Osborne Clarke is looking for an IT Project Manager (known internally as Technical Delivery Manager) to join our IT team in Bristol. This newly created role will be central to planning and delivering our portfolio of technical projects, from legal application upgrades and infrastructure changes to technology-led improvements, ensuring high-quality outcomes for the firm while minimising disruption to day-to-day work.
The role
As IT Project Manager, you will sit within our IT Service Delivery function and report to the Head of IT Service Delivery. You will work closely with IT resource managers, our national Business IT teams, the IT Service Design and Transition Manager, and colleagues in Change & Transformation (including Change Managers, Project and Programme Managers and the PMO).
You will also collaborate with technology project sponsors across senior leadership and management, as well as Internal Communications, to ensure projects are well planned, well communicated and successfully embedded across the firm.
Key responsibilities
Delivery leadership & technical delivery
- Lead the delivery of technology projects in line with Osborne Clarke’s agreed project lifecycle and methodologies.
- Manage a range of technical projects, including legal application upgrades, infrastructure updates and other IT-based implementations, configurations and deployments.
- Coordinate and lead cross-functional project teams, ensuring everyone understands expectations and their responsibilities.
- Coach, mentor, motivate and supervise project team members and contractors, encouraging accountability for their work.
- Facilitate timely decision making and help resolve cross-functional issues or conflicts that may arise.
Planning & governance
- Define and agree project scope, objectives and success criteria with sponsors and key stakeholders.
- Develop and maintain clear project plans and schedules, managing dependencies across multiple disciplines.
- Identify resource requirements and work with resource managers to secure the right skills at the right time.
- Develop and manage project budgets and forecasts, tracking costs, commitments and variances.
- Prepare and present project reports and audits, maintaining accurate project documentation.
- Comply with Osborne Clarke’s Project Management and Service Design and Transition processes, and support their ongoing development and implementation.
Stakeholder management & communication
- Build, develop and maintain strong working relationships with project sponsors and stakeholders across the firm.
- Communicate project expectations, progress and issues to team members and stakeholders in a clear and timely way.
- Escalate issues appropriately, providing clear analysis and recommendations.
- Work with Internal Communications to develop and deliver communication plans that support successful project delivery and adoption.
Risk, quality & compliance
- Identify, assess and manage project risks and issues, implementing appropriate mitigating actions.
- Ensure the delivery of quality products and services that meet business needs while limiting disruption to day-to-day operations.
- Maintain a heightened awareness of information security, particularly in relation to elevated system access, and ensure all actions align with the firm’s Information Security Policy and current best practice.
- Conduct project post-mortems and produce lessons-learned reports to identify what worked well and where improvements can be made.
Portfolio management & continuous improvement
- Support the creation and maintenance of the ongoing IT technical portfolio of projects.
- Lead regular planning reviews of the portfolio to ensure priorities, resourcing and timelines remain aligned.
- Contribute to the continuous review and improvement of processes within IT and the wider Business Services teams.
- Promote a culture of mutual understanding and effective communication across Business Services and the firm as a whole.
We are looking for
- Experience in project management, covering the full lifecycle from process development through to execution.
- Proven track record delivering IT based projects such as infrastructure and SaaS implementations and upgrades, software development, configuration and deployment.
- Experience managing a portfolio of projects rather than single initiatives in isolation.
- Qualified in project management practices to at least PRINCE2 Foundation, Agile Project Management, or an equivalent qualification.
- Confident using project management tools (such as Microsoft Project).
- Experience with resource management tools such as Monday.com.
- Experience of working in a professional services and/or partnership environment.
- Able to work autonomously, planning and managing your own workload and priorities.
- Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to influence others and manage conflict constructively.
- Clear and confident communicator, with strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Excellent numeracy and commercial awareness, with the ability to manage and track budgets.
- Highly self-motivated and proactive, with exceptional time management, organisation and prioritisation skills.
- Ability to create, motivate and lead teams, fostering positive collaboration across disciplines.
- A professional, service-oriented approach, supporting fee earners, legal support and Business Services colleagues so the firm can deliver consistently excellent client service.
Salary and benefits
We offer competitive salaries and generous benefits. We value the health and wellbeing of our people and our wide range of initiatives and benefits support this.
Our recruitment process
Please note that although we include closing dates for our roles as a guide, we review and progress applications on a rolling basis. At Osborne Clarke we do not make any recruitment decisions using automated decision-making.
We are committed to providing an environment where you can perform to the best of your abilities at every stage of your recruitment experience and beyond. If you require any adjustments to be made during the application stage, interview process, or when working with us, please let us know in confidence.
