About the job

Job summary

Do you want to be part of an energetic, innovative team and bring your skills to one of the biggest changes to the administration of the Civil Service in decades?

We’re looking for people who are flexible, intuitive and are comfortable taking high levels of volume, speed and complexity in their stride.

This role is within the Synergy Programme, a cross-departmental group formed in response to Government Business Service’s request for individual departments to group together in ‘clusters’ to drive efficiencies, increase buying power and improve the quality of shared service to our end users – our people.

The Synergy Programme is the largest of five departmental clusters, comprising the Ministry of Justice, Department for Work and Pensions, Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Home Office. The Department of Work and Pensions hosts the Synergy.

Programme. Your work will impact the procurement arrangements for the next 15 years, impacting over 50% of all Civil Servants – that’s 230,000 people across the four departments and arm’s length bodies.

Success of the Programme is crucial as Civil Servants rely on shared services to provide business critical tools in human resources, finance, payroll, and procurement. It affects everything we do, from joining a department as a new starter, the way we claim for expenses, how we buy goods and services such as our laptops and canteen provisions, to the way we receive our pensions when we retire.

If you’re someone who can use your experience to streamline procurement to drive out error, waste, and duplication we want to hear from you. But most importantly, we’re looking for applications from people who can also demonstrate a passion for our core ambition - delivering a once in a generation, transformed service that Civil Servants will use as a result of the Synergy Programme.

For all jobs located in Wales, the ability to speak Welsh is desirable.

Job description

Successful candidates can be expected to be involved in the following:

• Line management responsibility for a small team, which includes providing leadership, coaching and delegation of work based on priorities.
• Knowledge and information management – Implement knowledge and information process. Advise the project on correct processes and lead the lessons learned process.
• Project planning, including the development, updating, and monitoring of plans and schedules.
• Governance and reporting – Support drafting and maintaining terms of reference for boards, working groups and communities of practice. Work with senior project roles to draft board agendas. Maintain log of board decisions and owners. Work with decision owners to provide report updates. Analysis of data and producing reports for senior leaders. Engage product leads to ensure alignment and provide a forward look of governance activity.
• Support capability building across the workstream, championing best practice in planning and reporting, and administration of tooling (JIRA, Confluence, SharePoint)
• Project performance and controls – Monitor and analyse information, reporting progress, slippage and highlighting areas of risk and opportunity.
• Plan, schedule and run meetings ensuring appropriate methods are used and align to team and programme priorities.
• Support secretariat duties as required delivering meaningful outputs, auditable logs, and records for Synergy Governance boards, taking ownership for tracking actions and decisions.
• Support Resourcing and Recruitment activity for the workstream, working closely with Recruitment, Finance and Programme Management Office (PMO) colleagues. Preparing and updating resource forecasts and approval of monthly managed service invoices. 

Person specification

Essential

• Experience of working within a complex, large-scale and ambiguous change programme, or project.
• Strong and refined leadership skills, with experience of using initiative to strategically refine working practices.
• Experience of working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, with an awareness of at least one of the relevant sectors (HR, Payroll, Procurement/Commercial, Finance, Sustainability).
• Delivery and solution-focused, able to use initiative to resolve issues and remove blockers to successful delivery.
• A collaborative team player, able to forge and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders up to Director level across numerous internal workstreams and Government Departments.
• Proficient in the use of Excel, PowerPoint and SharePoint. Demonstrating an ability to provide effective upskilling, to enable team members to proficiently utilise these tools.

Desirable

• Have a recognised or a willingness to work towards achieving a PPM practitioner-level qualification such as PRINCE2, Agile PM, MSP or equivalent.
• Experience of working in an Agile Project Management environment and skilled in using associated tooling (JIRA, Confluence, Microsoft Project or equivalent).
• Experience of identifying the fundamental components of a project in terms of its scope, deliverables, time scales, resource requirements and budget, for the purpose of producing broader plans incorporating risk and quality to provide a holistic overview of a project.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence, challenge and collaborate across boundaries and in apolitically sensitive environment
• Experience of working in a Shared Service, Enterprise Resource Planning or large service transformation environment is desirable.
• Experienced in supporting recruitment campaigns, profiling resources and tracking forecasted resource spend.

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Location

Applicants should apply for suitable posts where they can travel to and from their home office location daily within a reasonable time.   

Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas. Relocation costs will not be reimbursed.

Hybrid Working

This job role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home.  This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work. The number of days that anyone will be able to work at home will be determined primarily by business need but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. If you are successful, any opportunities for hybrid working, including whether a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for you, will be discussed with you prior to you taking up your post.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

Application

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement (1000 words max). Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Your CV is not scored, so please ensure your evidence is contained within your personal statement.

Your personal statement should demonstrate how you meet the essential criteria set out in the person specification.

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the lead criteria:

• Experience of working within a complex, large-scale and ambiguous change programme, or project.

Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

At interview, we will select based on behaviours, strengths and experience. There may also be a presentation as part of the interview process. Presentation subject/question will be issued in advance. The behaviours we will select on are:

• Seeing the big picture
• Managing a quality service
• Working together
• Communicating and influencing

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Further Information

Find out more about Working for DWP

A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to DWP from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Before applying for this vacancy, current employees of DWP should check whether a successful application would result in changes to their terms & conditions of employment, e.g. mobility, pay, allowances. Civil Servants that would transfer into DWP from other government organisations, following successful application, will assume DWP's terms & conditions of employment current on the day they are posted, unless DWP has stated otherwise in writing.

The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. Applications will be screened and if evidence of plagiarism or copying examples/answers from other sources is found, your application will be withdrawn. Internal DWP candidates may also face disciplinary action.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. 

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Reasonable Adjustment

At DWP we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce.

We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:Contact Government Recruitment Service via DWPRecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the “Reasonable Adjustments” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.