Programme Manager – Building Safety Surveys Programme

Southern Housing is looking for an experienced Programme Manager to lead the planning, coordination and delivery of our Building Safety Surveys Programme (BSSP) across occupied higher-risk residential buildings.

Reporting to the Head of Regulatory Change, you will be responsible for ensuring this complex, multi-year programme is effectively planned, resourced, controlled and delivered in line with agreed objectives, budgets, timescales and relevant regulatory requirements.

You will manage multidisciplinary delivery partners, including consultants, contractors, fire risk assessors, structural specialists and asbestos surveyors, working closely with internal teams, building safety risk managers and residents to support safe and coordinated delivery.

The programme plays an important role in supporting Southern Housing to demonstrate its duties as Principal Accountable Person, maintain accurate Golden Thread information and inform the development of building safety risk assessments and future safety improvements.

What you'll be doing:

• Leading the planning, coordination, monitoring and delivery of the BSSP, taking responsibility for programme performance, milestones, risks and deliverables.
• Developing and maintaining detailed programme plans using Microsoft Project, including activity sequencing, dependencies, milestones, resource requirements and managing changes to programme delivery.
• Maintaining effective programme governance, including performance reporting, risk and issue management, action tracking, decision-making and escalation arrangements, while proactively identifying delivery risks and developing appropriate mitigation measures.
• Managing programme budgets and resources, monitoring expenditure, financial forecasts and changes that may affect programme delivery.ges that may affect programme delivery.
• Managing and monitoring the performance of consultants, contractors and specialist suppliers, ensuring deliverables meet agreed requirements, quality standards and programme objectives.
• Coordinating the delivery, review and appropriate technical assurance of fire strategy reports, Type 4 fire risk assessments, structural reports and associated enabling surveys, ensuring findings, recommendations and actions are appropriately recorded and progressed.
• Ensuring programme outputs and relevant building safety information are appropriately recorded and available to support building safety risk assessments, Golden Thread requirements and future safety improvements.
• Coordinating building access arrangements, asbestos surveys, intrusive investigations and making-good works, working collaboratively with residents, building managers and delivery partners to ensure safe delivery with minimal disruption.

This role will be based at our head office in London (near Farringdon Station) with the option for working in a hybrid way when appropriate and as agreed with your manager.

What You'll need:

• Good knowledge of the regulatory requirements applicable to higher-risk buildings (HRBs), including the Principal Accountable Person role, Golden Thread requirements and how legislation and technical assessment findings inform building safety risk management and compliance.
• Experience of coordinating surveys, inspections or intrusive investigations in occupied residential or operational buildings, including access arrangements, enabling activities, resident or stakeholder engagement and managing disruption to delivery.
• Proven experience of managing large, complex projects or programmes, with responsibility for planning, delivery, monitoring and achieving agreed outcomes, supported by a recognised project management qualification or equivalent experience.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with experience of identifying programme delays, delivery constraints and dependencies, assessing their impact and developing options to maintain or recover programme delivery.
• Experience of managing programme budgets, financial forecasts and expenditure, including identifying financial risks, monitoring cost variances and managing proposed changes.
• Practical experience of developing and managing detailed programme plans using Microsoft Project, including activity sequencing, milestones, dependencies, critical path analysis, progress monitoring and managing changes to delivery.
• Experience of managing consultants, contractors or specialist suppliers, including monitoring delivery against agreed requirements, assessing the quality of outputs and addressing performance or quality concerns.
• Good knowledge and experience of programme governance, reporting, risk and issue management, action tracking and decision-making arrangements, with the ability to maintain effective programme controls and provide clear information to support senior management decisions.

About us
At Southern Housing, our residents are at the heart of everything we do. As one of the largest housing providers in the UK with over 77,000 homes across London, the Southeast, the Isle of Wight, and the Midlands, we give over 167,000 people somewhere affordable to call their own! We also understand the difference that safe, secure, and affordable homes can make to people's lives.

A career at Southern Housing will allow you to make a difference every day you come to work. Working in the housing sector with us will bring fresh challenges and give you the opportunity to grow and develop, too.

What's in it for you

• Pension
• Life assurance
• Healthcare cash plan
• Eyecare & dental
• Birthday leave
• Retailers discounts
• Cycle to work
• Buy & sell annual leave
• Season ticket loan
• In-house academy & career development
• Flexible working

Inclusion and Diversity
We work hard to create a diverse and inclusive culture and environment where people are respected for who they are. Encouraging inclusion is not just about protected characteristics, it's about celebrating differences of thought, opinion, experience and perspective of each individual. We're all different in our own way and we want our colleagues to feel comfortable, that they belong, and are safe to be themselves at work, without fear of being judged or excluded, but valued for their contribution to our One Team approach.