Good Growth

Good Growth is responsible for delivering and implementing the Mayors environment, transport and economic strategies and for the effective implementation of the London Plan. The Directorate is also responsible for regeneration (where the programme is not housing led), enterprise, growth, capital projects and design work.

About The Team

Would you like to transform London to make it greener, healthier, nature-rich and ready to tackle the climate and ecological emergencies? The Green Infrastructure and Climate Adaptation teams work closely together to deliver the Mayors Delivering a Greener and More Climate-Resilient London mandate and delivery plan. The teams deliver against seven main projects/workstreams to enable Londoners to enjoy green and wild spaces across the capital, and for London to be resilient to extreme weather and the impacts of climate change.

Were looking for a Project Manager for our new Green Roots Programme. This is a unique opportunity to help achieve the Mayors ambition to make London a leader in green infrastructure and urban rewilding, ensure that London remains more than half green and to ensure more Londoners benefit from having green space near where they live.

About The Role

Reporting to the Principal Programme Delivery Officer, you will project manage the Mayors new Green Roots Programme, one of the key delivery programmes of the Mayors manifesto commitments and the teams work programme to enhance and add to Londons network of green infrastructure.

You will be responsible for a £12m grant investment and parallel work programmes to ensure that the grant reaches underrepresented groups and communities. You will direct the grant fund, developing and implementing innovative and robust guidance, processes, systems and structures to ensure strong programme delivery.

You will work closely with colleagues across the Environment Unit and the wider GLA to successfully deliver the grant programme, coordinating the input of the Green Infrastructure, Climate Adaptation, Regeneration, Communities, Health, and other GLA teams to drive programme impact, as well as overseeing and supporting the work of the Economic Development Programmes Unit team that administers the grant, and the Digital Experience Unit and Grants Strategy teams as part of an organisation-wide pilot. You will work to ensure that the grant fund and wider programme deliver their desired outcomes, coordinate governance, procurement, finance activities and identify opportunities to enhance and grow the fund. You will also work closely with key external stakeholders and partners across London, including boroughs, government bodies, NGOs and community groups, to communicate the Green Roots Programme and to promote our work in an inclusive way.

The Green Infrastructure Teams portfolio includes work on Nature/Biodiversity/Rewilding, Trees & Woodlands and Green Spaces & Urban Greening, plus cross-cutting issues, such as data & evidence, strategy & planning, green finance and more. You will work in a matrix way across the three thematic portfolios to align policies and outcomes.

To succeed in the role, youll need to be a collaborative and confident project manager. Youll need to have strong abilities in project or programme design and delivery, with experience in grant management strongly desirable. While policy or technical expertise in a green infrastructure topic area would be helpful, it is not necessary for someone who can learn quickly. You must be comfortable in working with ambiguity with minimal instruction, translating senior leader requests into action, communicating complex issues and programmes clearly, managing relationships in pressured situations and dealing with iterative change.

The Mayors Delivering a Greener and More Climate-Resilient London delivery plan is new. The Green Roots Programme is a key project of this delivery plan, but it, along with most of the Green Infrastructure teams work is new, innovative and in the process of design and early implementation. You will need to be able to manage varied and fast-paced work, have good project management skills and be effective at communicating with and influencing a range of stakeholders, preferably with some experience of doing this in a political environment. Youll need to be flexible, adaptable, and have a collaborative approach, as this role requires working across many teams as well as piloting new activities in the organisation.

What your day will look like

• Providing direction, oversight and support to other team members and teams to ensure everyone is working toward the grant and policy priorities.
• Overseeing the continued development of software systems and other products and processes to ensure the grant is administered in a way that delivers policy priorities.
• Managing governance processes across multiple teams and upwards to track project spend and timelines, report progress, raise and mitigate risk and issues and facilitate programme decisions.
• Designing, operationalising and implementing non-grant aspects of the Green Roots programme to deliver against programme and policy priorities.
• Embedding EDI into programme design, communications, engagement and the implementation of the programme.
• Providing internal and external communications about the programme through briefings, presentations, social media and more.
• Managing relationships and contracts with suppliers and internal SLAs to ensure high quality delivery.
  
  

• A track record, and evidence of success, of managing a relevant programme or project and delivering results on target and within budget. Experience of utilising appropriate and effective project management skills, methods and tools.
• Good knowledge and experience of developing, designing and delivering green infrastructure or environment projects and programmes, this could include working on grant funded programmes as either a funder or grant recipient. A good understanding of Londons funding landscape for green infrastructure or environment.
• Experience with and commitment to equality and diversity in an applied context. (Specific experience of this in environment or green infrastructure desired, but not essential)
• Behavioural competency: Decision Making Level 2. Experience with balancing the need to take decisions as necessary with the understanding of when to escalate decisions, issues and risks to more senior decision makers.
• Behavioural competency: Stakeholder Focus Level 3. A successful track record of working effectively with colleagues at all levels of an organisation, and across organisational boundaries and evidence of leading collaborative teams. (Experience of successful delivery within a political environment isdesired, but not essential.)
• Behavioural competency: Communicating and Influencing Level 2. Ability to support and influence others by building relationships through clear and persuasive written, verbal and physical presentation and personal credibility. Ability to prepare timely, clear and concise communications, presentations and briefings on complex and/or sensitive issues for a range of different needs and audiences.
  
  

• Takes decisions as necessary on the basis of the information available
• Makes decisions without unnecessarily referring to others
• Involves and consults internal and external stakeholders early in decisionsthat impact them
• Identifies potential barriers to decision making and initiates action to movea situation forward
• Demonstrates awareness of the GLAs decision making processes and howto use them
  
  

• Understands diverse stakeholder needs and tailors deliverable accordingly
• Managers stakeholder expectations so they are high but realistic
• Removes barriers to understanding the needs of diverse stakeholders, including hard to reach groups
  
  

• Communicates openly and inclusively with internal and externalStakeholders
• Clearly articulates the key points of an argument, both in verbal andwritten communication
• Persuades others, using evidence based knowledge, modifying approach to deliver message effectively
• Challenges the views of others in an open and constructive way
• Presents a credible and positive image both internally and externally
  
  

• Up to date CV
• Personal statement with a maximum of 1500 words. Please ensure you address how you demonstrate the essential criteria outlined above in the advert.