About the job

Job summary

Are you a dedicated person who is passionate about making a difference?

Would you like to work for the Ministry of Defence?

Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest shared service organisations in Europe that provides a wide range of corporate services, to over 1.2 million end users, including serving and past military and families, as well as MoD civil servants and industry. DBS delivers large scale administration and smaller specialist services to enable the wider MOD to focus on its core aims, maintaining the UK’s Defence and Security. Services include Human Resources, Pay, Veterans, Finance and Procurement.

• Our Vision - To support UK defence customers with outstanding service every time.
• Our Mission - Together we will proudly support Defence, continuously improving and delivering flexible, timely, sustainable and value for money services that underpin the whole force and enhance operational capability.

DBS is committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues. We are building an inclusive culture and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society.

We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us through opportunities to develop your skills and experience. We also offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career accessible to you and offer a Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%. Where your role permits, we support a blended working approach alternatively known as hybrid working.

Come and join the DBS community today!

If Norcross - DBS has recently undertaken a review of its operational locations in the Northwest, and have consolidated all activities in Norcross, Blackpool. A further move, to the new Government Hub at Talbot Gateway in Blackpool, is scheduled to take place in 2026. 

Job description

As a Senior Delivery Manager, you will support to DBS DIT AG Service Owner, Programme Managers and wider AG team in the delivery of their AGs workstreams.

Responsibilities

• Work collaboratively with the Programme Delivery Manager, wider AG Team, and its customers to ensure needs and concerns of users and the business are technically addressed as part of AG’s outputs. 
• Ensure the Automation Garage is funded and business cases are issued for approval in a timely manner;
• Support Programme Managers by having an in-depth understanding of current workstreams and their purpose and status liaising with

AG stakeholders as required;

• Build and maintain close working relationships with senior stakeholders both internal and external to DBS, ensuring they are regularly updated on progress;
• Proactively manage dependencies, overcome obstacles and get the best value against constraints;
• Overall ownership of the risk registers, action logs, delivery plans, benefits plans, quality logs and other project outputs, ensuring they are maintained throughout the Delivery Life Cycle;
• Ensure Finance and Resource recording and cost tracking through:
• Ownership and regular review of AG AP Finance spend during the Financial Year
• Ownership and regular review of External Support resource utilisation
• Protect the team, ensuring they collaborate, communicate and focus on what is most important, making sure there is an iterative plan to work towards;
• Be an advocate and enthusiast for all service offerings of the Automation Garage in order to expand the Garage’s customer base;
• Coach team members and others, facilitate continuous improvement and apply the most appropriate agile and lean tools and techniques for their environment; 

Person specification

Skills and Experience

Essential:

• Has a deep knowledge of and leads on a range of Agile and Lean tools and techniques, with an ability to coach within and outside of their team
• IT literate, including in-depth knowledge of the Microsoft Office suite  
• Excellent communication skills, including verbal and written  
• Ability to work collaboratively and apply feedback
• Excellent interpersonal skills  
• Able to influence others, including those outside of your direct working relationships  
• Strong motivational skills  
• Good planning, problem solving and organisational skills  
• The ability to meet targets and deadlines 

Desirable:

• 2+ years experience in Agile Project Management, APMP or PRINCE-2 certified
• Knowledge of the Automations tools available in the market;
• Knowledge of AI tools and their integration with Automation; 

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, Experience and Technical skills.

Please ensure that at the application and interview stages of the campaign you review the Success Profiles Framework to assist you in the demonstration of your skills and experience.

Your suitability for the role will be assessed using the Success Profile elements that have been chosen for this campaign. Each element will be scored accordingly, and the successful candidate will be appointed on merit.

Applications will be sifted on all Success Profile elements, but in the event of a high number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted on the folowing success profile elements:

Primary: Technical - DDAT Senior Delivery Manager

Secondary: Experience - Personal statement

In this instance the remaining elements will be tested at interview.

At the application stage you will be assessed against the following:

• Technical - DDAT Senior Delivery Manager
• Experience - CV: Job History, Full Qualification Details, Previous Skills & Experience
• Experience - Personal statement: In no more than 1000 words, please provide information of how you meet the criteria set out in the job description. You may wish to further include examples of how you have tackled similar tasks or demonstrated the skills outlines in the job advert. 

At the interview stage you will be assessed against the following:

• Behaviour - Working Together
• Behaviour - Managing a Quality Service
• Behaviour - Delivering at Pace
• Behaviour - Changing and Improving
• Behaviour - Leadership
• Technical - DDAT Senior Delivery Manager

In the rare case where individuals have exact matching scores, the order of merit will be determined based on the behaviour scores at interview in the following order:

• 1 - Technical - DDAT Senior Delivery Manager
• 2 - Behaviour - Delivering at Pace
• 3 - Behaviour - Leadership
• 4 - Behaviour - Working Together
• 5 - Behaviour - Managing a Quality Service
• 6 - Behaviour - Changing and Improving

If candidate scores are still exact, the merit order will then be determined on the sift score in the following order:

• 1 - Experience - CV
• 2 - Experience - Personal statement
• 3 - Technical - DDAT Senior Delivery Manager

Application sifting to take place on: 08/01/2024

Interviews are currently taking place via the following method: MS Teams

Interviews will be conducted week commencing: 14/01/2024

A minimum of 2 full working days’ notice will be provided for interviews.

We endeavour to stick to these dates, but these are subject to change around business needs.

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: DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@mod.gov.uk

MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.

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. 

To assist with your application please find attached -  

DBS Candidate Information Guide - Working for Defence Business Services - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 

Technical skills Framework guide - https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/delivery-manager.html#senior-delivery-manager

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.