About the job

Job summary

Residing within the Directorate of Acquisition and Project Delivery (DAPD), and as a constituent of the wider DAPD Professions and Standards team, the PD COE Standards and Guidance team is at the heart of improving PD.  Working with Portfolio Offices (PfOs) and other Centres of Excellence across Defence, the team uses this network of contacts to establish current practice, to ensure mandated standards for PD are understood and adhered to, and to shape future practice via the collation and dissemination of good and best practice guidance. While you will manage a number of important business as usual (BaU)/administrative activities, you will also be involved in change projects that will transform the way project professionals interact and learn across Defence.  The work undertaken by the team is of strategic importance, and this role offers a real opportunity to deliver change and impact on PD performance across Defence.   The ideal candidate will be highly motivated, with a desire to improve processes to help others.  With an ability to progress several tasks concurrently, they will be a confident communicator and a strong team player.  You’ll be encouraged to become a member of an appropriate PD professional body and you shall be supported to develop your technical skills and to gain relevant qualifications. This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job description

Your main responsibilities as a Standards, Guidance and Process Officer will include:

PD Standards and Guidance

• Working with the Standards, Guidance and Process Manager as they set, communicate and build commitment for standards and guidance for project delivery across Defence. This will include acting as Secretariat for a pan-Defence Advisory Group overseeing a comprehensive review of the Defence Project Delivery Toolkit. 

• Supporting the Standards, Guidance and Process Manager with the maintenance the Defence Project Delivery Toolkit. This will include building and managing relationships with subject matter experts (SMEs) and liaising with SMEs to ensure updates are received as/when required. 

• Manage and ensure quality and consistency of PD Toolkit content, proof-reading of new PD Toolkit content as/when necessary, and uploading new/updated content once finalised. 

Stakeholder management

Working with the Standards, Guidance and Process Manager to resolve user queries. Managing the DAPD Standards multi-user inbox.  

• Manage and ensure the maintenance of a DAPD Standards user query log. 

• Working with the Standards, Guidance and Process Manager as they manage and maintain relationships with a wide range of stakeholders across Defence, including identifying and building relationships with key users of the PD Toolkit. 

• Manage and ensure the maintenance of an up-to-date DAPD Standards user stakeholder list.

 

PD Functional Strategy delivery management 

• Working with the Standards, Guidance and Process Manager to deliver PD Functional Strategy benefits and outcomes. This will involve assisting them in the delivery of transformational change projects, with this work including the organisation, creation and delivery of PD ‘lunch and learn sessions’ and the identification and curation of Good and Best Practice in project delivery occurring within Defence.
• Manage and ensure the maintenance of the DAPD Standards and Guidance team planner.
• Working with the Standards, Guidance and Process Manager to create a PD Community of Practice (CoP). This may include monitoring the DAPD Standards Teams site and acting as the Secretariat for CoP meetings.
• Manage and ensure the recognition and tracking of interdependencies across Standards and Guidance team initiatives, and on the identification and monitoring of risks (threats and opportunities) to their delivery.

 

Communications

Working with the Standards, Guidance and Process Manager to create Standards and Guidance related content for newsletters, blogs, team reports and internal briefings as/when necessary.

Location: The role can be based in London or Bristol, although there will be a need for some travel between these two locations.

Person specification

•       Essential – Prior awareness and experience in office productivity software (MS Word, MS Excel, and MS PowerPoint) •       Essential – Prior experience of project delivery •       Essential – Achievement of a project delivery-related qualification (e.g., Prince 2 Practitioner, APM PMQ, MSP practitioner) within 18 months of commencing the role (the qualification will be paid for, and study time will be provided).   •       Desirable – Prior awareness and experience of MS Project or Primavera 6 •       Desirable – prior experience of authoring reports and/or presentations.

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.

Behaviours

 We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

 An initial sift based on the lead behaviour (Communicating and Influencing) may be held if a large number of applications are received. If your application progresses to a full sift, all behaviours will then be considered

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.