Assistant Project Manager

Overview

Role: Assistant Project Manager

Location: UK Flexible (Derby or York) Hybrid remote working

Role ID: 2023-2109

Why Ricardo?

At Ricardo, our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world. Our global team of consultants, environmental specialists, engineers and scientists deliver innovative and cross-sector sustainable solutions that help our customers respond to their most complex challenges.

We offer technologically advanced solutions that accelerate decarbonised transportation; deliver innovation to support global net zero and industry agendas; and provide comprehensive expertise in safety, assurance and certification. In this growing market we are seeking outstanding talent to support us in solving the world's sustainability challenges.

Our teams across the globe are at the heart of who we are and what we do. We are a close-knit, purpose driven community delivering world-class engineering, scientific, economic and consulting capability.  We believe in fostering an environment where you can thrive and make a meaningful impact. We are committed to empowering our employees, providing opportunities for growth and professional development as well as cultivating a supportive and inclusive work environment.

The role

We have an exciting opportunity for an Assistant Project Manager to join our consultancy team. The role is to work with our engineering teams to manage a wide range of projects, including budget setting and control, customer and supplier engagement, and identification and mitigation of project risks. In undertaking this role you will need to work autonomously, interfacing with clients, other members of the delivery teams and the management team. You will also provide support to Group Leaders and Project Managers within the Ricardo Rail UK delivery team for the resourcing and delivery of projects, and will act as an end-to-end manager for a number of smaller projects within the portfolio, with project values between £10k and £1m.  For this role you will have several years’ experience working in a similar role ideally, but not essentially, within the rail or professional service sectors. If you are an aspiring project administrator or established project manager with a strong passion for providing excellent service and looking for your next move, we’d like to hear from you.

Key competencies and experience

We encourage you to apply for this role if you can demonstrate many of the following key competencies and experience:

• Experience of working in a business / client services environment.
• Proven experience of managing small projects through the full project lifecycle including managing budgets against an estimate at completion, reporting current project status and providing outturn forecasts.
• Capability to quickly learn and proficiently operate Ricardo’s project management (Changepoint) and Customer Relationship Management (Microsoft Dynamics) software tools.
• Flexibility and a results-oriented approach to meet varying and competing client and business demands.
• Versatility and adaptability with strong organisational skills to be able to work on multiple tasks and to tight deadlines.
• A proactive approach to problem solving with strong communication and diplomacy skills to negotiate and influence internal and external clients.
• An inquisitive nature, an eye for detail, and an ability to use own initiative.
• Excellent mathematical skills in relation to project budgets, costs and forecasting.
• Excellent English oral and written communication skills, including the ability to communicate with a range of internal and external stakeholders.
• Excellent Excel skills and proficient in the use of other Microsoft Office packages including Word, Project, and PowerPoint.

In addition to the requirements above it would be beneficial, but not essential, for you to have:

• Knowledge of the Rail industry, including experience of delivering projects in the rail environment.
• Project Management qualifications e.g. PRINCE2 or APM.

Responsibilities

As an Assistant Project Manager your main responsibilities will be to:

• Manage a portfolio of discrete projects, implementing and promoting core principles such as scope management, resource planning, change control, risk, financial control and documentation management.
• Supporting the Project Managers in day-to-day project activities on other projects. For example, ensuring accurate budget and financial status information, cost forecasts, invoicing and purchase order management.
• Convert winning bids into live projects and create project budgets within our project management tool.
• Take responsibility for ensuring the project Estimate at Completion remains accurate throughout the project, with any project risks identified.
• Support Project Engineers in ensuring that risks are understood, considered and mitigated during both the production of project proposals and during the project lifecycle.
• Ensure any Health and Safety risk relating to the project is identified and managed.
• Build and maintain good client relationships through proactive communication and actions to fulfil client and business expectations.
• Provide a first level response to all emerging customer and supplier issues, engaging with subject-matter experts, where applicable, to ensure a high level of customer service.
• Support project management processes within Ricardo, developing and delivering best practice tools and techniques for effective and consistent ways of working.
• Identify, suggest and assist managers with implementing change and developments to the administration processes and procedures to meet future business demands and improve process efficiency.
• Identify and implement the correct authorisation route for each project and providing the required information in a timely manner.
• Identify, manage and input project opportunities, such as variations to contract or cost reduction opportunities, to support the Project Manager.
• Undertake the role of Bid Co-ordinator, as required.

In addition the role may require travel within the UK and, on occasions, internationally in support of projects.

Working here

You will be warmly welcomed into our workplace where every voice matters. We are diverse thinkers and doers, coming together to create a culture of inclusion. We will support you to find your place. We will encourage you to use your passion and expertise to make a positive impact through the projects you work on. Your knowledge and desire to bring about improvements to our rail sector customers will be invaluable in helping deliver innovative solutions that support communities in the UK and beyond in becoming safer and more sustainable. We also recognise that life is not static but is varied and flexible. For this reason, we also think that your work life should reflect this and are happy to discuss how, where and when you work.

Rewards and benefits

We want you to know how much you are valued. Your remuneration and benefits package will reflect that. You will receive a range of benefits which include support for your physical and mental health. Our core benefits include, but are not limited to, 25 days' annual leave (plus 8 bank holidays), a competitive company pension scheme, life assurance, permanent disability insurance and professional subscriptions reimbursement. We also offer a wide range of flexible benefits to suit your lifestyle.

Next steps

Once you have submitted your application a member of our recruitment team will be in touch. Please be aware that the timing can vary dependent on the volume of applications that we receive for each role and in some cases, we may start to review applications prior to the closing date.

Ricardo is a Disability Confident employer, please advise the recruitment team via recruit.ee@ricardo.com if you require any adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process.