Dr. Sarah Morris
Abingdon
Summary
I am an accomplished, analytical and tenacious senior leader with over 15 years experience managing projects and programmes in a variety of sectors. With a proven ability to navigate complex challenges I am passionate about driving sustainable change and delivering exceptional outcomes which are aligned to an organisations strategic growth. I thrive in a dynamic environment and am committed to leveraging my capacity to adapt to new challenges to drive success and exceed organisational goals.
Overview
15
15
years of professional experience
7
7
years of post-secondary education
Work history
Head of Programmes
Defaqto
Haddenham, Buckinghamshire
03.2021 - Current
- Accountable for delivery of company wide strategic programmes.
- Consults with C-level executives, influencing high level decision-making through accurate reporting.
- Member of the Defaqto Senior Management Team supporting strategic leadership across the organisation.
- Responsible for the growth of the project management function, and through the establishment of a PMO, achieves alignment of project management best practices across companies recently acquired by Defaqto.
- Introduced a new governance process which supports data driven decision aligned to strategic goals and emerging commercial opportunities.
- Promotes the importance of Continuous Improvement and Change Management by working with project teams to identify and improve efficiency without compromising quality.
- Responsible for creating and maintaining roadmap of strategic IT projects ensuring projects are prioritised to maximise commercial benefits while remaining in budget(s).
- Implemented new processes which ensure all initiatives are set up for success.
- Responsible for establishing ways of working on large and complex strategic initiatives involving two external suppliers whilst working seamlessly with internal teams across technical and business focused work streams.
- Manages teams, resources and timelines, accomplishing delivery of business outcomes.
- Establishes project goals and KPIs to ensure successful tracking of progress against business case at all stages of the SDLC including conducting business benefit reviews.
- Coaches and mentors IT delivery teams in Agile ways of working.
- Manages programmes using a hybrid of Waterfall and Agile methodologies, tailored to suit the specific needs of the programme.
Project Manager
Oxford University
Oxford, Oxfordshire
04.2020 - 08.2021
- Provided project management support to multiple international research projects.
- Prepared and submitted financial reports for UN and UKRI.
- Ensured entire team, including international collaborators, operated within the terms and conditions of the awarded grant.
- Created and maintained project tracking tools which facilitated close monitoring of budgets.
- Reconciled financial accounts spanning five years with a budget of £1.3M including the identification of incorrect and missing payments subject to the terms and conditions of the European Research Council.
- Formed strong working relationships with academic, financial and bid teams.
Career Break / Maternity Leave
Various Community Projects
05.2016 - 04.2020
- Parish Councillor: Authored, edited and distributed a 16 page community newsletter to promote positive mental health during the first national lock down in 2020. This was delivered to 1,200 homes every 3 weeks. Successfully pitched for a national grant to cover cost of the newsletter. Gained support from the Council to prioritise local road safety improvements
- Treasure of local preschool: Responsible for preparing annual budget and monitoring cashflow during COVID-19 closures including making recommendations for furlough.
- 'Jibber Jabber': Established and promote new parent group which allowed parents to attend an informative seminar on a non-parenting topic with their child.
- Baby Lists: Created, edited and produced a practical guide to parenting designed to help manage some of the stresses experienced during this stage of life. Received commendations from many local midwives.
- Befriending: Worked for a local charity befriending local neighbours who were isolated from the community.
- Events Manager: Organised author events for local independent bookshop.
Portfolio Manager
Pearson Education
Oxford, Oxfordshire
09.2012 - 05.2016
- Technical portfolio manager for suite of online educational services.
- Oversaw all aspects of the SDLC.
- Used Agile methodologies to manage an international, multi disciplined team to deliver business value on time and to budget
- Influenced business stakeholders to ensure portfolio roadmap was proportionality aligned to all strategic goals and was achievable.
- Standardised governance reporting across department and introduced the use of dashboards for consistent project tracking.
- Team capacity planning.
- Oversaw transition from co-located testing teams to offshore resources.
- Provided communication bridge between technology and business teams resulting in high quality products.
- Coached in Agile best practice and worked with the team to drive continuous improvement.
Product Owner & Delivery Manager
Defaqto
Haddenham, Buckingham
08.2010 - 09.2012
- Worked with c-suite directors to define the vision of new flagship product
- Managed importation of new complex data set into existing data structures and created new tool to allow collected data to be viewed and edited by internal teams.
- Created roadmap of product releases and defined milestone deliverables which enabled commercial benefits to be gained at the earliest opportunity.
- Business analysis of requirements and creation of specification documents.
- Oversaw delivery of requirements including governance tailored to technical and non-technical audiences.
- Successfully transitioned development teams from Waterfall to Agile methodologies after influencing support from c-suite directors
Project Manager
RM Education
Abingdon, Oxforshire
01.2009 - 08.2010
- Project managed the delivery of complete ICT solutions into new build schools as part of the governments 'Building Schools for the Future' initiative.
- Facilitated communication between school SLT, local authority and building contractor to ensure final solution was fit for purpose and within budget.
- Responsible for product budgets of c.£1M and managing change control process with local authority.
- Identified innovative solutions to guarantee scheduled completion after building works were delayed.
- Devised project approach to complement bid submissions for new work and streamlined processes which improved efficiency in preparing costs for new tenders.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy - Mathematics
University of Bath
Bath 09.2005 - 12.2008
MMath(hons) - Mathematics
University of Bath
Bath 09.2001 - 08.2005
Prince2 Practioner
06.2010 - 06.2010
Certified Scrum Professional
05.2014 - 05.2014
Certified Scrum Master
05.2013 - 05.2013
Scaled Agile Certification
03.2015
Skills
- Strategic Leadership
- Tenacious
- Continuous improvement (CI)
- Governance and reporting
- Digital and interpersonal communication skills
- Collaborative working
- Risk, issue and dependency management
- Analytical problem solver
- Waterfall project management
- Agile project delivery
- Scaled Agile framework
Timeline
Head of Programmes
Defaqto
03.2021 - Current
Project Manager
Oxford University
04.2020 - 08.2021
Career Break / Maternity Leave
Various Community Projects
05.2016 - 04.2020
Certified Scrum Professional
05.2014 - 05.2014
Certified Scrum Master
05.2013 - 05.2013
Portfolio Manager
Pearson Education
09.2012 - 05.2016
Product Owner & Delivery Manager
Defaqto
08.2010 - 09.2012
Prince2 Practioner
06.2010 - 06.2010
Project Manager
RM Education
01.2009 - 08.2010
Doctor of Philosophy - Mathematics
University of Bath
09.2005 - 12.2008
MMath(hons) - Mathematics
University of Bath
09.2001 - 08.2005
Scaled Agile Certification
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