GCO Project Manager

About Springer Nature

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About the Role:

The Springer Nature General Counsel’s Office (GCO) the GCO is made up of seven teams which together form a trusted partner to the business. Comprising Anti Piracy, Company Secretariat, Data Protection, Editorial Rights, Governance Risk and Compliance, Legal, and GCO Operations, the GCO contributes to the sustainable success of Springer Nature, by providing expert advice and supporting Springer Nature’s strategic ambitions whilst protecting our businesses and reputation.

Reporting to the Vice President of Strategy & Operations, the Project Manager will play a key role in driving the successful delivery of projects across the General Counsel function, with a particular focus on legal technology implementation, process transformation, and strategic change initiatives. The role will provide structured project management discipline, ensuring that initiatives are well-scoped, effectively governed, delivered on time, and aligned with the function’s strategic priorities. This role will also be responsible for providing project and portfolio reporting to senior stakeholders, enabling visibility of progress, risks, and benefits realisation.

Role Responsibilities:

Project Delivery

• Provide end-to-end leadership of complex technology, process, and transformation projects within the General Counsel function.
• Define project scope, objectives, deliverables, and timelines in alignment with strategic goals.
• Lead, motivate and influence cross-functional teams, external vendors, and stakeholders to ensure effective delivery.
• Monitor progress, manage risks and issues, and escalate where appropriate.
• Ensure projects are delivered within agreed budgets, timelines, and quality standards.
• Lead the change management process to ensure that change lands effectively and continues to drive value throughout the transformation lifecycle.

Governance & Reporting

• Provide insightful, executive-level reporting on project status, risks, and milestones to the VP of Strategy & Operations and other senior stakeholders.
• Maintain the function’s project portfolio, enabling strategic prioritisation and resource allocation.
• In collaboration with the General Counsel services and data team, drive the development of KPIs and metrics to measure impact and benefits realisation and continuous improvement.
• Ensure that the reporting suite for the wider GCO is aligned and minimises gaps and overlaps, such that reporting can seamlessly flow between forums.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as a trusted partner for project stakeholders across the General Counsel team and wider business.
• Facilitate high-impact workshops, steering committees and leadership updates to align priorities and secure buy in.
• Capture requirements, update progress, and align expectations.
• Shape and deliver clear, consistent communications that build momentum and engagement at all levels throughout delivery.

Continuous Improvement

• Champion a culture of transformation, embedding project management excellence and ways of working across the General Counsel function.
• Identify and drive opportunities for operational efficiencies, innovation and process improvement.
• Contribute thought leadership to the wider transformation agenda of the function, influencing direction and strategy.

Experience, Skills & Qualifications:

Essential

• Proven experience in project management, ideally within a legal, professional services, or corporate functions environment.
• Strong track record of leading technology-enabled change and transformation.
• Excellent leadership, organisational, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at executive level.
• Communication and storytelling skills, able to distil complex updates into impactful insights for senior audiences.
• Advanced project reporting skills, with experience creating executive dashboards and steering committee packs.
• Deep familiarity with project management methodologies (e.g., Agile, Waterfall, Prince2).

Desirable

• Experience working with legal technology platforms (e.g., matter management, contract lifecycle management, entity management).
• Understanding of change management principles.
• Professional project management certification (e.g., Prince2 Practitioner, PMP, Agile).

Key competencies:

• Strategic mindset: Ability to shape projects that directly support the long-term objectives of the General Counsel’s Office, and link project outcomes to the broader objectives of the function and business.
• Problem-solving: Comfortable navigating ambiguity and identifying practical solutions.
• Collaboration: Builds trusted relationships and role models a high performing and inclusive team culture.
• Adaptability: Able to manage multiple priorities and adapt to evolving requirements.
• Attention to detail: Ensures accuracy and quality in project documentation and reporting.

At Springer Nature, we value the diversity of our teams and work to build an inclusive culture, where people are treated fairly and can bring their differences to work and thrive. We empower our colleagues and value their diverse perspectives as we strive to attract, nurture and develop the very best talent.

Springer Nature was awarded Diversity Team of the Year at the 2022 British Diversity Awards. Find out more about our DEI work here https://group.springernature.com/gp/group/taking-responsibility/diversity-equity-inclusion

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For more information about career opportunities in Springer Nature please visit https://careers.springernature.com/

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