About the job

Job summary

The Digital, Data, Technology & Security (DDTS) function support the delivery of Defra’s outcomes through a portfolio of technology change. This portfolio underpins the daily operations for 27,500 staff in Defra and across the group as well as thousands of UK citizens who rely on Defra to deliver the best possible outcomes for our environment, food, farming and rural communities. It includes technology transformation such as Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Identity & Access Management and driving an improved user experience and increased productivity.

Delivery of the portfolio seeks to stabilise, improve and transform Defra’s technology estate to reduce our technical debt and deliver services that are secure, resilient, sustainable, available and fit for purpose.

Every year DDTS delivers a significant programme of change through this portfolio to the value of approximately £50m investment. This change must be delivered in way that maximises alignment to Defra business outcomes, minimises risk to delivery and ensure maximum benefits can be realised.

The Head of Technology Portfolio Management role provides strategic leadership for the prioritisation, assurance, delivery and reporting of the technology portfolio, managing the risk to delivery. The role engages directly with senior leaders across Defra and suppliers to maximise
benefit from delivery. The role engages directly with these stakeholders as well as seeking input and expertise from across government, industry and professional bodies to drive insight and best practice in achieving the maximum performance from delivery. The role will also lead a circa 60 FTE team of programme and project managers, along with a Portfolio Management Office (PMO), promoting good practice and continuously improving the profession and delivery capability.

The role holder will lead the overall investment and prioritisation process, both for current and future government spending cycles, helping the DDTS function to plan and manage risks to delivery. The role holder must ensure that Directors are equipped with meaningful insight into delivery performance as well as being able to take early and effective action to manage risks to delivery (whether financial, technical or benefits related).

The post holder will be part of a senior management team that ensures the circa 800 live IT services, technology and applications supporting the Defra group are maintained and resilient and that change to this environment is delivered effectively and safely. This role is
part of a broader strengthening of the DDTS senior management capability.

Job description

• Leading the definition, prioritisation and delivery of a Technology portfolio of circa £50m per year, working closely with leaders across DDTS, Group Corporate Services and suppliers. The successful candidate will need to operate effective portfolio and programme management to ensure projects deliver to time, cost and performance. A deep understanding of risk and dependency management
  fundamentals and practice is essential.
• Ensuring that all delivery must comply with government DDaT practices including technical, architecture and security design principles and policies (and where applicable GDS standards). Services must be developed to be accessible, secure, performant, scalable, sustainable,
  and planned to be continuously improved.
• Leading, inspiring and managing a community of c60 specialist programme, project and PMO professionals, along with wider delivery partner resources to ensure quality delivery, build strong and effective relationships across the department and create alignment to the delivery strategy.
• Championing and improving project delivery standards across all projects and driving up compliance through the development of guidance materials, toolkits and techniques to help align delivery to Defra’s Project Delivery Framework.
• Financial management of a budget of circa £50m per annum, the role holder will need to operate effective financial planning, monitoring, forecasting and control in accordance with the government guide Managing Public Money.
• Accountable for delivering high quality insight into portfolio performance, enabling effective decision making at Director and Executive Board level and above.
• Maintaining and building networks and communities of practice within the Department and more widely, collaborating with other functions including digital, finance, and commercial to strengthen the functional model within the Department.
• Provide corporate leadership as part of the Group Infrastructure & Operations and wider DDTS leadership community.

Person specification

Candidates CV and Personal Statement should demonstrate the following essential criteria:

• An inspirational leader, able to motivate own teams, colleagues and suppliers alike, adept a leading geographically dispersed teams
• The role holder will require excellent influencing, negotiating and relationship skills. He/she will work with senior Defra stakeholders, other government departments and suppliers to deliver against the overall technology priorities as part of Defra’s Digital & Data Transformation
  Strategy and annual planning cycle.
• Ability to work effectively across organisational boundaries at a senior level and having the confidence and credibility to challenge constructively to achieve the desired outcomes
• Substantial experience of large scale (ca £50m) successful project/programme management, delivering and overseeing large scale programmes often with changing priorities
• Experience of managing projects and programmes using waterfall and agile methodologies
• Excellent written/verbal communication skills with both non-technical as well as technical audiences managing successful communications with governance boards and stakeholders.
• Open-minded collaborative approach to leadership with an empathy for the needs of clients and customers
• Experience of determining and driving PPM delivery standards and business change to make sure customer needs are met and exceeded
• Strong experience of managing budgets

Desirable Criteria

• Experience in Management of Portfolios to Practitioner Level
• Certification in PRINCE2 and MSP to at least Practitioner level
• Experience and/or certification Agile (Scrum) delivery

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,000, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £20,250 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 are asked to complete a CV and Personal Statement (no more than 1250 words) on how your relevant skills and experience meet the essential criteria. Completed applications must be submitted no later than the closing date of Monday 18th March at 23:55.

Please ensure that both documents are free of any identifying information – this will be captured through the online portal, whilst ensuring applications can be considered anonymously.

If you are shortlisted, you will be asked to take part in a virtual Staff Engagement Exercise. This assessment will not result in a pass or fail decision. Rather, it is designed to support the panel’s decision making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview.

Shortlisted applicants may be offered an informal discussion with the Vacancy Holder.

You will be asked to attend an in person panel interview in order to have a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the essential criteria for the role

As part of the interview, we would ask you to prepare and present a short presentation and will confirm the topic in the interview invitation. You will be assessed on the following 5 behaviours at the interview stage: Leadership, Making Effective Decisions, Communicating and Influencing and Managing a Quality Service.

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 counter-terrorist 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.