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’s Programmes Directorate brings together our key change programmes to ensure they are delivered to performance, cost and time. We are committed to Project, Programme & Portfolio Management (P3M) and delivery. From every item of basic equipment to the most ground-breaking technology imaginable, every new project brings outstanding possibilities and challenges, and we’ll ensure you’re equipped to succeed, with extensive training and development opportunities. The Directorate consists of Civil Servants, military colleagues and contractors working closely to deliver the Army’s Modernisation Agenda. As Programme Director, you will be working alongside a diverse team consisting of military and civilian team members to ensure the successful delivery of the programme through each of its critical stages. This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job description

This is an exciting time to join Army Programmes, as we seek to enhance our leadership team within the Joint Effects Programme and wider Directorate.

Central to this role is providing effective and timely governance, reporting and updates to various groups and stakeholders. The successful candidate will have experience working within a Managing Successful Programmes framework.

We will be looking to utilise a reserve list from this campaign. This means that high-calibre candidates will be contacted after the interview process to discuss similar opportunities in Army Programmes without the need to re-interview.

Working in a Project Delivery focused environment within a collaborative team structure, the role is essential in delivering military capability to the Army.

The post requires programme management skills to own the delivery of the projects to ensure objectives are achieved within agreed time, cost and quality frameworks. Relationship management skills are required to work with a variety of internal and external stakeholders to ensure the agreed programme outcomes are delivered and benefits are realised.

Person Specification

Leadership 

• Leading the various programme teams, of both military and civilian staff, to provide direction and promote an energised culture focused on collaborative working.  
• Lead the development of the Business Case, alignment with senior stakeholders and agreement through Programme Board /Management Board /HMT.  
• Create an environment in which projects can succeed – working effectively together and managing dependencies. Deliver benefits and outcomes set out in business case.  
• Establishing a one-team ethos across the programme teams and their associated delivery agents (DE&S, Defence Digital etc).   
• Act as the champion for the programmes, and PD function more broadly, and take authority and personal accountability for their delivery.   
• Is a visible, engaged, active leader who creates an open and honest culture.   
• Army TLB as a positive place to work and championing a diverse and inclusive workplace. 

Business Case Development  

• Leading the preparation of the programme plan, project initiation documents and business case amongst other documents.  
• Appraising options and submitting for approval.  
• Managing the programme budget, including risk allowance.  

Stakeholder Management  

• Cultivate and manage a range of relationships and key strategic alliances with internal/external stakeholders.   
• Work with the SRO to co-manage senior stakeholders, regularly reviewing the continuing relevance and performance of the programmes based on a clear understanding of cost, risk and contribution to the Army’s modernisation programme and strategic objectives.  
• Influence and manage the operating environment into which the programme outcomes will be delivered and build effective relationships with key industry partners.   
• Effective leadership and oversight of all Defence Lines of Development and inter-dependencies.  
• Owning key stakeholder relationships, leading, and delivering both internal and external communications

Project Performance & Controls 

• Maintain overall integrity and coherence of project and governance framework.
• Plan assurance activities and routine Government Major Programmes Portfolio (GMPP), Defence Major Programmes Portfolio (DMPP) and Army Programmes Portfolio Progress Group (P3G).

Assure Risk, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies & Opportunities (RAIDO)

• Ensuring mitigation is in place and resolved through negotiated agreement. Act as an arbiter and enforcer and resolve issues between the various elements of the programme. 

Resource Management in accordance with Programme Mandate

• Responsible for resourcing, administering, maintaining, and developing the project teams. 

This post provides the opportunity to develop professional skills and experience, with future opportunities to promote and progress within a developing P3M profession for both the Army TLB and wider Defence.

As part of this offering, we will be looking to secure a candidate for our partnering branch at Land Warfare Centre in Warminster, BA12 0DJ.

The successful candidate will be required to match the above criteria alongside the following;

• Provide strategic performance management of the most complex and important LWC contracts through centralised management of KPIs, contract obligations and other performance metrics. 
• Provide a focus on data analysis and exploitation of information across all Defence Lines of Development (DLOD) to identify training and operating inefficiencies and provide underpinning evidence to support business decisions, many of which lead to transformational change.

Person specification

The role of the Programme Director is to:

• Provide direction and guidance on development of the Programme to the team and more broadly across departmental profession.
• Secure resources and direct planning, scheduling, resourcing and estimating for the complex and large-scale programmes.
• Oversee risk and issue management. Ensuring mitigation is in place and resolved through negotiated agreement.
• Ensure realisation of benefits through planning and designing and that project outputs meet programme requirements.
• Cascade the Programme vision and translate into delivery objectives for the team. Lead the programme to deliver the business case benefits and outcomes.
• Maintain overall integrity and coherence of programme and governance framework to support each project. Plan programme assurance activities.

Essential:

Candidate to hold one or more of the following Project Delivery Qualifications;

• PRINCE2 Practitioner
• Managing Successful Programmes Practitioner / Advanced Practitioner
• APM Practitioner Qualification
• Management of Risk Practitioner
• P3O Practitioner
• APM Registered Professional

 When in post there will be the opportunity to further develop your leadership skills and professional development.

Want to find out more?

We are holding a Q&A on Thursday 23 May, between 1215-1300; 

Microsoft Teams

Meeting ID: 340 790 567 398

Passcode: WgbmUH

Dial-in by phone

United Kingdom, London

Find a local number

Phone conference ID: 308 492 328#

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £67,820, Ministry of Defence contributes £18,311 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:

Candidates will be required to provide CV details to include job history; qualification details and previous skills and experience.  

Candidates will be required to provide a statement of suitability.  

In no more than 1250 words, please demonstrate the following Essential criteria within your Personal Statement:

• Ability to undertake a Project Delivery post delivering essential military capability to the Army, working in a delivery focused environment within a collaborative team structure.
• Demonstrable P3M skills to lead the required outputs of Project Delivery Capability to ensure deliverables are achieved within agreed time, cost and quality frameworks.
• Relationship management skills to work with a variety of internal and external stakeholders to ensure the agreed outcomes are delivered and benefits are realised.
• Providing effective and timely governance, reporting and updates to various groups and stakeholders.

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

Behaviours:

• Leadership
• Delivering at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service

Technical Skills:

You will be asked to provide Practitioner-level evidence of understanding and experience in the following competencies as listed in the Project Delivery Capability Framework;

• 8 - Risk and Issues
• 11 – Governance
• 12 – Framework methodologies

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

Presentation:

Candidates who are invited to interview will be expected to deliver a presentation. The subject matter will be disclosed upon invite to interview.

Application sifting is scheduled to take place one week following closure of the advert.

A minimum of 2 full working days notice will be provided for interviews. We endeavour to remain within this time-frame, however this can be subject to change.

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.