About the job

Job summary

Support Transformation is an ambitious, transformation programme that will address both shortcomings in the effective delivery of Support, pan-Defence, and deliver £Bns of financial savings over the next 10 years. Driving change together with external consultants, industry, DE&S and the Front-Line commands, we will enable Defence to achieve greater agility and efficiency, achieving both value for money for the taxpayer and also operational advantage.

‘Business Modernisation for Support’ (BMfS) is, first and foremost, a business change and process re-engineering programme. It seeks to transition Defence from legacy processes to align with leading practice across both the commercial Support sector and with allies. This in turn allows for future Defence business processes to be underpinned by COTS, cloud-enabled, evergreen IS, integrated with the Defence Digital Backbone, cyber-secure and accessible globally. The introduction of Robotic Process Automation and AI where appropriate will remove the need for human intervention in non-value-adding tasks, and the implementation of a simple, intuitive ‘Amazon-style’ interface will reduce the need for specialist training, minimise instances of human error and improve the user experience.  

Aligned to this will be the introduction of Operational Data Services that will increase access to both current and future data. This, combined with the delivery of a coherent, assured suite of IS capabilities, will deliver a step change in data accuracy, completeness, and timeliness. Together, these are essential enablers of the wider SpTx ambition and the exploitation of AI-enabled predictive-sustainment). Standardisation with allied and industry-leading best practice, enabling integration or exchange of data, will be a key plank of delivering the MDI ambition at the heart of the Defence Support Strategy.

The Support Transformation (SpTx) Assistant Project Manager posts will apply Project Management processes to help align milestones, activities and plans in support of Support Information Services projects and other delivery activities. The roles will support the co-ordination of wider coherence of other Project Management activities aligned to BMfS plans, including the inputs/outputs of risk and coherence management. This role contributes to the overall governance of the BMfS programme and the achievement of SpTx corporate objectives, they will also provide advice to senior staff and support the strategic management of the SpTx Programme. The role requires experience of working in a wider Project Management environment, with an understanding of transformational change and very good organisation and communications skills. 

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job description

The BMfS Assistant Project Manager posts are responsible for developing and supporting effective and co-ordinated Plans to support Delivery activity. As the Assistant Project Manager post holder, you will: 

• Support the coordination and alignment of plans and deliverables with delivery projects and delivery agents.
• Contribute to the evaluation of the 'as is' architecture and business processes to develop 'to be' proposals. 
• Contributing to maintaining the overall Project baseline and integral Project activities and ensuring that workstreams are cohered, with any changes to the baseline scrutinised and detailed analysis conducted to provide assessments of the impact of any proposed change(s).
• Ensuring the effective implementation of functional procedures used for planning and control.
• Assisting with performing audits to ensure the quality of management and planning activities.
• Maintaining the quality and validity of project management activities associated with cohering the delivery of projects, including assisting with:  
  • Coherence and control activities.  
  • Controlling the project management of BMfS Discovery, Proof of Concept and or Pilot projects.  
  • Development of project management strategies, the maintenance, monitoring, impact identification and recovery of planned development activities.  
  • Earned value management analysis.  
  • Workforce planning and staffing plans.  
  • Benefits and risk management. 
• Supporting the identification, analysis and development of innovative solutions to project and cost management planning/scheduling problems.
• Providing input to business cases, strategic plans, customer presentations, bid evaluations and contract negotiations
• Reporting performance and making presentations to the SpTx Programme, senior management and stakeholders providing input for decision making. 
• Managing project management administration
• Any other task, as is commensurate with grade, as requested by LM or CSO

Person specification

Role specific knowledge and experience equivalent to one of the following qualifications desired:

1. APM Practitioner Qualification (APMPMQ) or Prince 2 Practitioner.
2. Managing Successful Programmes (MSP)
3. Experience in use of: Microsoft Project
4. Management of Risk (MoR)
5. Communication

The stated qualifications are simply an indicator of the capability required – a preference, not an inflexible necessity. Some individuals may lack the formal qualification but demonstrate their suitability by knowledge and experience. 

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 a CV to include: job history and previous skills and experience.

Candidates will be required to provide a 250 word statement of suitability. Please provide evidence of experience relevant to the role.

At the application stage, candidates will also be required to provide 250 words for each success profile:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

At interview, candidates will be asked to demonstrate the following success profiles:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

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.