Assistant Project Manager

Job Introduction

DAC Beachcroft LLP are currently recruiting for a Assistant Project Manager to join their Business Improvement and Change team (BIC). The BIC team ensures that projects run within DACB are managed and executed with efficiency and expertise.

Working hours: Monday to Friday 9.00-5.00 (35 hours)

The Assistant Project Manager will join the project delivery team to deliver key projects for the business. This is an ideal step for a candidate who has run projects informally before and would like to pursue a career in formal Project Management.

The ideal candidate will have experience in implementing and concluding projects / tasks in a commercial environment. Experience within the legal sector is of an advantage and relevant training will be provided.

Role Responsibility

The role holder will:

• Take responsibility for managing low impact, small budget projects and activities to ensure that they are delivered to agreed time, budget and quality
• Apply appropriate methodologies and governance to control project progress, risk costs and quality.
• Assist Project Managers with coordination and administration activities on larger more complex projects as directed
• Ensure that senior stakeholders are engaged in projects, that key milestone progress updates are regularly provided and that all aspects of the project follow the existing governance structure.  Facilitate and contribute to project board meetings with appropriate support if required
• Act as a liaison between the business and technical project team members, offering hands-on project direction, guidance and assistance
• Create and maintain project plans and take responsibility for communicating and updating these plans as projects progress
• Monitor project performance against key parameters - including budget and timescales - throughout the lifecycle of the project. Ensure that issues and risks are flagged and addressed if possible, in a timely manner to avoid overruns
• Prepare and obtain approval for all key project documentation
• Organise and attend regular project update meetings, ensuring that action points are recorded and completed
• Facilitate the involvement of required resources from other practice areas as required, liaising and communicating effectively with relevant teams across DAC Beachcroft business areas; primarily IT teams
• Assist and feed into post-completion analysis of project delivery, capturing and communicating any lessons learnt
• Work with and support the PMO and Operational Excellence teams within BIC, in line with the departments’ strategic objectives
• Travel, where essential (and subject to Covid-19 travel guidance), to other DAC Beachcroft offices to facilitate project progress
• Handle confidential information in line with the firm's data security protocols.

The Ideal Candidate

The role holder will:

• Have experience in implementing and concluding projects / tasks in a commercial environment, preferably in the legal sector
• Ideally have experience of working with project management methodologies (ideally Prince2, Agile PM and Agile Development)
• Be outcome-focused, taking a pragmatic, cost effective approach to dealing with issues
• Have good organisational abilities, maintaining a balance between the bigger picture and the detail
• Have good people skills with a clear persuasive communication style.  Have strong listening skills and ability to build effective working relationships
• Demonstrate resilience in the face of resistance and setbacks.  Be able to demonstrate clear judgment and apply common sense
• Be self-motivated and able to work to a high standard under own initiative
• Be confident in reporting to and working with senior business stakeholders and project sponsors

About the Company

We are a leading international legal business with over 2,400 colleagues and a diverse range of capabilities. We have 11 offices in the UK as well as offices in Dublin, Madrid, Paris, Singapore, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Miami. We also have associations/alliances with firms in Northern Ireland, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Brazil, Peru, Central America, Argentina, the USA, Australia and Germany.

We are known for our market-leading presence in sectors such as Insurance, Health and Real Estate. This is complemented by a fast-growing Business Advisory capability. We represent a wide range of clients, ranging from household names to government departments and NHS bodies. We act for the majority of the top 30 insurance and financial services companies operating in the UK. We are the asset management lawyers for the UK’s largest shopping centres and act for 9 of the UK’s top 10 housebuilders.

We have an impressive legal pedigree, with 155 Chambers UK 2019 practice area and individual lawyer rankings, including 30 rankings at 'Band 1' level. In Legal 500 UK, 2018, the firm received top tier ranking for 32 of its practice areas and 59 practice areas in the top two tiers. In March 2018, we were named as one of Legal Week's Best Legal Advisors for the third year running, achieving category-leading satisfaction scores for our commercial approach, service delivery, quality of legal advice, communication & responsiveness and overall relationships.

Our vision is to be leading business advisers, recognised for our insight and our outstanding commitment to clients, and for being the place where talented people want to work. For further details on our work and our culture, please visit www.dacbeachcroft.com.

DAC Beachcroft is an equal opportunities employer and we welcome applications from every sector of the community. We also welcome direct applications. If this opportunity sounds of interest to you, please make an application and submit your CV. Your application will be dealt with in the strictest of confidence.

DAC Beachcroft