Lead Project Manager - International Assignment to South Korea

Lead Project Manager  - International Assignment to South Korea

About Us

Our teams are putting the world’s retailers online using the cloud, robotics, AI, and IoT. We provide services to partner clients globally via our innovative advanced robotics technology, known as the Ocado Smart Platform ("OSP"), this drives our highly automated, multi-million pound Customer Fulfilment Centres (CFCs). In our CFCs - together with the proprietary software applications - we operate a world-class online grocery business that automates the single pick of products, ready for your online delivery.

About the role 

The Project Delivery Talent Pool provides project professionals to our regional project teams to deliver a range of projects across the globe, including large scale installations of our OSP solution into partner warehouses, the introduction of new products and changes to our existing installations. 

The Lead Project Manager role takes full ownership and accountability for large scale (up to £100m capital value) end-to-end projects, supporting both our retail partners as well as internal project delivery teams. The role is external partner/internal stakeholder-facing and has budget, people management and decision-making responsibilities for the full scope of the project.

An LPM will have the leadership qualities required to drive each stage of their project with various internal and external teams (whether in a head office situation, or on site during a construction phase).

The LPM is the ‘voice of the project’ inside Ocado and with partner counterparts and must be adept at dealing with challenges, risk/issue management, reporting, as well as being instrumental in driving our company culture and values within the team.

As an LPM the type of projects you could typically be accountable for vary from leading an end-to-end delivery of our automated facilities (Customer Fulfilment Centres (CFC), Distribution Centres (DC) and warehouses) across our global locations for one of our partners, to working on new and innovative solutions or technology/software projects across our growing number of sites, or even working alongside multiple other project teams developing central process improvements and rolling out exciting new developments across the global portfolio.

The role includes an international assignment to South Korea. 

What you will do

• You will take full ownership and accountability for large scale large scale (up to 100m capital value end to end projects, supporting both our partners as well as internal project delivery teams.
• You will provide visible and effective leadership, with a focus on knowledge sharing.
• You will create and contribute to the company culture and Ocado values.
• You will have direct and indirect people management responsibilities. You will have day to day management of a team and various disciplines, proactively driving the development of the team and working with individuals to set objectives and create development plans.
• You will work side by side with Ocado's partner clients throughout the delivery of the project and be their key 'go to' liaison point for project topics.
• You will ensure that the project is successfully delivered to scope, budget, schedule and quality.
• You will drive the project by responding proactively to breaking issues, competing priorities and key dependencies to ensure that the right decisions are taken swiftly.
• You will maintain and monitor progress of the project against Ocado's standard project methodologies.
• You will be the key project decision maker, managing risks and issues within the project with regular reporting and escalating to senior management when appropriate.
• You will inspire confidence across the project with timely, professional communications to all levels of the business.
• You will proactively contribute to the development of best practice for our delivery methodology.
• You will monitor lessons learned with a continuous improvement approach.

We’d love to talk to you if you have...

• You will have the leadership qualities required to drive each stage of your project with various internal and external (partner and construction) teams, whether in a head office situation or on site, during a construction phase.
• You exhibit strong ownership and leadership skills and quickly earn client and stakeholder trust.
• You remove blockers by identifying alternative and effective ways to manage projects and teams.
• You support, develop and mentor your team and others across Project Management.
• You have a highly analytical and logical approach to work.
• You determine and utilise appropriate communication channels and utilise meaningful insights from data.
• You are able to read ambiguous situations quickly.
• You have the experience in understanding and appropriately challenging expert opinions.
• You are able to respond quickly and effectively to changing priorities.
• You are experienced in influencing a wide range of business professionals across all levels.
• You are able to communicate complex ideas across projects and senior leadership teams.
• You have the ability to show initiative, self motivation and innovation.
• You hold effective conversations and share information of good quality.
• You actively listen, understand and respond to stakeholders and customers.
• You proactively maintain good working relationships.
• You actively support business growth, process and operational improvement.
• You have experience leading and delivering large scale projects as the project lead.
• You have customer facing project experience.
• It would be beneficial if you have skills in an additional language.
• Ideally you have had exposure to international clients and/or projects
• You are proficient with project management tools.
• You have experience leading people across major capital projects.
• You are skilled in managing contracts including high labour content
• You will have a Bachelors Degree level or higher or equivalent experience.
• You hold a formal project management qualification e.g. PMP, APM (PMQ, PPQ) or Prince 2 Practitioner

Bonus points if you also have…

• Korean language skills

What we offer you...

Our employee benefits are designed for you, we care about people and we’ve ensured we have a wealth of benefits that focus on your well-being. We regularly review our benefits to ensure we are supporting our employees appropriately. Currently, we offer technically stretching work, a competitive salary and;

• A Work from Home policy that sees you in the office typically 40% of your time. 
• 30 days ‘working from anywhere’ policy 
• Wellbeing support through Apps and an Employee Assistance Programme
• 25 days annual leave, rising to 27 days after 5 years service (plus optional holiday purchase)
• Pension scheme (various options available including employer contribution matching up to 7%)
• Private Medical Insurance
• 22 weeks paid maternity leave and 6 weeks paid paternity leave (once relevant service requirements complete) 
• Train Ticket loan (interest-free)
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Free shuttle bus to and from Welwyn Garden City Train Station to the Welwyn Garden City offices
• Opportunity to participate in Share save and Buy as You Earn share schemes
• 15% discount on Ocado.com and free delivery for all employees
• Income Protection (can be up to 50% of salary for 3 years) and Life Assurance (3 x annual salary)

We also have regular divisional socials, sports clubs not to mention the Ocado Technology Academy for a packed schedule of courses, conferences and events. If you think you have what it takes to make a difference, please submit your application below.

Join our talent community!

Our Talent Community is a great way to stay up-to-date with our latest career opportunities, as well as news and relevant careers insights. Register today, and be the first to be notified when a role we think you’d be perfect for becomes available.

Be bold, be unique, be brilliant, be you. We are looking for individuality and we value diversity. We are an equal opportunities employer and we are committed to treating all applicants and employees fairly and equally. We are committed to making reasonable adjustments to provide a positive, barrier-free recruitment process and supportive work environment. 

If you have any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of application.

We are thrilled to welcome applicants from across the world. Whilst we are able to offer visa sponsorship, please note that we are only able to cover costs relating to the Certificate of Sponsorship and the Immigration Skills Charge only. For all employment offers made for UK roles, it is expected that you will be based in the UK in commutable distance, ready for your first day of work, so please keep this in mind. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Due to the energising nature of Ocado's business, vacancy close dates, when stated, are indicative and may be subject to change so please apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. If you have applied and been rejected for this role in the last 6 months, or applied and been rejected for a role with a similar skill set, we will not re-evaluate you for this position. After 6 months, we will treat your application as a new one. All benefits information is subject to change and the terms of the individual arrangements. Please assume you have been unsuccessful if you haven’t heard from us within 4 weeks.