supporting systems are aligned and ready to support both LLE-funded and legacy students during a period of dual-running and significant organisational change.

Key Responsibilities

As a Project Manager, you will:

• Lead projects, workstreams or activities through delivery, implementation and transition phases, ensuring achievement of key deliverables within agreed time, cost and scope thresholds.
• Work with key stakeholders to clarify the business benefits and products that are to be delivered together with the quality, time and cost criteria that are to be met.
• Identify and facilitate the evaluation of different delivery options to enable key stakeholders to select an appropriate approach.
• Develop and agree a work plan that identifies key activities, outputs and resource requirements and that provides a basis for monitoring performance.
• Identify and evaluate risks associated with the project, escalating where appropriate.  Where necessary, develop, agree and implement solutions to overcome these.
• Adhere to OU project and financial governance and reporting processes to ensure that decisions are made by the right people at the right time and that you and the project’s key stakeholders can monitor, control and evaluate the performance of the activity.
• Obtain stakeholder sign off for the completed products and deliver documentation that enables implementation, operation and ongoing support.
• Conduct assurance reviews within the project to give senior stakeholders confidence that the project can deliver to time, budget and quality.
• Capture lessons learned and share these with stakeholders and the project and change management community to enable performance improvement.
• Lead delivery of the Enrolment and Student Support workstream within the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) Programme, ensuring successful delivery of the remaining programme milestones and associated operational outcomes.
• Manage delivery of operational changes required to support LLE-funded students, including registration, enrolment, eligibility assessment, student communications, student support processes and student lifecycle management.
• Coordinate business readiness activities across Academic Services and partner teams to ensure services, processes, guidance, training and operational controls are in place ahead of SLC Systems Launch and Full LLE Launch.
• Work with business and technical stakeholders to deliver changes to registration processes, eligibility services, student information journeys, notifications, communications and operational reporting.
• Manage cross-functional dependencies across Academic Services, Digital Services, Finance, Student Support, Marketing and Communications and external partners, ensuring delivery risks and issues are actively managed and resolved.
• Support implementation of Student Loans Company (SLC) operational processes including registration confirmation, attendance validation, change of circumstance handling, reporting and student finance-related activities.
• Lead planning and transition activities to ensure the successful handover of programme deliverables into sustainable business-as-usual operations.
• Ensure delivery supports regulatory, policy and operational requirements associated with the Lifelong Learning Entitlement and the University's dual-running funding model.

About You

Essential:

• Higher education qualification or equivalent professional experience.
• Experience of successfully managing the delivery of complex projects, workstreams or business change initiatives within agreed time, cost and quality parameters.
• Awareness and understanding of best practice project management methodologies, governance and assurance processes.
• Strong IT skills and the ability to use a range of software packages to support project delivery, reporting and stakeholder engagement.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to communicate confidently and effectively with a variety of audiences, negotiate outcomes and manage challenging situations.
• Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to identify issues, assess risks, exercise sound judgement and implement appropriate solutions.
• Excellent planning and organisational skills, with the ability to prioritise competing demands, manage dependencies and deliver to multiple deadlines.
• Proven ability to build productive working relationships and collaborate effectively across organisational boundaries to achieve shared objectives.
• Resilient and adaptable, maintaining effectiveness under pressure and responding positively to changing priorities, requirements and ways of working.
• Experience of delivering process, policy, system or service improvements within a complex organisational environment.
• Continuous improvement: identifies opportunities for continuous improvement; shows commitment to own professional development; demonstrates enthusiasm, willingness and ability to learn new skills. Creates momentum and excitement around initiatives and new approaches.
• Ability to carry out the role in a way that is consistent with equality legislation and University policies.

 Desirable:

• A recognised professional qualification relevant to project management.
• Experience of project management.
• Experience of working in a fast-paced environment and within tight deadlines.