Principal Technical Project Manager (we have office locations in Cambridge, Leeds & London)

Job description

We are seeking a Principal Technical Project Manager to support our Engineering Chapter in driving improvements to tooling, platforms and ways of working within the Software Delivery Lifecycle (SDLC) and live operations across the service and company. In this position you will work closely with the Director of Engineering and core Engineering Chapter teams: Developer Platform, Test Enablement and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE). You will play a vital role in ensuring that the objectives of those teams (and the initiatives which support them) are clearly identified and prioritised with the product managers and delivered effectively. You will engage with stakeholders across the business, ensuring that central Engineering Chapter work aligns with business needs, is communicated effectively and that outcomes are aligned with expectations. This principal role requires someone with strong understanding of modern SDLC practices, excellent stakeholder engagement skills, who can bring a collaborative and agile approach to driving delivery across multiple strands of work. Candidates should be highly experienced in working in an ambiguous environment, learning new principles and technologies to be able to work effectively with teams and engage credibly with the wider organisation. They should also be comfortable with balancing between meeting delivery commitments and being responsive to emerging organisational needs and priorities. Everyday responsibilities include: Own the end-to-end delivery of key technical workstreams within a programme, taking accountability for the successful completion of critical delivery outcomes. Lead the management of OKRs and initiatives across Engineering Chapter teams, including the capture, definition, tracking and reporting of objectives and key results. Partner with Product Managers and Service Owners to validate requirements and ensure delivery is aligned to agreed timelines, budgets and OKRs. Establish and maintain delivery plans, monitoring progress against roadmaps and communicating or escalating where delivery moves away from agreed commitments. Ensure delivery progress is accurately reflected in operational tools, including , to support effective planning, visibility and reporting. Identify, manage and regularly review risks, actions, issues and dependencies, working collaboratively with teams to resolve challenges and maintain delivery momentum. Prepare clear status updates and contribute to programme board reports and governance forums, ensuring progress, risks and decisions are communicated effectively. Establish and use appropriate decision-making structures, helping teams make timely, well-informed decisions where uncertainty needs to be resolved. Implement effective governance across delivery, cybersecurity, data quality, data protection, IT requirements, accreditations and relevant internal and external standards. Build trusted relationships with internal and external stakeholders, adapting communication to reflect different commercial, technical and business considerations. Ensure contributors are clear on what needs to be delivered, by when, and that responsible stakeholders remain informed throughout the delivery lifecycle. Engage with technical and operational governance groups, including the Engineering Steering Group, to shape, review and ratify key engineering decisions where appropriate. Lead, motivate and support contributors to delivery, including in matrix environments where there is no direct line management authority. Promote service-oriented thinking across Engineering Chapter teams, helping teams remain focused on user needs, service outcomes and measurable impact. Support supplier engagement and procurement activity in line with Genomics England governance, including supplier frameworks and relevant approval routes. Contribute to business cases, budget planning and spend monitoring, ensuring items and services are approved, budgeted for and managed through appropriate governance. Line manage and support Delivery Chapter colleagues, including pastoral support, performance reviews, development planning, training and performance management where required. Contribute as a senior member of the Delivery Chapter, supporting best practice, continuous improvement and active participation in Chapter meetings and away days. Skills and experience for success: Proven track record of project and programme delivery from initiation to business as usual. Agile and adaptive project, risk, and issue management with a proactive and outcome-focused approach. Strong communication skills, engaging effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences. Commercial awareness to support informed decision-making. Ability to work in a highly regulated environment with increasing compliance needs. Stakeholder management, building trusted relationships across teams and leadership levels. Confident decision-making with sound judgement on escalation and risk management. Ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear, accessible language for non-technical stakeholders. Collaborative approach to problem-solving, balancing delivery priorities with business needs. Track record of line management directly or in a matrix organisation. Awareness of the following technologies and concepts: The principles and benefits of Internal Developer Platforms and Platform Engineering. Quality Assurance best-practices e.g. shift-left, contract-testing and Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD). Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles and practices. Measures of engineering maturity e.g. Developer Experience (DevEx) and DORA. Modern CI/CD platforms e.g. GitLab (preferred), GitHub and awareness of the concepts and benefits of Continuous Delivery. Observability / monitoring platforms e.g. DataDog (preferred) or New Relic. AWS services e.g. EC2, ECS/Fargate, S3, Lambda, RDS, VPC and management tools including AWS Organisations, Identity Center, Inspector and Security Hub. Infrastructure-as-code tools e.g. Terraform (preferred) or CloudFormation. Salary from: £77,000 Closing date for applications - Thursday 29th October at midnight. Being an integral part of such a meaningful mission is extremely rewarding in itself, but in order to support our people, we’re continually improving our benefits package. We pride ourselves on investing in our people and supporting them to achieve their career goals, as well as offering a benefits package including: Generous Leave: 30 days’ holiday plus bank holidays, additional leave for long service, and the option to apply for up to 30 days of remote working abroad annually (approval required). Family-Friendly: Blended working arrangements, flexible working, enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave benefits. Pension & Financial: Defined contribution pension (Genomics England double-matches up to 10%, however you can contribute more if you wish), Life Assurance (3x salary), an Electric Vehicle salary sacrifice scheme and a Give As You Earn scheme. Learning & Development: Individual learning budgets, support for training and certifications, and reimbursement for one annual professional subscription (approval required). Recognition & Rewards: Employee recognition programme and referral scheme. Health & Wellbeing: Subsidised gym membership, a free Headspace account, and access to an Employee Assistance Programme, eye tests, flu jabs. Equal opportunities and our commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace Genomics England is actively committed to providing and supporting an inclusive environment that promotes equity, diversity and inclusion best practice both within our community and in any other area where we have influence. We are proud of our diverse community where everyone can come to work and feel welcomed and treated with respect regardless of any disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, or social background. Genomics England’s policies of non-discrimination and equity and will be applied fairly to all people, regardless of age, disability, gender identity or reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, being pregnant or recently becoming a parent, race, religion or beliefs, sex or sexual orientation, length of service, whether full or part-time or employed under a permanent or a fixed-term contract or any other relevant factor. Genomics England does not tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment, victimisation or bullying at work. Such behaviour undermines our mission and core values and diminishes the dignity, respect and integrity of all parties. Our People policies outline our commitment to inclusivity. We aim to remove barriers in our recruitment processes and to be flexible with our interview processes. Should you require any adjustments that may help you to fully participate in the recruitment process, we encourage you to discuss this with us. Culture We have four key behaviours that represent what we would like Genomics England to feel like and the culture we want to encourage, in order for us to achieve our mission. These behaviours help us all work well together, deliver on our outcomes, celebrate our successes and share feedback with each other. You can read about these and other aspects of our culture here Culture | Genomics England Blended working model Genomics England operates a blended working model as we know our people appreciate the flexibility that hybrid working can bring. We expect most people to come into the office a minimum of 2 times each month. However, this will vary according to role and will be agreed with your team leader. There is no expectation that people will return to the office full time unless they want to, however, some of our roles require full time on site attendance e.g., lab teams, reception team. Our teams and squads have, and will continue to reflect on what works best for them to work together successfully and have the freedom to design working patterns to suit, beyond the minimum. Our office locations are: Canary Wharf, Cambridge and Leeds. Onboarding background checks As part of our recruitment process, all successful candidates are subject to a Standard Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. We therefore require applicants to disclose any previous offences at point of application, as some unspent convictions may mean we are unable to proceed with your application due to the nature of our work in healthcare. Genomics England is a global leader in enabling genomic medicine and research, focused on creating a world where everyone benefits from genomic healthcare. Building on the 100,000 Genomes Project, we support the NHS’s world-first national whole genome sequencing service and run the growing National Genomic Research Library, alongside delivering numerous major genomics initiatives. By connecting research and clinical care at national scale, we enable immediate healthcare benefits and advances for the future. Our mission is to provide the evidence and digital systems so that by 2035 genomics could play a role in up to half of all healthcare interactions, whilst securing the UK’s position as the best place to discover, prove and benefit from genomic innovations. We are accelerating our impact and working with patients, doctors, scientists, government and industry to improve genomic testing, and help researchers access the health data and technology they need to make new medical discoveries and create more effective, targeted medicines for everybody. Behind the Healthcare and Research outcomes, Genomics England delivers through designing, developing and operating complex healthcare software systems. We're on the cusp of big changes with the real prospect of genomics becoming the fabric of everyday healthcare through the lifetime – from birth to old age.