Programme Manager

Client Yorkshire Water
Programme Welfare Site Standards Programme
Location Leeds Valley Park (LVP), Leeds, with regular site visits across Yorkshire Waters operational estate
Contract Interim / contract, approx. 6 months
Start date Late November 2026
End date End of May 2027
Day rate £800 - £850 per day
IR35 status Inside IR35
Vetting Basic DBS (Level 1)
About the Programme
Yorkshire Water is establishing a Welfare Site Standards Programme to assess and improve welfare provision across its 286 operational sites. The programme will consider legal, regulatory and operational requirements, including obligations relating to workplace welfare, health and safety and employee wellbeing. Phase 1 (Discovery, Assessment and Baseline) will establish the current position across the estate, identify compliance gaps and produce a prioritised, costed roadmap that provides the evidence base for Phase 2 investment and implementation.
The Role
We are looking for an experienced Programme Manager to establish and lead the Welfare Site Standards Programme. You will provide strategic leadership while also being capable of stepping into a hands-on project delivery capacity where required to maintain pace and momentum.
You will lead stakeholder engagement, governance, discovery activity, compliance assessment and roadmap development, ensuring the programme delivers a robust evidence base for future investment decisions. You will need to build credibility quickly with operational leaders while maintaining effective engagement with executive stakeholders and sponsors.
Key Responsibilities
Programme Leadership & Governance
- Establish and lead the Welfare Site Standards Programme.
- Define the programme governance structure, reporting arrangements and decision-making framework.
- Lead stakeholder engagement across Operations, Health & Safety, Land & Property, HR, Facilities and Executive leadership teams.
- Act as the senior point of coordination between operational stakeholders, programme sponsors and delivery resources.
- Directly undertake project management activities where required to maintain pace and momentum.
Discovery & Compliance
- Oversee the assessment of welfare facilities and standards across all 286 operational sites.
- Ensure compliance requirements are understood and assessed against current provision.
- Support and challenge discovery outputs, site assessments and gap analysis activity.
Roadmap, Investment & Phase 2
- Develop an integrated programme roadmap for delivery across all sites.
- Establish prioritisation criteria based on risk, compliance requirements, employee welfare and operational needs.
- Produce costed delivery options and investment recommendations for future phases.
- Develop programme benefits, success measures and the implementation approach.
- Prepare the programme for Phase 2 implementation and investment approval.
Skills & Experience
Essential
- Significant experience leading complex operational, compliance, asset, facilities or workplace transformation programmes.
- Proven track record managing programmes spanning operational, property, facilities, health & safety and organisational change disciplines.
- Strong programme leadership, with the ability to establish clear direction, governance and delivery structure across multiple stakeholders and functions.
- Experience operating as both Programme Manager and Project Manager, undertaking hands-on delivery where required.
- Strong stakeholder engagement and influencing skills, working with Directors, Heads of Service, Operational Managers, Health & Safety, HR, Property and frontline operational teams.
- Experience of programme discovery, current-state assessment, gap analysis and development of implementation roadmaps.
- Strong understanding of programme governance, RAID management, financial oversight and benefits realisation.
- Experience translating legislative and regulatory requirements into practical operational standards and deliverable improvement plans.
- Knowledge of workplace welfare requirements, facilities management, property improvement, construction or asset-based environments.
- Strong understanding of Health & Safety legislation, workplace welfare obligations and operational risk management.
- Experience working within highly regulated operational environments.
Desirable
- Experience in facilities, property, construction, utilities, infrastructure or asset-intensive industries.
About You
- A Programme Manager able to step into Project Manager responsibilities when required.
- Demonstrable Health & Safety and compliance programme experience.
- Experience working across large, geographically dispersed operational estates.
- Strong governance, planning and benefits management capability.
- Comfortable undertaking site visits and engaging frontline operational teams.
- Pragmatic and delivery-focused, balancing strategic leadership with practical execution.