Employee Spotlight: Roldan Villanueva, Senior Project Manager

This months’ #employeespotlight is on our Senior Project Manager, Roldan Villanueva, who joined the Financial Services team at cxpartners over a year ago. In the blog, he discusses his favourite things about being a project manager and shares what projects he has loved working on.

I was born and raised in the Philippines, and have lived in the UK with my parents and sister since 2005 when we first moved to the country. 

Growing up in the Philippines, I've come to appreciate the simple things in life. I'm very thankful that I've learnt to never take anything for granted because I’ve been fortunate enough to live comfortably where I am today.

Shortly after graduating from university, I went into a role doing software engineering. I loved the challenge and the depth of understanding of technology I gained. However, I felt my strengths were better suited somewhere else.

Taking all the brilliant knowledge I’d learnt doing development work, I made the jump to become a project coordinator for a small digital development agency. This was much better suited to my skills as an organiser, and coordinating people. It was this role that has paved the path to where I am today.

Since joining the cxpartners team in June 2021, I’ve always felt welcome and safe; surrounded by a supportive team. I feel humbled and grateful to be surrounded by so many intelligent career driven people. I feel like my impact within the company is felt, whilst also learning from others every day.

One of the key things I love about cxpartners is that they are very passionate about building a healthy work-life culture. I feel that I have a much better balance simply because it’s been encouraged! 

Working at cxpartners has helped me grow in my career and allowed me to tap into some of the core skills that are important to hone as a project manager. In previous roles, I’ve learnt great skills in the process. At cxpartners, I’ve grown from this and learned to be agile and pay more attention to people. Looking beyond others not just as another item in the checklist, and see people as humans for who they are, who have different needs, backgrounds and ways of working.

In the short term, I would like to continue evolving my knowledge and experience  in project consultancy and management.

When it comes to longer-term goals I’m focused on continuing to do something that I enjoy and at the same time doing something good for others. As a member of the Financial Services team at cxpartners, I have really enjoyed working on projects that help people make more informed financial decisions. In other teams, we work with charities and in the public sector. cxpartners are really encouraging of people exploring other teams so at some point maybe I’ll be working on projects for non-profit organisations and charities.

The project manager is responsible for the success of the project team, but I especially enjoy ensuring that the team's good work is recognised. Helping individuals feel empowered to perform at their best in all situations.

Whether it be in helping create processes, sharing a different perspective or simply providing the tools they need to work best as a unit.

It’s been a pleasure managing some of the work we do for energy firm, SSE. We’re working together on a wide programme, driving business change working towards their net zero future. I’ve been working with the team, looking at their employee experience and helping the organisation reach their goal of being in the upper quartile of organisations for digital employee experience in the UK.

We’ve been exploring SSE’s existing systems and processes to map out their current internal structure. We’ve done this through speaking with different teams across the business, taking a customer centric approach and ensuring we deliver value quickly to both the business and the users that will be most impacted by the work we do. 

It's a great feeling that we can make other people's workplaces more comfortable and improve their lives as a result.

Things are sometimes not as black and white as they seem. Take a moment and look at things from a different point of view. Be open to new ideas, expect challenges, embrace change and you might even learn something new.

Remember to put people first!

We're on the lookout for talented and interesting people. Take a look at our careers page to see what roles we're currently recruiting for, including two more senior project managers. However - if your skillset doesn't quite match the roles listed and you're interesting in hearing more about working at cxpartners, still get in touch, we always want to hear from passionate and skilled people!