PMO Lead - EMEA

Overview

Susquehanna has an exciting opportunity for an experienced PMO Manager to join the team and lead the establishment of our Project Management Office. While projects are already underway across the organisation, there is no formal PMO infrastructure in place, and this role exists to change that: bringing the leadership, vision, and expertise needed to build a PMO function that matches the ambition and pace of the business. Our EMEA hub is based in Dublin, with teams across the region working closely with our global offices.

You will be responsible for setting the strategic direction and operating standards of the PMO, shaping how the organisation plans, governs, and delivers its most important programmes spanning technology, regulatory change, and business transformation across functions, business lines, and geographies. This is a function-building role with real scope and influence.

Alongside building the function, you will build and lead a small team, operate closely with senior leadership, and work as a genuine partner to business lines across the organisation. We are looking for candidates who combine deep PMO expertise with the drive and credibility to build something new, who can create structure without sacrificing agility, and who are as energised by building and doing as they are by leading.

In this role you will:

PMO Design & Implementation

• Lead the design and implementation of the PMO operating model, establishing the governance structures, project lifecycle frameworks, reporting standards, and tooling needed to bring consistency and clarity to how projects & programmes are run across the organisation.
• Assess the current project landscape across the organisation, identify gaps in infrastructure, and develop a phased plan to build a PMO function that is scalable, commercial in its approach, and fit for a trading environment.
• Define and embed project management methodologies that bring the right level of rigour and structure while preserving the organisation's ability to move quickly, adapt to changing business needs, and respond with agility where it matters.

Leadership & Team Development

• Develop the strategy, structure, and longer-term vision for the PMO team, ensuring it is resourced and positioned to grow in line with the organisation's ambitions.
• Recruit, lead, and develop a small high-performing team, acting as a player-manager, balancing team leadership with active involvement in delivery.
• Coach and invest in the growth of your team, creating an environment where accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement are part of how the team operates every day.
• Build project management capability and awareness across the wider organisation, not just within the PMO, helping to embed strong project delivery as an organisational capability, not just a PMO one.

Project Delivery & Oversight

• Drive benefits realisation tracking and return on investment reporting across the portfolio, ensuring delivery outcomes are measured against business case commitments and results are visible at leadership level.
• Drive investment prioritisation, portfolio planning, and resourcing decisions that align project spend with business strategy, ensuring the organisation is always working on the right things in the right order.
• Establish governance and controls appropriate to a regulated trading environment, including project approval, prioritisation, change control, and escalation frameworks, working in close partnership with Compliance and Risk to ensure regulatory programme requirements are embedded in delivery standards.
• Facilitate steering committees and programme boards, ensuring decisions are surfaced and made at the right level, with the right information and at the right time.
• Identify and manage project dependencies, delivery risks, and resource constraints proactively, maintaining a clear line of sight across all active programmes.
• Establish and govern project intake and demand management processes, ensuring proposed initiatives are assessed, prioritised, and aligned to business strategy before entering delivery.

Stakeholder Partnership & Continuous Improvement

• Act as a trusted adviser and thought partner to the management team and senior stakeholders across the organisation, providing honest, insight-led reporting and constructive challenge where needed.
• Build strong working relationships right across the organisation, regionally and globally EMEA and our global offices, helping to embed the PMO as a natural and valued part of how the business operates.
• Continuously look for opportunities to improve how delivery works across the organisation: streamlining processes, introducing automation where it adds real value, leveraging data and tooling to drive smarter decisions, and setting progressively higher standards for what great project delivery looks like.
• Partner with the senior leadership team to ensure strategic initiatives and leadership forums are well-structured and effectively governed, including maintaining leadership-level programme visibility, supporting agenda and decision frameworks for key forums, and ensuring leadership time is focused on the decisions and discussions that matter most.

What we're looking for

• Proven track record of establishing a PMO function, leading the growth and evolution of one, ideally within financial services or a similarly regulated environment.
• Experience managing a complex, multi-workstream portfolio spanning technology, regulatory change, and business transformation programmes at a regional or global scale.
• Strong people leadership experience, with a track record of building, developing, and coaching high-performing teams and a genuine investment in the growth of others.
• Comfortable operating as a player-manager: leading and developing a team while remaining hands-on in delivery where the role demands it.
• Demonstrated ability to design and implement governance frameworks, reporting structures, and project delivery methodologies that work in practice, not just in theory - balancing structure with the need for speed and business agility.
• Strong working knowledge of project and programme tooling (e.g. MS Project, Jira, Smartsheet, or equivalent), with the ability to assess, implement, and embed the right solutions for the organisation
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the confidence to engage and influence at Senior Leadership level and the credibility to challenge constructively.
• Skilled in change management and organisational adoption, with the ability to bring stakeholders on the journey when introducing new ways of working, and to build genuine buy-in for the PMO rather than compliance with it.
• Commercially minded, with the ability to assess business cases, track return on investment, and ensure project spend and prioritisation decisions are grounded in measurable business impact.
• Able to draw on a range of delivery methodologies, including Agile and hybrid approaches, and embed the right framework for the right context across the organisation
• Able to thrive in ambiguity and create meaningful structure in environments without established process or precedent, while remaining genuinely agile and responsive to shifting business priorities.
• Experience in a trading, capital markets, or investment management environment, exposure to regulatory change programmes (e.g. MiFID II, EMIR, DORA, or equivalent), and a professional PM qualification (PMP, PRINCE2, MSP, or equivalent) are all advantageous.