Planning and Projects Officer

Diabetes UK is developing a new organisational strategy to take us beyond 2019 and to ensure we have robust business planning, performance management and project delivery to enable the strategy to be achieved.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Planning and Projects Officer to help support the Head of Strategy and Planning at this key time and in particular to support on the following key projects.

• Developing a new organisational strategy, and running the charity's business planning process for 2019;
• Embedding a new organisational performance framework, with reporting and analysis of performance data to enable senior managers and the Board to drive improvement; and
• The development of a corporate programme and project management approach across the organisation.

We are looking for someone enthusiastic and skilled in:

• Co-ordinating and supporting cross-organisational change projects to deliver successful outcomes;
• Analysing and reporting on data using Excel based systems to enable organisational decision making and improvement reporting;
• Engaging and communicating with cross-organisational groups of stakeholders, in person and through written materials.

You'll need to be able to work on your own initiative, manage and prioritise work to multiple deadlines, and be a collaborative can-do member of a small focussed team. You will be enthusiastic about making change happen and will have a real opportunity to make high profile, corporate change.

Supporting strategy development and business planning;

• To project manage the business planning and strategy development process, ensuring key deadlines met, documentation produced, and risks and issues managed
• To support the development of templates and guidance for a new approach to business planning based on best practice, and the charity's requirements
• Liaise and communicate with senior stakeholders to support the completion of templates
• To support effective cross-organisational working and change, resolving problems as they emerge within the context of the agreed process and with management support
• To develop and manage a programme of engagement and communication with stakeholders, across all levels of the organisation, tailored to the appropriate audience

Co-ordinating performance and risk management:

• To manage and maintain key reporting systems and processes for performance, and risk management;
• To produce high quality, visually clear reports on complex and technical issues for senior and Board audiences;
• To liaise with colleagues to collate information and identify trends and improvement areas on performance and risk issues;
• To report on and provide analysis of data trends to support organisational improvement;
• To horizon scan, critically review and analyse good practice in performance and risk management from other organisations to inform the organisation's approach, identifying and proposing improvements where appropriate

Improving programme and project management:

• To co-ordinate the internal project to develop a corporate approach to project and programme management, ensuring effective communication, maintaining reports and documentation and managing key dependencies to ensure the project achieves its vision
• To co-ordinate and support a cross-organisational task group of programme and project managers
• To support the development of tools, templates and user-friendly guidance, based on good practice and organisational requirements, to support improved project and programme management
• To liaise and effectively communicate with existing programme and project managers and senior managers
• To horizon scan, critically review and analyse good practice in project and programme management from other organisations to inform the organisation's emerging approach

The best person for this job will be able to:

• Work with a high level of initiative and be confident to make recommendations for improvement
• Communicate effectively, at all levels and across the organisation
• Demonstrate excellent presentation, guidance and report writing skills, tailored to appropriate audiences
• Demonstrate strong data analysis and reporting skills
• Seek out good practice to advise and input into decision making on key activities
• Comfortably manage multiple deadlines and activities, prioritising work and acting on initiative

The best person for this job will have experience in:

• Supporting cross-organisational change projects to deliver successful outcomes
• Analysing and reporting on data using Excel based systems to enable organisational decision making and improvement reporting
• Engaging a diverse range of stakeholders, communicating effectively and producing high quality reports and presentations tailored to audiences
• Ideally, the development of effective and engaging tools, templates and approaches to support organisations in business planning and/or project and programme management

The best person for this job will be:

• Enthusiastic, positive and driven with a can-do and solution-focused approach
• Inherently collaborative with an enthusiasm for working with a range of stakeholders to maintain relationships and achieve outcomes
• Able to command respect and create a sense of community amongst the key stakeholders
• Of sound judgement and decision-making ability