Andrew Higgins

A versatile and highly professional IT Project Manager with extensive experience of working in complex, demanding, and challenging environments. Proven ability to deliver across multiple disciplines with a record of success across the defence, civilian and civil sectors. Can draw upon strong technical, analytical and leadership skills that have been honed over several years in a wide range of demanding positions. Enthusiastic, motivated, and committed to excellence with a record of delivery within all previous roles. Committed to development within the P3M discipline, various methodologies and techniques have been studied that culminated in an MSc in Programme and Project Management.

Project Management Consultant                                 Atomic Weapons Establishment                                                 April 2024– Present

Facilitated a comprehensive and integrated approach to achieving operational readiness within multiple complex and heavily regulated projects, each at various stages of the linear project lifecycle. Focussing on service delivery from project initiation to operational utilisation providing assurance that the business benefits could be realised with minimal impact to BAU operations. 

• Led IT network design, procurement and preservation maintenance to ensure service provision met all user needs and was delivered without delay. 
• Provided expert guidance to the Project Sponsor, Senior Project Manager and Technology Centre to ensure all lines of development are analysed, owned and managed at all stages of the project lifecycle.
• Utilised stakeholder management skills and previous KSE to develop and implement an operational readiness culture throughout projects and operational environments.
• Identified risks and issues that could impact operational readiness and reported, with context, to the central Operational Readiness and Transition Team and wider business on a regular basis. 
• Analysed, planned and integrated inputs and processes from multiple sources. Utilising knowledge from various disciplines and interpreting high level policy and guidance to implement an operational readiness plan. 

IT Project Manager                                                                  British Army                                                                           July 2021 – April 2024

Led and orchestrated a high-performing, cross-functional team of senior system engineers, human factor analysts, IT contractors and specialist users to drive a large-scale change IT initiative. Achieved strategic alignment, optimised resource allocation and promoted effective collaboration to deliver the next-generation IT planning application for Defence.

• Conducted the appraisal review utilising the Governmental “Green book” framework that led to project approval to initiate the creation of a new system management application, a £3m sub-project. Conducted stakeholder management and requirements analysis to investigate user needs and business objectives to establish a rationale for change.
• Oversaw the identification of risks that may impact the successful completion of the programme. Composed the MORPHEUS risk register to identify and evaluate over 100 risks against their potential impact and likelihood. Regularly briefing the SRO and other senior members of the programme board allowed mitigation measures to be discussed and implemented where necessary. 
• Collaborated with suppliers to provide innovative ideas that were based on the current and projected future ways of working. Delivering within an ever changing political and economic environment, monitored and controlled the project to ensure value for money and that the project remained focussed on benefits. This resulted in improved functionality to over 9000 assets that would have otherwise been overlooked. 

IT Project Manager, Regional Service Delivery                         British Army                                                                       July 2018 – July 2021

Facilitated the delivery of multiple IT projects that would deliver services to sites in 7 counties throughout the East of England and temporary overseas locations. 

• Directed a significant operational change project from initiation to closedown that saw a firmware and hardware upgrade that affected over 5,000 users throughout the region. Defined all project initiation documentation, designed the project plan and directed the project during the execution phase. Utilising monitoring and control techniques and procedures the project successfully delivered the agreed outcomes on time with no impact to business-as-usual operations.
• Developed and delivered a complex IT network project to support multi-national military objectives throughout Europe. As the principal planner for the organisation, utilised project management techniques and principles to analyse organisational requirements to design, plan, deploy and maintain an ever-evolving IT network to support over 2,000 users.
• Regularly managed 25 senior communications managers who reported directly to me to ensure successful delivery of information and communication services across 17 sites spread over the East of England. 

IT Project Manager, Deployable Systems                                   British Army                                                       September 2015 – July 2018

Supervised multi-skilled teams to deliver information and communication service projects to facilitate users around the globe. Additionally, responsible for the mentoring and development of 120 personnel. 

• Identified the need for an updated IT system to support small teams that could deploy anywhere in the world and very short notice. Wrote the business case for approval and managed a project that implemented a system that reduced the current organisational training burden by 25%, offered improved bandwidth and reduced overall costs by £1000 per day. 
• Reviewed risk assessments and identified the requirement for further development of contingency plans to address potential network failures or disruptions. This ensured the system was able to support intense operations and meet high levels of short notice demand using intelligent network monitoring and resource allocation. 

EDUCATION

MSc Programme and Project Management, Cranfield University                                                                                                                                     

BSc (Hons) Communications Systems Management, Lincoln University                                                                                                                         

FdSc Communications Systems Management, Bournemouth University

Level 6 Diploma in Management and Leadership, Chartered Management Institute                                                                                              

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION           

Agile Project Management Foundation (AgilePM), APMG                                                                                                                                                   

Project Management Qualification (PMQ), APM                                                                                                                                                                     

Management of Risk Foundation (MoR), Axelos                                                                                                                                                                      

PRINCE2 Foundation, Axelos                                                                                                                                                                                                            

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP

Chartered Management Institute – Chartered Manager (CMgr) 

Association for Project Managers – Associate Member