About the job

Job summary

Are you looking for a new and exciting role that will directly impact everyone in the Ministry of Defence?  Do you want to be a part of one of the most ambitious projects in Defence People?  We are looking for passionate and dedicated individuals to join our team and help us deliver a once-in-a-generation transformation to the service and experiences we provide for our people.

Following the successful launch of a new and modernised HR Services for Civilian Staff, Defence have launched this exciting programme to evolve and expand the Oracle Fusion platform across the whole of the Defence Enterprise. But this is far more than just a digitalisation programme; we will be simplifying and standardising policy and processes to enable innovative new services that enhance the lives of all civil servants, military staff, and their dependants wherever they are serving across the globe.  We will provide Leaders and HR Professionals with the user centric tools needed to manage their staff effectively, whilst improving the lived experience for everyone.  We are a critical part of the MOD’s Corporate Services Modernisation (CSM) Portfolio and the digitalisation ambition, and we are sponsored and supported at the highest levels Your work will have an valuable impact and will directly contribute to a vastly improved service and great user experience for all.

We are seeking enthusiastic, ambitious, and energetic professionals to work in a close-knit empowered team that will make this happen.  The Defence HR Services (Def HRS) Programme Team is an attractive, desirable and rewarding place to work, and we look forward to discussing how you can contribute to our success.  

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job description

These are critical roles within the Defence HRS Programme, which will be pivotal to supporting the delivery of the Defence People Strategy through providing modernised HR Services and experiences for Military personnel and continuing to improve the civilian personnel service. It will also support the Defence People Committee aims of:

• Modernising the core military HR system through moving quickly to a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution, akin to the move of HRMS to MyHR for civilians, and create a single Military and Civilian Enterprise Resource and Planning ecosystem for HR.
• Deliver, through the adoption of this new technology, the catalyst for a fundamental simplification and rationalisation of our People policies and processes.
• Using the opportunities presented by SaaS to fundamentally transform how we “do HR”. 

You will be joining the programme from the early stages, where we intend to start a Discovery and Design Phase in May 2024, prior to phased implementation in 2025/26. The project will be delivered using an Agile Approach, alongside a traditional waterfall environment and existing Government Routes for resilience and flexibility on delivery.

You will be responsible for supporting the Defence HRS programme to achieve success, contributing to the Joint Project Office with Defence Business services (DBS), working with a multitude of stakeholders across the Defence Enterprise at all levels. You will be a strong role model, dealing with issues promptly and in a constructive manner – often across Military Commands and organisational boundaries. Most importantly, you will be passionate and driven to achieve the core vision of the project. We are looking for someone who is positive and has the confidence to take on high volumes of work, and solve complex problems, in their stride.

Responsibilities include:

• Support Project Managers in all aspects of the delivery of Defence HRS.
• Assist in delivery of benefits against the business case and ensure appropriate approvals and assurance plans are in place.
• Work with the team to Identify and set appropriate project controls, tracking and reporting delivery against milestones and budgets.
• Schedule and run project resources.
• Manage project partners and connect with them at all levels.
• Identify and supervise project risks and issues and ensure effective change management processes exist.
• Provide key reports and support effective governance and decision making and control of projects and their place in a programme and Portfolio.
• Support team PMO activities.
• Support regular commitments including team meetings and audit activities.
• Any other tasks commensurate with the role and grade.

Person specification

The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate their experience and skills against the following essential criteria:

• Proven project management experience
• Experience in delivering major programmes and projects to a high standard.
• Experience of leading and driving a team to deliver at pace.
• Experience of managing risks and opportunities and working with stakeholders across organisational boundaries to reduce risk exposure and maximise value.
• An excellent communicator that has experience of summarising complex issues for seniors and governance forums.
• A driven individual, who has ample experience of progressing multiple workstreams in parallel.

Desirable Experience

• Experience of working within a Shared Service environment and/or Implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning System, with an understanding of the basic building blocks to successful delivery.
• Experience of the Ministry of Defence, particularly in Project Delivery or Military Personnel policy.
• Agile delivery experience in a service environment.

Desirable Qualifications

• One of the following recognised project delivery qualifications, such as:
• Managing Successful Programmes Practitioner or equivalent demonstrable experience /qualification.
• APM Registered Project Professional
• PRINCE2 Practitioner
• Agile

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,080, Ministry of Defence contributes £11,631 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.

If there are more successful candidates than advertised posts we may recruit more of this grade and role.

Please note, although this is a permanent contract, the programme is lifed for three years. If successful, following completion of the programme, you will be placed in another Defence People role of the same grade.

Selection process details:

This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Candidates will be required to provide CV details to include: job history; qualification details and previous skills and experience and a personal statement providing evidence against the essential criteria.

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the Application stage:

• Leadership
• Delivering at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the Interview stage:

• Leadership
• Delivering at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service

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

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.