About the job

Job summary

The Ministry of Defence employs over 50,000 Civil Servants. Within that, the Army Top Level Budget (TLB) employs around 7,000 MOD Civil Servants located at over 300 locations. Ours is a diverse workforce, with roles ranging from trainers, human resources, teachers, and psychologists to storekeepers, financiers, project and programme managers, and policy secretariat staff. There are many different functions and professions delivering key outputs for the Army. As such using data to aid understanding of our workforce is vital.

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.

You will be working alongside a diverse team as our Directorate consists of Civil Servants, military colleagues and contractors, working closely to deliver the Army’s Modernisation Agenda ensuring the successful delivery of the programme through each of its critical stages.

Our project delivery function provides pivotal support to our Programmes activities such as:

• Project Management
• Planning
• Governance & Reporting
• Risk, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies, Opportunities (RAIDO)
• Benefits
• Programme / Project Support
• Portfolio Analysis

With your positive attitude, you will work in teams to achieve outcomes. You will be flexible, self-motivated and possess the ability to problem-solve in a fast-paced environment.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job description

This is an exciting time to join the Army Programmes directorate as we seek to employ Project Delivery professionals to enhance our existing teams, making a significant contribution to Defence and the Nation.

This campaign has been designed to attract candidates who hold Portfolio, Programme & Project Management (P3M) experience, and/or transferrable skills. If you are looking to further develop your skills and competence in this area and meet the following criteria, we would like to hear from you;

• Experience of working in a Project/Programme team, and have knowledge of project management practices, methodologies, tools, and techniques including planning, risk management, governance, frameworks, stakeholder management, change control and assurance.
• Role model behaviour; inspiring and leading team members effectively.
• Ability to clearly communicate messages to colleagues and stakeholders, overcoming barriers and taking into consideration diversity of interest.
• Establish and develop productive relationships, bringing people together to benefit the project.
• Ability to interpret and analyse data to inform decision making.
• Application of new ideas and ways of working, encourage and support innovations from others and follow ideas through to implementation.
• Well organised and able to adapt to changing circumstances and adversity whilst remaining calm, reassuring others, and maintaining performance.
• Problem-solver, adapting the best solutions and present findings convincingly.

In return, we offer the opportunity to further professionalise your experience through relevant training, accreditation, and apprenticeship.

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.

The Army Programmes Directorate is adopting a flexible approach to our workforce to ensure that project delivery priorities are met whilst maximising opportunities in support of skills development and wider career pathways. This means that successful candidates may be allocated flexibly across the Directorate aligning to priorities.

Person specification

The roles within this campaign help drive our Programme areas, some of the main responsibilities include:  

• Creating and maintaining established Project / Programme controls.
• Supporting in the management of Project / Programme related artefacts, ensuring content remains relevant and up to date.
• Preparing and presenting Project / Programme performance reports and updates, utilising O365 and other Project related packages.
• Validating information and challenging where appropriate.
• Cross referencing information against established plans and schedules.
• Creating, implementing, and maintaining appropriate data to produce effective Management Information.
• Applying standard Risk management techniques, providing an overview for the organisation. Including engagement across the team where needed.
• Inputting to the Learning from Experience (LfE) process, assisting in the capture and dissemination of Programme and Project LfE.  

Desirable Qualifications/Membership:

Candidates have the following, or a willingness to work towards:

• Experience of working within a Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) framework and/or equipment programme is particularly desirable.
• APM Project Management Qualification (PMQ)
• Prince 2 Practitioner
• Agile Project Management Practitioner
• Management of Portfolios (MOP)
• Management of Successful Programmes (MSP)
• Or equivalent qualifications

Want to know more? We encourage you to join our Q&A Dial-in where you can learn more about the roles on offer and ask any questions you may have.

Thursday 1st August 2024, 1200 – 1245

Microsoft Teams

Join the meeting now

• Meeting ID: 363 064 507 562
• Passcode: VqY4hq
• Dial in by phone:
• Phone conference ID: 218 268 020#

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,290, Ministry of Defence contributes £9,528 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 and Experience.

Candidates will be required to provide CV details to include job history.

Candidates will be required to provide a statement of suitability. 

In no more than 750 words, please demonstrate the following Essential criteria within your Personal Statement:

• Outline your experience of working in a Portfolio, Programme and/or Project Management (P3M) environment.
• Demonstrate your ability to engage with stakeholders at varying levels.
• Elaborate on your proficiency in organising, planning and working to tight deadlines.

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

• Managing a Quality Service
• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing

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.