Planning & Operations Manager
Hiscox
Permanent
Build a brilliant future with Hiscox
About The Role
The TO Planning & Operations Manager plays a central role in keeping the Group Transformation Office organised, connected and focused on delivery.
Reporting to the Transformation Office Director, you will maintain the single integrated delivery plan across the four Programme Manager clusters, bringing together key milestones, dependencies, delivery commitments and agreed changes. This will give leaders clear visibility of what is due, what has changed, and where action or decisions are required.
You will also lead the day-to-day operation of the Transformation Office, including the review calendar, agendas and packs, PPM administration, action and decision tracking, and the team supporting these activities.
Your focus will be on creating simple, reliable and effective processes that support delivery without adding unnecessary bureaucracy.
The Transformation Office Director owns the integrated plan and portfolio trade-offs, while Programme Managers own the plans, assurance and interventions within their respective clusters. You will ensure these come together effectively by maintaining the joined-up plan, challenging the quality and consistency of inputs, and ensuring agreed decisions and changes are carried through.
What You'll Be Doing
Maintain the Integrated Delivery Plan
- Bring together milestones and delivery commitments across all four Programme Manager clusters into one clear and current integrated plan.
- Maintain the portfolio milestone view, critical path, dependency log and record of agreed plan changes.
- Identify and communicate the impact of changes to dates, scope, priorities or resources.
- Maintain a clear record of the source, owner and date of each material update.
- Provide the agreed delivery plan to the Transformation Strategy Manager and Finance Transformation Office.
- Bring Programme Managers together to resolve cross-cluster dependencies, hand-offs and shared resource conflicts.
- Ensure major dependencies have clear owners, dates and expected outcomes.
- Highlight unresolved conflicts, clearly setting out the delivery impact, available options and decisions required.
- Track agreed actions and plan changes through to completion.
- Manage the forward calendar for delivery reviews, planning cycles, governance inputs and key deadlines.
- Prepare focused agendas for the Transformation Office Director's delivery reviews.
- Coordinate meeting packs and pre-reads, while ensuring content owners remain accountable for the quality of their submissions.
- Record decisions and actions clearly and follow them through to closure or escalation.
- Ensure decisions are reflected consistently across the integrated plan, PPM tool and relevant logs.
- Oversee operational support across meetings, packs, minutes, document management, PPM administration, and action and decision tracking.
- Set clear responsibilities, deadlines and quality standards for TO Operations support.
- Ensure information is stored consistently and can be easily accessed.
- Balance workloads and identify and address gaps in operational support.
- Ensure key delivery information within the PPM tool is current, complete and aligned with the integrated plan.
- Challenge missing, late or conflicting Programme Manager inputs constructively and agree appropriate corrective actions.
- Reduce duplicate requests and maximise the use of existing information.
- Partner with relevant system and process owners to simplify templates, reporting and update processes.
- Regularly review meetings, packs, trackers and processes, removing activities that do not contribute to effective delivery or decision-making.
- Standardise repeatable activities where this improves quality, consistency and efficiency.
- Identify opportunities to automate routine tasks and processes.
- Gather feedback from Programme Managers, workstream teams and leaders and translate it into practical improvements.
We Are Looking For Someone Who Brings
- Strong experience in integrated planning, portfolio operations, senior PMO, business management or a Transformation Office environment.
- The ability to combine plans from multiple programmes into one clear, practical and usable portfolio view.
- A strong understanding of milestones, critical paths, dependencies, capacity and change control.
- Excellent organisation skills, attention to detail and reliable follow-through.
- Confidence in constructively challenging late, incomplete or inconsistent information.
- Experience using PPM or portfolio management tools, with a strong focus on maintaining and improving data quality.
- The ability to run effective meetings, planning cycles and operational processes without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
- Strong written communication skills, including the ability to produce clear agendas, actions, decisions and concise planning updates.
- Confidence coordinating senior stakeholders and managing multiple priorities at pace.
- A practical, service-minded approach with a strong focus on continuous improvement.
To ensure clear ownership and accountability across the Transformation Office:
- Transformation Office Director: owns the integrated plan, portfolio priorities and cross-cluster trade-offs.
- Programme Managers: own cluster plans, delivery assurance, dependencies, capacity oversight and targeted interventions.
- TO Planning & Operations Manager: maintains the joined-up plan, leads Transformation Office operations, and tracks agreed decisions and actions through to completion.
- Transformation Strategy Manager: owns the strategic roadmap, enterprise data and dashboards, executive papers, and governance design and cadence.
- Finance Transformation Office: owns value and benefits, financial validation and consolidated benefit tracking.
- Head of Transformation Practice & Capability: owns methods, assurance standards, readiness practices and capability development.
- Content owners: remain accountable for their papers. TO Operations coordinates the process but does not write or approve content on their behalf.