About the Role
The Program Specialist will play a critical role in driving delivery confidence across the Elevate Program,
including a major SaaS transformation to replace a legacy platform and associated operating model uplift.
This role is accountable for establishing and enforcing program-level governance, assurance, financial
integrity and delivery discipline across multiple interdependent projects. It operates with a high degree of
autonomy and authority to intervene, challenge and reset delivery activities to protect program outcomes.
The primary purpose of the role is to own and drive program-level adherence and performance visibility,
ensuring decisions are evidence-based, risks are actively managed, and delivery remains aligned to agreed
scope, schedule, funding and organisational priorities.
The role engages directly with the Program Director, Executive Leadership Team and Board-level forums,
contributing to decision-making through independent analysis, recommendations and escalation of material
risks or delivery issues.
Key stakeholders include the Executive Leadership Team, external government stakeholders, project and
design teams, delivery partners, and internal functions including TMO, Finance and Strategy.
Accountabilities
Program & Projects Governance, Assurance – Own, Drive & Intervene
- Own and drive program-level adherence to governance and reporting frameworks, ensuring
- consistent standards across all projects.
- Establish and enforce delivery discipline, including adherence to approved plans, governance
- processes, and reporting expectations.
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- Consolidate and independently validate program status, providing a clear, evidence-based view of
- overall delivery health.
- Exercise authority to challenge, intervene in and reset underperforming projects where delivery
- risks, misalignment or control weaknesses are identified.
- Own the program dependency model, actively managing interdependencies, sequencing risks and
- cross-project impacts.
- Maintain and validate the integrated master schedule, including critical path, milestone
- performance and variance analysis.
- Own program-level RAID oversight, ensuring risks, issues, assumptions and dependencies are
- proactively identified, escalated and managed.
- Identify systemic risks and delivery trends across projects, driving early intervention and corrective
- action.
- Define and monitor program tolerance thresholds (schedule, cost, scope, risk) and escalate
- breaches to executive forums.
- Ensure all reporting is auditable, consistent and aligned to governance requirements, including
- Board and executive expectations.
Financial Oversight & Commercial Integrity – Own & Influence
- Own program-level financial oversight, including validation of budgets, forecasts, cost-to-complete
- and funding alignment.
- Independently assess project financial positions, challenging assumptions, forecasts and variances
- where required.
- Identify financial risks, funding pressures and optimisation opportunities across the program.
- Support and influence decisions relating to funding allocation, prioritisation and trade-offs within
- approved delegations.
- Ensure clear linkage between financial position, delivery sequencing and decision-making.
Program Steering Committee & Executive Enablement – Shape & Influence
- Lead coordination and quality of Program Steering Committee (PSC) and executive governance
- forums.
- Shape agendas, papers and decision artefacts to ensure clarity of options, impacts and
- recommendations.
- Act as a key contributor to executive and Board-level decision-making through independent
- analysis and insight.
- Ensure decisions, actions and commitments are clearly documented, tracked and delivered.
- Support preparation of Board submissions and executive briefings, ensuring alignment with
- program objectives and risk posture.
Leadership Without Direct Authority – Influence & Hold to Account
- Hold Project Managers and delivery leads accountable for performance, reporting integrity and
- dependency management.
- Drive a culture of transparency, accountability and delivery discipline across the program.
- Influence senior stakeholders, including ELT, to address delivery risks, misalignment and
- competing priorities.
- Build alignment across projects and functions to ensure cohesive program execution.
Other
- Undertake any other duties as reasonably directed.
Key Relationships
- Program Director
- Executive Leadership Team
- Board / Governance Forums
- Organisational Change Manager
- TMO Team
- Project Managers & Project Teams
- Finance & Strategy
- Strategic Partners and Vendors
- External Government Stakeholders
Knowledge, Skills and Experience Requirements
Essential
- Demonstrated experience operating in a program-level governance, assurance or delivery leadership role
- within complex, multi-project environments.
- Proven ability to independently assess, challenge and intervene in project delivery to protect program
- outcomes.
- Experience establishing or uplifting governance, assurance and reporting frameworks across programs.
- Strong financial acumen, including program budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis and cost-tocomplete assessment.
- Experience engaging with and influencing senior stakeholders, including Executive Leadership Teams
- and Board-level forums.
- Ability to synthesise complex delivery information into clear, actionable insights and recommendations.
- Experience managing interdependencies, risks and competing priorities across large-scale programs.
- Advanced capability in program reporting, scheduling (MS Project) and performance tracking.
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- Strong problem-solving and analytical skills, with the ability to operate effectively in ambiguity.
- Highly developed influence and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to drive outcomes without
- direct authority.
- Advanced MS Office skills, including MS Project, Excel, PowerPoint and Visio.
Desirable
- Experience working in public sector or similarly regulated environments with strong governance
- requirements.
- Experience in SaaS or enterprise system transformation programs.
- Understanding of TMO/EPMO frameworks and program assurance practices.
- Demonstrated ability to drive continuous improvement in delivery and governance maturity.
- Strong self-management and ability to operate with a high degree of autonomy and accountability.
Please apply with current resume in Microsoft Word format only (.doc or .docx). If you would like to have a confidential discussion, please contact Krunal Patel on Krunal.Patel@davidsonwp.com, quoting reference JN -052026-43253. Want to know more about Davidson? Visit us at www.davidsonwp.com
