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Central London Forward

Connect to Work - Contract Manager

Salary: £60,000

Contractual hours: 35

Work Pattern: Monday to Friday, 9:15am – 5:00pm

Basis: Full -Time, Fixed Term/Secondment - 1 year

Shape the delivery of a flagship employment programme across Central London

Central London Forward (CLF) is the strategic sub-regional partnership of 12 central London boroughs, working together to drive inclusive growth and improve outcomes for residents and businesses.

We are seeking an experienced Connect to Work Contract Manager to lead the contract management of the Connect to Work programme across our member boroughs on a one year fixed term contract or secondment. This is an exciting opportunity to play a pivotal role in managing delivery of a high-profile employment programme, ensuring strong performance, effective partnership working and excellent contract governance.

About the role

Working closely with the Greater London Authority, our 12 member boroughs, delivery partners and wider stakeholders, you will build on the success of Year 1 delivery and ensure Year 2 continues to provide high quality support to our borough residents and meet key milestones.

You will provide robust contract management, performance oversight and compliance assurance, while building strong relationships that enable collaborative and effective delivery across the sub-region.

The role has significant responsibility for the financial management of this high value government programme, ensuring public funds are managed effectively, contractual claims are robust and accurate, and financial reporting meets the requirements of both the GLA and DWP. This role requires someone who is equally comfortable analysing financial and performance data, managing contractual obligations and engaging senior stakeholders across local government and national partners.

What you’ll be responsible for

• Managing the delivery of a high-value DWP-funded employment contract across Central London’s 12 boroughs.
• Maintaining strong relationships with senior officers across our member local authorities, GLA and delivery providers.
• Monitoring contract performance against agreed KPIs and outcomes, identifying risks and driving continuous improvement.
• Ensuring contractual compliance, quality assurance and effective governance arrangements are in place.
• Leading contract review meetings, performance discussions and reporting to programme boards and senior stakeholders.
• Managing contract variations, risks, issues and escalation processes where required.
• Supporting boroughs to achieve consistently high standards of programme delivery and participant outcomes.
• Working collaboratively to identify opportunities for innovation, learning and best practice across the partnership.
• Managing a high value budget to ensure spend and claims are rigorously managed and reported.
• Travel to borough sites will be part of the role

About you

You will bring:

• Significant experience managing large-scale, high-value DWP-funded contracts or similar government-funded employment programmes.
• Experience of managing substantial programme budgets, financial monitoring, forecasting, claims and grant reporting within publicly funded programmes.
• Significant experience of contract management, performance management and compliance within large scale publicly funded programmes.
• Strong relationship management skills, with experience of working across multiple local authorities, funding bodies and complex partnerships.
• Experience of monitoring KPIs, analysing financial and performance data and driving service improvement.
• Excellent stakeholder management, negotiation and influencing skills.
• Experience of identifying and managing contractual, financial and operational risks.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to prepare reports and present complex financial and performance information to senior stakeholders.
• A collaborative approach, with the ability to balance support, challenge and accountability across multiple partners.

Why join us?

This is an opportunity to help shape the delivery of one of the largest government’s flagship employment programmes across Central London. You’ll work at the heart of a unique partnership of 12 boroughs, influencing strategic delivery, improving employment outcomes for residents and making a tangible difference across the capital.

If you are an experienced contract manager with a strong track record of delivering complex DWP-funded programmes and building successful partnerships, we’d love to hear from you.

Closing date: 23:59pm Wednesday 29th July 2026

For more information or to apply, please click the apply button.

Alternatively, please contact 020 7332 3978 (24 hr answerphone) quoting reference number OOIG1328 if you experience any difficulties. A minicom service for the hearing impaired is available on 020 7332 3732.

The City of London Corporation is committed to Equal Opportunities and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.

We reserve the right to close the advert earlier should we receive a high number of applications.