PDHU Heat Network Project Manager WCC624488

Job description

Job Details: Salary range: £56,436 - £66,084 per annum. Salary negotiable depending upon experience. Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP Hours per week: 36 Contract type: Temporary up to 12 months Closing date: 20 September 2026 Interview date: Week Commencing 21 September 2026 About Us: THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF MIHIR’S VISION AND INSPIRATION Capital Works in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. Where dedicated and focused people like Mihir are using all their skills to improve and enhance the lives of the people who live, work and play in our borough. As a Senior Project Manager, it’s Mihir’s job to make sure the estates in the south of the borough are great places to live. Since joining us, he’s worked on many important projects, but is particularly proud of a recently completed major works project at Vale Royal House, in the heart of bustling Chinatown. In the pipeline for about 12 years, renovating the site has been one of the most complex and challenging projects ever undertaken by the council. Before work started, Mihir had to liaise with dozens of different stakeholders, taking into account local events such as the Chinese New Year celebrations and the vibrant, round-the clock nature of the area. But after a challenging two year programme he and his team are proud to have delivered upgrade work to 117 state-of-the-art apartments set around a beautiful hidden courtyard, which are home to more than 1500 people from a hugely diverse range of backgrounds, sitting above 15 new commercial food and retail shops. Mihir is dedicated to providing homes that people can cherish and be proud of, places where they can live, work and raise their families. His vision and inspiration has been the driving force behind the transformation of a rundown inner-city area into an oasis of peace, calm and security, and will allow its residents to grow and flourish in the heart of one of the world’s great capital cities. The Role: As a PDHU Heat Network Project Manager (Fixed Term), you can make your own powerful contribution to one of Westminster’s most significant infrastructure programmes. The Pimlico District Heating Undertaking (PDHU) supplies heat to more than 3,000 homes across Abbots Manor, Churchill Gardens, Lillington and Longmoore, as well as Russell House, alongside dozens of commercial premises, schools and community facilities. This is your chance to help deliver the next phase of this complex programme, supporting the council as it explores options to update the system in a way that balances technical delivery, affordability for residents and long-term value for money. Working in a complex and evolving environment, you will support the Head of Programme in managing the development and delivery of projects within the wider PDHU programme. You will help ensure consistent governance and strong project management standards, defining key deliverables, resources and benefits while managing dependencies across multiple workstreams. This will include convening and facilitating programme steering boards, coordinating governance processes and ensuring key decisions are well informed, clearly documented and delivered at the right time. A central part of your role will be building strong relationships with a wide range of stakeholders. You will work closely with internal teams, specialist advisers, residents and businesses to address challenges, align priorities and keep progress moving. Supporting consultation activity and acting as a key point of contact, you will communicate complex programme and technical information clearly through reports, briefings and presentations so stakeholders can make confident, informed decisions. You will also play a key role in overseeing project delivery across the programme. Working with project teams and advisers, you will help coordinate inputs, monitor performance against milestones and ensure work is delivered on time, within scope and to the required quality. Alongside this, you will identify and manage risks early, resolve issues where they arise and provide regular progress updates and impact assessments to senior stakeholders. Operationally, you will oversee the preparation and maintenance of key programme documentation, including project plans, business cases and reporting. Where further research is needed, you will guide and support the Project Coordinator in identifying best practices and gathering the insight needed to inform programme decisions. The role will also involve supporting procurement activity and the management of contracted services. This may include drafting specifications, preparing expressions of interest, coordinating evaluation processes and ensuring compliance with procurement regulations. Through careful coordination and strong oversight, you will help ensure external expertise is effectively integrated into programme delivery. Please refer to the Job Description for more information. About You: You’ll bring experience of managing complex infrastructure or engineering projects, ideally within heat networks or similar technical programmes. Working in or alongside a political or public sector environment won’t be new to you, and you’ll understand how to balance delivery with good governance, accountability and stakeholder expectations. Keeping projects on track – on time, within budget and to a high standard – is something you’ve done consistently. You’re comfortable running the practical side of programme delivery. Project plans, risk and issue registers, governance papers and reporting are all familiar territory, and you take pride in keeping information accurate and decision-ready. Financial oversight, budget management and business planning are also part of your toolkit, along with a clear understanding of how projects deliver real benefits and value over time. Working with people is a big part of the role, and you’re confident building strong relationships across a wide mix of stakeholders – from senior leaders and technical specialists to residents, communities and external partners. Explaining complex or technical ideas in plain English comes naturally, whether you’re preparing a briefing for a governance board or helping residents understand what a programme means for them. You’re used to coordinating work across multiple teams, often in matrix environments where different specialists and advisers need to come together to deliver progress. Managing consultants, working with contracts or frameworks and supporting procurement activity will all feel familiar. You’re also comfortable in agile or fast-moving programme environments, where priorities shift, and dependencies need careful management. Strong analytical thinking helps you make sense of complex information and datasets, and you’re able to turn that insight into practical decisions and solutions. Alongside this, you’re confident negotiating contracts, managing scope changes and keeping delivery aligned with programme objectives. Most importantly, you bring a calm and thoughtful approach to leadership. You communicate clearly, stay focused under pressure and help teams work through challenges constructively. With sound judgement and political awareness, you’re able to navigate complex situations, build consensus and keep progress moving in a collaborative and positive way. The Council is committed to achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce. We especially encourage applications from a Global Majority ( GM), people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or have been racialised as 'ethnic minorities' ( formally known as B.A.M.E , Black, Asian and multiple ethnic) background and, while the role is open to all applicants, we will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a global majority background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit. If you are from a Global Majority background you can self-declare this to the hiring manager as part of our positive action commitments. Westminster City Council is committed to supporting Care Leavers into the workplace. Care Leavers seeking their first job and who wish to be considered under our scheme, will automatically be invited to interview should they meet the essential criteria for the role. What We Offer: Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe. At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is Our Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit As a forward thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working. The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application , we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible. We reserve the right to extend or close this vacancy early without warning subject to the volume of suitable applicants.