About the job

Job summary

Lead Agile Delivery Manager

c.£85,000 per annum

London

Fixed Term Contract – 23 Months

Hybrid Working

An excellent opportunity to join the Money and Pensions Service as a Lead Agile Delivery Manager to work across multiple workstreams.   The Lead Agile Delivery Manager will be leading all aspects of the Pensions Dashboard Programme (PDP) multidisciplinary digital teams.  If you have experience of working as a Lead Agile Delivery Manager (ADM) or Lead Digital Project Manager (DPM) in a software environment this could be the perfect role for you.   You must be able to demonstrate experience of working with commercial suppliers that build software / technology solutions and can manage the complexities that comes with this and substantial experience of working with technical and service teams.

Here is an insight to the Pensions Dashboard Programme:

Pensions dashboards will enable people to access key information about all of their UK pensions, private and State, in one place online, revolutionising how people engage with their pensions throughout their lives. Enabling the delivery of pensions dashboards will require up to 52m adults in the UK to be connected with up to around 43,000 pension providers and schemes to search for their pensions.

Development work by industry has already taken place, as a concept. The goal is now to turn it into a delivery solution for the benefit of UK citizens. MaPS has created a Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) which will be responsible for delivering the digital architecture and governance framework that will allow multiple parties to be connected as part of the pension’s dashboards ecosystem. This hugely significant development has the potential to improve the financial wellbeing of millions of people.

The programme is comprised of an Industry Steering Group and a supporting Programme team within MaPS. The Programme is working in close partnership with DWP, TPR and FCA who all have related delivery responsibilities. Industry has had, and will continue to have, a crucial role to play in designing and developing the necessary components to make pensions dashboards possible.

Job description

Responsibilities:

The Lead Agile Delivery Manager will report directly to Head of Digital Design and Delivery.  In this role you will be responsible for the following:

• Establishing and maintaining the best methods of delivery between PDP and suppliers and setting standards and expectations (frequency of standups, regular reporting etc) used across all digital teams
• Dealing tactfully but firmly with ambiguity and conflict and helps establish a team culture that allows for constructive criticism.
• Managing plans, risks, issues and dependencies with effective escalation where necessary, owning them until they are resolved.
• Onward reporting of progress at Programme Board level.
• Actively manage change and governance activity, working closely with other programme colleagues
• Working with stakeholders across the ecosystem to ensure all interdependencies are jointly owned and managed between parties.
• Helping develop and utilise meaningful metrics and visualisations to measure progress and provide reassurance that the project remains on track
• Taking steps where progress has slowed to remove blockers and get delivery moving again, escalating where appropriate
• Owning and building relationships with the technical teams, Product Owners, and senior stakeholders
• Ensuring there is two-way communication between teams in order to set and achieve shared goals

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of duties. The need for flexibility, shared accountability and team working is required, and the role-holder is expected to carry out any other related duties that are within the employee's skills and abilities whenever reasonably instructed.

 

Person specification

You will need to demonstrate the following skills and experience:

Essential Criteria:

• Evidence of providing delivery direction on a large or high-profile digital or technology project.
• Substantial knowledge and application of agile ways of working, particularly demonstrating an agile mindset to coach and lead technical delivery teams.
• Experience of having successfully lead teams through the full product life cycle, optimising the delivery flow of teams and identifying innovative ways to unblock issues across or between all stages of the product life cycle.
• Actively identifying and addressing the most complicated risks, issues and dependencies including where ownership exists outside the team or no clear ownership exist.
• Evidence of leading a continual planning process in a very complex environment, plan beyond product delivery and delivery of sustainable, supportable digital products/services.
• Substantial experience of working with commercial suppliers to build technology solutions.
• Substantial experience of working with technical and service teams. Tackling challenging situations with tact and sensitivity.

Desirable Criteria:

• Experience of working in central government, delivering against Government Digital Service (GDS) Standards,
• Experience within the pensions industry and/or Department of Work and Pensions, Pensions Directorate
• Experience of developing sustainable support models
• A good understanding of issues within a large development programme
• Experience of establishing ways of working and leading diverse teams needed
• Helping construct and deliver messages across all stakeholders on a project, ensuring they are communicated with on a consistent basis.

How to apply:

To apply for this position, we kindly request that you submit a cover letter of up to 1000 words.   Give evidential points against the Essential Criteria to demonstrate how you are closely aligned to the role and detail why you want to work for the Money and Pensions Service. 

Benefits

• What Money and Pensions Service can offer you:

   

  • Generous Annual Leave – 30 days plus Bank Holidays
  • Pension scheme – contributions matched 2 to 1 (up to 10% of your salary)
  • Interest-free loan to help you buy season tickets for buses and trains
  • Cycle to work Scheme
  • Subsidised eye test & flu jabs
  • Life assurance scheme
  • Give as you earn scheme
  • Employee assistance programme (EAP)
  • PAM Assist and PAM Life scheme (Wellbeing)
  • Enhanced family and sick pay
  • Paid volunteering (2 days a year)
  • Recognition Scheme
  • Discounts portal to numerous retailers

Things you need to know

Selection process details

At the heart of the Money and Pensions Service are our values – caring, connecting and transforming, which are the foundation of our success. They permeate every area of our work and define all our business relationships and the way we work with each other. We’re not only looking for the best people in and around Bedford to come and work for us, but we need people who align themselves to our values: -

• Caring
  We care about our colleagues and people whose lives we are here to transform.
• Connecting
  We will transform lives through our ability to make positive connections.
• Transforming
  We are committed to transforming lives and make a positive societal impact.

About MaPS

At MaPS, we help people – particularly those most in need – to improve their financial wellbeing and build a better, more confident future. Working collaboratively across the UK, we make sure customers can access high-quality money and pensions guidance and debt advice throughout their lives, however and whenever they need it.

About our people 

We are keen to encourage applications from individuals across the whole community with the skills, knowledge, and behaviours for the job, and who show a strong commitment to MaPS’ objectives, values, and vision.  It is important to us that we continue our ambition to be a genuinely diverse and inclusive organisation, so that we reflect the people we are here to help.

Our inclusive working environment

By fostering our values, we are immensely proud of the inclusive working environment that we have created. The diversity of our people is a strength that we embrace and wish to build upon, so we are committed to attracting people of all backgrounds.

We work hard to ensure that we have a progressive approach to inclusion, equity and belonging.  We really do want our colleagues to “bring their whole selves to work.”

By way of brief example, we have an enviable ethnic diversity mix, equal gender balance with a zero mean gender pay gap and thriving colleague and ally networks, including LGBTQ+, neurodiversity, women’s health, men's health, ethnicity, and diversity.

At MaPS, we take pride in our flexible approach to work.  As standard, we work on a hybrid basis with a minimum of 2 days in the office per week. Hybrid working is a voluntary, noncontractual 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 needs, but personal and other relevant circumstances will also be considered. 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.

If you are successful at interview, we operate a reserve list where your details will be held for up to 6 months. Should a vacancy come available in that time with the same essential criteria, reserve list candidates will be offered that position with no further assessment required.

If you’re already a MaPS employee, and as part of our Talent Strategy, we’re committed to strengthening opportunities for our people to learn, grow, progress, and thrive. For many of you, this may be preparing and applying for your next role with us, and we're passionate about ensuring you feel supported throughout your internal recruitment experience. Please get in touch if you want to know more about some of the ways in which we could support you by emailing recruitment@maps.org.uk

Terms and conditions , Money and Pensions Service (maps.org.uk)

The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) is an arm’s-length body sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions. This role is to be appointed under MaPS Terms & Conditions. Full details on the T&C’s are found https://maps.org.uk/

Our policy requires that selection for appointment to the MaPS is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact the Money and Pensions Service via email: recruitment@maps.org.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website.

Job Reference:  MaPS00620

Close Date:  29th July 2024

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.