Project Manager (Customer)

The Vacancy

The Vacancy

We're looking for two experienced Project Managers to join our Customer team at FSCS.

The Project Manager is accountable for leading, managing, and delivering complex, high-impact change initiatives across the Customer function. This includes tactical, strategic, and transformational programmes aligned to FSCS's strategic plan. The role requires strong project management expertise to manage initiatives from inception through to closure, including lessons learned and continuous improvement.

Operating within FSCS governance frameworks and best practice methodologies, the Project Manager will ensure delivery excellence across multiple concurrent projects in a highly regulated environment. The role demands executive visibility, engagement with senior stakeholders including C-suite, and the ability to influence decisions at the highest level. The Project Manager will adopt a proactive, hands-on approach; providing direct support to delivery teams and actively removing obstacles to ensure successful outcomes, while leveraging a breadth of experience across diverse financial products and collaborating with IT teams to integrate current and future technologies within the customer journey lifecycle.

Key Priorities

• Be accountable for delivery in accordance with the FSCS governance, standards and controls
• Ensure the Customer projects and programmes are adhered to and defined
• Take the lead on scoping, prioritising, initiating, and delivering a suite of roadmap-linked projects, working collaboratively with relevant stakeholders across current initiatives and business-as-usual activities
• Drive performance excellence by delivering high-impact projects that maximise value, accelerate strategic outcomes, and set the benchmark for organisational success.
• Be responsible for leadership and stakeholder management in order to shape and deliver projects, cutting through ambiguity clearly being able to produce key actions and results to deadline.
• The role will engage with senior stakeholders, including C-suite, ensuring executive visibility and leading SteerCo meetings to provide comprehensive status updates, manage risks and issues, and facilitate informed decision-making. Where contractors are required to provide capacity to deliver individual roadmap projects, the Project Manager will provide oversight of these PMs as this will be part of the overall delivery of the portfolio of roadmap initiatives that they will be leading on.
• Provide oversight and direction to contractor resources, ensuring alignment and successful delivery of roadmap initiatives as part of the overall portfolio
• Providing support for the wider team, through mentoring and coaching to build capability, foster collaboration, and drive high performance
• Measure, analyse and report on metrics such as time, cost, budget ownership, and benefit realisation; producing weekly, monthly and quarterly reports
• Have the ability to manage multiple projects and multiple changing priorities at once
• Proactively identify potential risks and anticipate challenges before they arise, implementing mitigation strategies to safeguard delivery
• Capture, analyse and circulate data such as lessons learned, improvements and governance check
• Proficient in data analysis on project delivery performance and capturing and analysing lessons learned
• Understand the scheme strategies and priorities and translate that understanding into deliverable activities

About You

We have identified the following skills, knowledge, and experience as essential for success in this role however we understand that everyone's learning journey is different and there is no one size fits all. If you feel you have many of the below strengths but don't tick all the boxes, we'd still love to hear from you.

• Demonstrable experience in delivering projects from inception to closure using recognised project delivery methodology.
• Strong financial acumen with an understanding of the insurance industry and preferably insolvency / restructuring principles.
• Experience of working on projects in complex financial services environments where the path to resolution is still evolving.
• Experience of planning and schedule management using MSP, including milestone planning, dependencies, CPA, baselining and change control.
• Experience of working with multiple external stakeholders to empower clear and informed decision making.
• A working knowledge of governance, standards, and controls within project management.
• Experience of risk management with the ability to identify and mitigate risks and communicating these to all project stakeholders, internal and external alike.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence and challenge at senior stakeholder level.
• Strong IT skills including knowledge of the full Microsoft suite.
• Advanced knowledge of Change & Project Management Principles.
• Prince2 or equivalent qualification

Working at the FSCS

At FSCS we are purpose driven and committed to delivering an exceptional service and results for our customers.

We have invested greatly in a flexible people offering that we're proud of, that our employees love and that supports and promotes diversity, inclusion, and overall wellbeing. Key benefits include:

• Employer pension contributions from 9% - 15% dependant on your contributions and length of service
• Life assurance, income and critical illness protection
• Private medical and dental insurance
• EAP and Virtual GP
• 26 days annual leave + bank holidays and the option to sell 5 or buy up to 9 additional days per annum to suit your lifestyle
• Enhanced Maternity, Paternity and Adoption leave - 6 months full pay
• Additional discounts and options to earn rewards to spend at your choice of retailer

About Us

For over 20 years, FSCS has been the UK's financial safety net, protecting customers when authorised financial firms fail and helping them get back on track.

We are an independent, non-profit organisation set up by government, offering a free service where customers keep every penny of the compensation they are owed when they claim directly with us. FSCS is funded by the financial services industry through an annual levy paid by firms authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Through the 2008 banking crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic, FSCS has provided reassurance during the most challenging times, giving people confidence their money is safe. By maintaining trust in financial services, we help support financial stability and contribute to economic growth. Our people are at the heart of everything we do. Together, we've built a culture of empathy, resilience, and continuous improvement - always striving to do better and move faster in a complex financial landscape.

Join us and make a real difference.

Our Strategy

Prepare

What we are aiming for
We shall respond to large and complex firm failures, whilst maintaining our seven-day pay-out for savers in banks, building societies and credit unions. We will actively contribute to increasingly effective resolution when firms fail.

Why this matters
FSCS needs to contribute to public confidence and financial stability by being ready to respond when called upon across the full range of protected products.

Our approach

• Maintain well-tested contingency plans, backed by necessary capabilities and robust customer information.
• Collaborate with industry to improve the customer information we rely on for payouts.
• Improve our ability to respond quickly to investment and insurance failures.
• Work with industry and regulators to improve resolution arrangements.

Protect

What we are aiming for
FSCS is known and trusted for protection that puts people back on track through outstanding customer experience.

Why this matters
Customer expectations are rising. The service our customers receive must meet their expectations in terms of speed, accessibility and ease of use, in order to maintain consumer trust and confidence.

Our approach

• Exploit digital technology to create the service our customers expect, at lower cost to our levy payers.
• Improve the speed of our service by eliminating time and process inefficiencies, particularly with third parties.
• Exploit our new strategic partnership - by drawing on our partner's expertise, scale and experience.
• Provide continuity of cover for policyholders in failed insurance companies.

Promote

What we are aiming for
We shall raise awareness of FSCS protection across all of the products and services we protect, particularly retirement savings products.

Why this matters
Awareness of, and trust in, FSCS protection maintains confidence in a crisis. Awareness also helps to inform people's choices by increasing their confidence in buying protected services and understanding the risks of unprotected products.

Our approach

• Partner with the industry to raise awareness of FSCS protection across all protected products and services, focusing on retirement savings initially.
• Engage with consumers and provide information to help people understand protection and make informed decisions.
• Encourage customers of failed firms to come directly to FSCS with their claim.
• Work with our stakeholders to provide joined-up and easy to access information about FSCS protection.

Prevent

What we are aiming for
We shall collaborate with the regulators and industry to prevent future failure and to reduce future compensation costs.

Why this matters
FSCS compensation costs are rising fast - we project that compensation may rise from £405 million in 2017/18, mainly driven by escalating pensions claims. These costs put pressure on firms' finances and are passed on to consumers.

Our approach

• Commit to joint action with the regulators and industry to identify and address the root causes of mis-selling and other conduct issues which drive failure and compensation costs.
• Ensure consumers are alerted more quickly to vulnerabilities and risks as they emerge.
• Work with our partners to improve co-ordination across government, industry and regulators, ensuring insights and intelligence are generated and acted on.
• Feed back lessons learnt as a creditor and from recoveries activity, including working with the insolvency and insurance markets.
• Develop FSCS' own capability to provide actionable intelligence.