Project Manager

East Kent Colleges Group is excited to invite applications for the position of Project Manager to oversee a dynamic and diverse portfolio of capital projects across our six-college estate. As part of our Capital Projects Team, you will play a key role in delivering high-impact initiatives, ranging from multimillion pound new construction projects to smaller refurbishment projects aligned with the Group’s property strategy.

This is an exciting opportunity to shape the future of education in East Kent by contributing to the development of state-of-the-art educational facilities that will benefit students and communities for years to come.

In this role, you will work closely with the Group Head of Capital Projects to define project scopes, establish budgets and timelines, procure resources, and coordinate cross-functional teams. Your focus will be on ensuring projects are completed on time, within budget, and to the highest standards.

Your Key Responsibilities:

• Project Oversight: Manage a diverse portfolio of projects, ensuring they remain on schedule, within budget, and aligned with the defined scope.
• Scope and Planning: Collaborate with the Group Head of Capital Projects to define project objectives, timelines, and budgets, ensuring all resources and requirements are clearly identified.
• Team Coordination: Lead and coordinate multidisciplinary teams, both internal and external, ensuring smooth collaboration and clear communication throughout the project lifecycle.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Serve as the primary point of contact for all project-related inquiries, maintaining clear and proactive communication with clients, stakeholders, and contractors.
• Risk Management: Identify potential issues or delays early, proposing and implementing mitigation strategies to keep projects on track.
• External Communication: Manage and maintain relationships with external stakeholders, including clients, contractors, and consultants, ensuring effective communication and the timely resolution of any challenges.

• Proven experience in project management is preferred, ideally within the construction, refurbishment, or educational sector.
• Strong knowledge of project management methodologies.
• Exceptional organisational and multi-tasking skills, with a keen eye for detail.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to manage multiple stakeholders and teams.
• Experience with large-scale projects, including public funding (e.g., Levelling Up Fund), is a distinct advantage.
• A proactive, solution-oriented mindset with the ability to work well under pressure.
• A Project Management qualification (e.g., PMP, PRINCE2) is preferred, but not essential.
• Qualified to degree level (level 6 qualification or above) is preferred, but not essential.
• English and Maths Level 2 is essential (e.g. equivalent to GCSE grade 4/C or above).

Outstanding Ofsted Provider

East Kent Colleges Group is an Ofsted Outstanding rated provider. It is proud to be the first General Further Education college organisation in the country to have received the Outstanding grade against each of the strands under the new Ofsted inspection framework. An inclusive provider, our colleagues place our students and the communities we serve at the heart of everything they do across EKC Group and this is illustrated in our ‘Strong’ skills grading by Ofsted.

Commitment to Safeguarding

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and we ensure that all staff are aware of their responsibilities for upholding these principles.

As a designated establishment, we are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore have an obligation to carry out checks to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children and vulnerable adults. These checks include conviction/caution self-declaration, Enhanced DBS check and obtaining sufficient referencing.

It is a criminal offence to apply for a post which involves engaging in regulated activity relevant to children if you are barred from doing so.

If you are successful in being shortlisted to interview, your suitability to work with children and vulnerable adults will be explored as part of the interview process.

Commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

East Kent Colleges Group is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all members of our communities. We are particularly keen to increase the diversity of our staff body and encourage applications from candidates where there is underrepresentation in our workforce.

We are proud to hold the Positive About Disability Award and are a Disability Confident Employer. This confirms our commitment to interviewing all applicants who declare that they have a disability and who meet the essential criteria outlined in the person specification. With any successful candidate, we will explore any reasonable adjustments to a role due to a health needs or disability.

Similarly, we have a commitment to Care Leavers (Care Covenant Pledge) and to current or previous Armed Forces personnel (Armed Forces Covenant Pledge) with a commitment to interview applicants who meet the positions essential criteria and who have declared this on their application. 

We welcome applications from anyone wishing to work flexibly and those considering a return to work from a career break.

We do not engage with agencies for permanent staff and have an in-house recruitment team.