About the job

Job summary

Have you considered a Civil Service career and the unparalleled opportunities it has to offer in a variety of significant roles with the potential to change the nation and people’s lives for the better? The Army Basing and Infrastructure (B&I) Directorate plans and leads the built environment for the British Army to live, work and train.  This is a key foundation for the UK’s military capability and the team works alongside our delivery partners the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), Industry and the Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations (RFCA) to ensure that appropriate and sustainable infrastructure is in place to enable the Army to operate effectively.  The Infrastructure Projects team within B&I is tasked with managing a wide variety of infrastructure projects from concept through to completion on a national and global footprint that sit outside of the Defence Estates Optimisation programme (DEO). These projects currently include new accommodation units across the country, essential buildings to support the Equipment Programmes, whole site improvements and modernisation, providing innovative sustainability solutions and replacing and modernising the Volunteer Estate assets. Army Projects has an equally wide value and range from £5M to over £100M. This role is wide ranging, and no two days are the same, with opportunities to develop your career and widen your experience across the Civil Service. This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job description

Main Responsibilities include:

• Provide leadership, support, development opportunities, guidance and direction to your geopraphically dispersed team.
• Sub-Portfolio management of the delivery of Projects and Programmes through stakeholder engagement, data management and experience.
• Developing and fostering professional relationships, at varying levels internally and externally.
• Maintaining overall integrity and coherence of project and governance framework. Planning assurance activities and relevant Committee reporting.
• Assuring Risk, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies & Opportunities (RAIDO) and ensuring mitigations are in place and resolved through negotiated agreement.
• Resourcing, administering, maintaining, and developing the project teams.
• Advise and support Senior leaders on safety procedures and requirements.
• Oversight and management of Business Case development throughout a project life cycle, ensuring compliance and adherence to conditions stipulated by the Approving Authority.
• Travel to project sites and engage with the geographically dispersed workforce.
• Horizon scanning to ensure risk, issues and opportunities are captured at the Sub-portfolio level supporting in year expenditure and future years planned spend.
• Continuous improvement of the process and procedures supporting delivery.

Essential:

• Relevant Infra or Project Delivery Qualifications held such as: RICS / APM / PLP / MSP / Prince2.

Person specification

This is an exciting time to join Army Basing and Infrastructure as we are looking for a proactive and empowered Assistant Head (AH).  Who can build, develop, and maintain effective working relationships, acting as a conduit between teams, working at all levels, influencing, and driving strategic solutions. This level of stakeholder management requires exceptional people skills, and adaptability when dealing with diverse perspectives. You must be able to promote a clear vision to different audiences, altering style, language, and approach to ensure buy-in.

The successful candidate will lead a geographically dispersed, multi-disciplinary team consisting of 30 plus personnel, both military and civilian. The team works directly with projects providing Project Sponsors and a Project Support Office. As the team lead you will need to consider the most effective team structure to support its outcomes and be visible to all members of the team. This team drives the requirement and delivery of Army B&I Directorate’s key projects and programmes valued at £2,4Bn over 10 years, by working in collaboration with our delivery partner.

You will need to be able to effectively plan, coordinate, and oversee multiple projects within a program, while also managing risks, budgets, and resources efficiently. Army has a complex and varied estate, providing interest from Concept to Delivery. Your role is to work with the supply chain to increase the understanding of challenges across the Army estate. Motivating this cross-functional team to achieve their goals, by being able to prioritise tasks, delegate effectively, and solve problems creatively within this space.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £57,670, Ministry of Defence contributes £15,570 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

At application you will be assessed against the following: 

Experience: 

• CV (Including Job History)
• Personal Statement –

Word count – 1000

In no more than 1000 words, please demonstrate your experience of the following:  

• Experience in project and risk management within a Infra environment.
• Experience of working in a complex stakeholder environment to achieve outcomes.
• Experience of Business Case development and writing.
• Experience of leading complex teams and your ability to brief at a senior level on complex issues.

At interview you will be assessed against the above criteria along with the following: 

Behaviours: 

• Leadership
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing

 

Technical:

Project Delivery Capability Framework

 

• 8 – Risk & Issue Management
• 16 – Business Case Development

 

Competence level: Practitioner

 

The sift will take place within 5 working days of advert closing.  Interviews for successful candidates will be held at Army Headquarters date TBC in person.
Details of interviews will be provided to successful candidates with a minimum of 2 full working days’ notice. 

Please refer to this framework for support. Project Delivery Capability Framework (PDCF) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/project-delivery-capability-framework-for-civil-servants

 

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBSCivPers-Resourcingteam3@mod.gov.uk 

 

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

 

 

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.