Project Support Manager – Tesco Labs

We use our passion for innovation, to create new and disruptive retail focussed experiences and products, for Tesco customers and colleagues globally. Tesco has a proud track record of innovation and has dedicated teams to ensure we continue to focus in this area.

Tesco Labs is the research and development team within Tesco Technology. Our products are typically ‘new to world’ or ‘new to retail’. We work across the Innovation Horizons, from nearer term opportunities to testing hypothesis in experimental, breakthrough innovation. Our aim is to create a culture of innovation by inspiring our colleagues and the wider community.

Within Tesco, we work alongside the Group Innovation team. Group Innovation has a broader focus, spanning all aspects of our business, to realise new disruptive innovation opportunities that enhance what we do or how we do things. This team partners with Tesco Labs where that opportunity involves technology.

This vacancy involves managing the portfolio of active projects in the Lab plus other responsibilities such as procurement, third party onboarding, budget and risk management for the Head of Labs. Ad hoc special projects will also feature, ensuring this role provides variety and opportunity to grown in role. This really is a role within a team working at the cutting edge and no two days are the same. You’ll need to be comfortable with complexity and ambiguity while moving the Lab agenda forward, sometimes with tight deadlines and with senior stakeholders. A role in the Lab means ‘no blueprints’ ways of working – we’re inventing the new.

This is a role that is varied in remit, because the nature of the Lab work is very varied, and while it is a support role, there is potential for 1 or 2 ad-hoc projects in the year owned by the Project Support Manager to develop and grow in role. The following provides an overview of the role’s key responsibilities and measures:

• Planning of Lab events such as Graduate placements, Ignite, Hackathon and Lab tours
• Creation, tracking and reporting activities, driving the optimum visibility of Lab work and delivery of OKR’s, working with product, engineering and technical programme teams.
• Building relationships with internal teams in Tesco Technology and beyond, plus relationships with startups and other business with the goal of optimal product delivery
• Working with the TPM team in the lab to own the documentation and tracking of all Lab project dependencies, milestones, risks, and issues, and making improvements to those processes
• Raising purchase orders, leading the administration of project procurement and onboarding processes including managing the NDA file management process
• Document control; reviewing and keeping our shared files in order and compliant
• Monitoring and reviewing all project costs and resources, tracking against the dept budget
• Providing updates to business stakeholders such as Risk, Portfolio, Finance teams
• Lead the planning and documentation of Tech Council activities, decisions, actions
• Working with the Product team to share our work via a bi-monthly internal newsletter and on news and views platform and TescoVerse
• Identifying and implementing quality and efficiency improvement initiatives
• Managing an events calendar and attendees, creating submissions for Innovation awards
• Working with the Red Door reviewers to identify opportunities for Lab team future work

• Proven track record in project management, ideally in technology functions and/or for digital products with agile ways of working
• Experience in commercial procurement and in supplier management, with strong commercial acumen
• Knowledge of project management principles, methods, techniques, tools, and emerging trends, ideally with a Project Management qualification, for example, APM/P, Prince2
• Good level of experience in the full suite of Microsoft tools, particularly Excel skills

#LI-AF2

​#LI-Hybrid

We offer excellent benefits that help make Tesco a great place to work! These include but are not limited to:

• Annual bonus scheme
• Holiday starting at 25 days plus a personal day (plus Bank holidays)
• Retirement savings plan - save between 4% and 7.5% and Tesco will match your contribution
• Life Assurance - 5 x contractual pay
• 24/7 virtual GP service, Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for you and your family, free access to a range of experts to support your mental wellbeing
• The right to request flexible working from your first day with us
• 26 weeks maternity and adoption leave (after 1 years’ service) at full pay, followed by 13 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay or Statutory Adoption Pay and we also offer 4 weeks fully paid paternity leave
• Great colleague deals and discounts, saving you money on everyday purchases, eating out and utility bills for the home
• Access to our colleague networks providing a space for colleagues to come together from a range of backgrounds. For more information about our colleague networks please click here
• Opportunities to get on - take advantage of our ongoing learning opportunities and award winning training, to help you achieve the job and career you want

Click Here to read more about the benefits we have available for our colleagues

Our vision at Tesco is to become every customer's favourite way to shop, whether they are at home or out on the move. Our core purpose is ‘Serving our customers, communities and planet a little better every day’. Serving means more than a transactional relationship with our customers. It means acting as a responsible and sustainable business for all stakeholders, for the communities we are part of and for the planet.

We are proud to have an inclusive culture at Tesco where everyone truly feels able to be themselves. At Tesco, we not only celebrate diversity, but recognise the value and opportunity it brings. We're committed to creating a workplace where differences are valued, and make sure that all colleagues are given the same opportunities. We’re proud to have been accredited Disability Confident Leader and we’re committed to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process. For further information on the accessibility support we can offer, please click here.

We’re a big business and we can offer a range of diverse full-time & part-time working patterns across our many business areas, which means that we can find something that works for you.  We work in a more blended pattern - combining office and remote working.  Our offices will continue to be where we connect, collaborate and innovate.  If you are applying internally, please speak to the Hiring Manager about how this can work for you - Everyone is welcome at Tesco.