Nick Zhekov

Profile

Certified project professional with a strong record of delivering digital, data, and transformation projects across multi-million-pound portfolios. Experienced in setting up and optimising PMO functions, standardising governance, and driving technical initiatives that reduce costs and improve performance. Adept at stakeholder management, C-suite reporting, and cross-functional delivery across agile and traditional environments. Seeking to contribute to high-impact teams in fast-paced, change-driven organisations.

Work Experience

PMO Analyst

Nomad Foods

Sep 2024 – Present

Created a single source of truth for transformation projects, tracking impacts, approval statuses.
Designed and launched a user-centric PMO SharePoint site, enabling self-service access to documentation, templates, and learning resources.
Implemented governance frameworks and stage gate approval guidelines across 20+ initiatives.
Delivered joint training sessions for new project teams on methodology and governance.
Piloted an AI-powered SharePoint integration, saving 20+ hours/month for the user team.
Managed project approval board meetings, ensuring compliance and timely communication.
Redesigned project portfolio reports for C-suite, aligning insights with transformation goals.

IT Graduate Programme – Nomad Foods

Project Lead

Sep 2023 – Sep 2024

Led the setup and ongoing improvement of the PMO function, producing project reports and managing financials, resources, and risks across tech programmes.
Managed a portfolio of 11 projects, supporting reporting, documentation, stage gates, and cross-functional collaboration to resolve blockers.
Delivered strategic technical projects end-to-end, including budgeting, testing, resource planning, RAID, C-level reporting, and third-party management.
Created and rolled out project governance processes and documentation, standardising practices across a £3M tech project portfolio.
Delivered cross-functional sustainability initiatives, cutting CO2 emissions and achieving 80% cost savings vs baseline.

Data Project Manager

Sep 2022 – Sep 2023

Delivered EPR sales reporting tool across 3 countries for 150 users, with 0 project-related incidents resulting in cutting sales report lead times by 20%.
Oversaw system integration with 0 incidents, ensuring data integrity and smooth user adoption.
Assisted in achieving 90% YoY drop in BW-related incidents by facilitating BI team collaboration, identifying root causes, and implementing targeted process improvements.

Quality Assurance Lead

Sep 2021 – Sep 2022

Built and implemented a QA framework including audits, training, and performance KPIs.
Raised QA KPIs by 20% through data analysis, root cause identification and targeted training.
Reformed JML processes, reducing leaver-related loss of company equipment by 95%.

Marketing Assistant

Vital Signs Direct

Feb 2021 – Sep 2021

Designed and directed a high-impact social media campaign, increasing ad reach by more than 2000%.
Coordinated and managed a marketing project promoting site relaunch, achieving 15% rise in sales.
Improved user retention by 20% by identifying and fixing roadblocks in user website experience.

Project Manager Quality Intern

Gardner Aerospace

Sep 2019 – Sep 2020

Managed a variety of projects from inception to delivery, creating efficiency across the whole site.
Oversaw an inspection efficiency project in quality control, resulting in cost savings of £100k/yr.
Automated key data and KPI gathering processes using scripting, reducing processing time by 90%.

Customer Service Assistant

Amrest (KFC, Starbucks)

Summers of 2016–2018

Regularly surpassed upsell goals by optimising sales pitch.
Coordinated Sales skills KT, resulting in a 10% overall increase in revenue for the store.

Education

Lancaster University – BSc Marketing Management (2:1)

Skills & Certifications

Certifications: PRINCE2 Foundation & Practitioner, MSP 5th Edition Foundation & Practitioner, ITIL 4, Six Sigma White Belt, Learn SQL (Codecademy), BCS Foundation in Business Analysis

Project Management & Governance: Governance, Risk Management, Financial Tracking, Stakeholder Engagement, Change Control, Reporting, Agile (Scrum/Kanban familiarity), Waterfall, Lean Six Sigma

Tools & Platforms: Microsoft 365 (Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, SharePoint, Planner), Asana, Trello, Jira, SAP S/4HANA, Slack, ServiceNOW

Data & Automation Skills: Data Analysis, Data Validation, SQL (intermediate), Python (basic scripting), VBA

Communication & Leadership: Cross-functional Collaboration, C-Suite Reporting, Communication Planning, User Training, Workshop Facilitation, Change Management, Facilitating UAT

Languages: English (Fluent), Bulgarian (Fluent), German (Beginner)