IoT Project Delivery Manager

This special place in South West London between the capital and the country has been a Royal borough longer than anywhere else - it is where the first kings of England were crowned.

Today it is a vibrant and diverse borough, with a long history and strong cultural and community heritage. Kingston's riverside location, fantastic retail offer, historic market place and church, parks and gardens all make Kingston town centre the vibrant space it is, and each of our district town centres (Surbiton, New Malden, Tolworth and Chessington) have something unique to offer.

Situated in Zone 6, Kingston is among the best-connected town centres in London – with direct train links from Kingston and Surbiton stations to Clapham Junction and London Waterloo, as well as Wimbledon for an interchange with the London Underground and Tramlink.

Kingston’s people are innovative and entrepreneurial, and have a strong sense of community pride. The borough has been home to great industry and creativity for many years, reflected in assets such as the Rose Theatre, the International Youth Arts Festival and Kingston University, which boasts more new graduate business start-ups than any other.

We have seen tremendous generosity and compassion within our communities, particularly in response to COVID-19, which is a demonstration of Kingston’s key strength. The council offers a strong level of support to vulnerable groups and those who need additional support, which has also increased significantly as a result of the pandemic. Like most places, the average age of our population is rising as more people are living longer, so we are working closely with residents to help them maintain their independence and further improve the cost effectiveness of our service to meet the ongoing rise in demand.

Kingston is home to people from diverse and interesting cultures and backgrounds, which helps to create the rich sense of community shared across the borough. In particular, Kingston has a large Sri Lankan Tamil community and is home to more people from Korea than any other part of the UK.

We are looking to bring in additional capacity to drive forward and assist with the delivery of the IoT programme within the Borough. It is envisaged that the successful candidate will be building on outline or established Use Cases (UC’s) and it will be their responsibility to progress forward the UC’s in association with internal and external partners. 

On a day to day basis you would be:

• Working on developing / documenting Use Cases. 
• Preparing tender packs and ensuring all appropriate representation at meetings.
• Handling of communications both internally and externally across multiple service areas, borough representatives and suppliers.
• Monitoring project spend and forecast including reporting into the IoT Programme office to ensure any deviation / over or underspend is understood and controlled by the IoT Programme office
• Ensuring the successful coordination and implementation of the selected IoT solution within the selected borough. 

The role is offered as a 1 year fixed term contract to ensure the successful delivery of the IoT projects in Sutton, and will involve working closely with the shared ICT service and colleagues throughout the council.

The South London Partnership (SLP) is working with London Councils to deliver an exciting and innovative “Internet of Things” (IoT) project across the five south London Councils of Croydon, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Sutton. The programme (also known as “The InnOvaTe Project”) is enabling the boroughs to deliver a multi-purpose IoT platform which will connect various sensors in various projects across borough boundaries. 

The project brings together technology and places to create spaces that address challenges in our communities and opportunities to help people live better, healthier  lives and live independently for longer. 

The overall goal is to learn how IoT as a technology can support business retention and sustainable economic growth but also understand how it may also deliver significant savings to borough budgets. Sutton has been tasked to ensure the programme as a whole delivers a sustainability plan and approach that can be used to drive IoT adoption within the boroughs as a result of the work to be undertaken over a 3.5 year period of learning and pilot study.

The project is focused on the testing of practical case studies that will enable informed decisions to drive new enterprising opportunities, attract interest and create appetite for people and businesses to come to work and live in South London. These case studies cover a range of sectors, some examples of this include: transportation optimisation and parking; improvements to adult social care and health services through “connected care”; environmental sustainability and improved air quality; and supporting local economic growth, amongst others. Given recent events, this objective has been shifted to include economic recovery and Covid-19 responses.

Examples of projects being delivered or in the pipeline are: 

• Covid 19 Early Response sensor solution
• Traffic Insights and Social Distancing
• Gullies and Culvert monitoring
• Fly Tipping notification
• Building structure and safety of residents sensors
• Air Quality monitoring

We are looking for experienced and talented individuals with a solid understanding of IoT and who ideally have a Project Manager / Delivery Manager background. Whether your previous experience is in the public or private sectors, you will bring a commitment to excellence, proven expertise and a passion for public services.

To be successful in the role you need to able to demonstrate that you:

• Have a good understanding of IT, its application in a range of business contexts and be able to work effectively with technical teams
• Have the ability to influence at all levels
• Have a background with IOT projects or in IT projects within a local government context and preferably in both.
• Have solid project or delivery management experience
• Have excellent communications skills

Please note that this is not a technical role. Successful candidates will be managing the implementation of use cases through partners, and will not be responsible for technical designs, QA of installations, etc. Having that skillset is a bonus, but not as important as having the skills to help teams within the Council understand how IOT solutions can help solve real-world problems.

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

In addition we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff supported by our IT infrastructure, Google Chromebooks and Google Apps, which have acted as a key enabler for collaborative and streamlined working. The COVID-19 pandemic has required us to be even more flexible in how we work and manage staff workloads, ensuring they have the correct equipment and resources to be able to maximise their talents and looking after their wellbeing.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:

• Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
• Three volunteering days per year
• Flexible and agile working arrangements
• Comprehensive learning and development programme
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Zip car scheme
• Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
• Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
• Subsidised gym membership

We pride ourselves on being a diverse, tolerant and welcoming Borough and we aim to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve. We are respectful of difference and realise the positive value of diversity in our workforce. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and disabled candidates as these groups are currently under-represented in our workforce.

We are proud to be recognised as a Disability Confident employer, and are committed to thinking differently about disability and taking action to improve how we recruit, retain and develop disabled people. We guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role.   

We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are an accredited London Living Wage Employer and this means that everyone working at the Royal Borough of Kingston, regardless of whether they are permanent employees or third-party contractors and suppliers receive the London Living Wage. The real Living Wage is higher than the government’s minimum, or National Living Wage, and is an independently calculated hourly rate of pay that is based on the actual cost of living.

The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.