About the job

Job summary

Do you want to lead on some of the biggest digital transformation in the UK currently?

Are you an inspiring and engaging leader?

If so, please apply for our Lead Digital Portfolio Manager role.

DWP Digital is transforming DWP’s services by unlocking the potential of leading edge technologies and ways of working. With our partners, we are focused on building and running innovative digital technology solutions that meet and respond to the changing needs and expectations of millions of people. We want to make it quicker, easier and less costly for DWP’s customers to get the support they need.

Portfolio Management is key within the department in ensuring that decisions surrounding the timing, structure, and prioritisation of projects & programmes, are correctly planned and managed.

Job description

As a Lead Digital Portfolio Manager, you will have a deep understanding of and be able to promote, the strategic and organisational plans for Digital, including in depth knowledge of a Director’s Business Plan and broad understanding of Digital’s Strategic aims and objectives.

You will have excellent organisation skills and attention to detail, with the ability to prioritise and manage multiple streams of activity including drafting board level papers, analysing complex information reporting on delivery, whilst ensuring a complex portfolio of projects is on track, helping to embed the use of tooling and management information to spot planning and delivery risks, escalating to senior leadership across the department where necessary. 

You will professionally manage stakeholders including leading senior Board and Director level meetings, setting agendas for Board level meetings, tracking issues to be addressed, overseeing delivery of Board decisions and actions and taking ownership of all aspects of reporting, using multiple data sets and ensuring a common understanding of the status of delivery, risks and issues.

You will lead your team in ensuring your Digital portfolio delivers optimal outcomes, specifically in contributing to the department's aims, whilst delivering on its Digital Strategy. You will set standards for delivery, assurance and financial planning processes, identifying KPIs and OKRs to determine whether the scope of the Digital Portfolio is being delivered within funding constraints. Optimisation will be through analysis, learning, assessment and experience, leveraging tooling as required to deliver efficient outcomes.

You will develop and implement  mechanisms to assure delivery of a broad Digital portfolio, leading in tracking and governing delivery, as well as ensuring the use of effective controls, unblocking and escalating issues up to Board level, mitigating risks and tracking dependencies. This will involve maintaining a holistic view of your portfolio, identifying delivery blockers relating to specific projects and programmes, identifying risks and issues and ensuring proportionate change and assurance controls are in place and being adhered to.

You will work with the business management team to support financial planning for your portfolio, ensuring that SLT approval is achieved prior to any investment decisions or commercial approvals.

You will review impacts to forecasts resulting from changing functional demand, working with Finance Business partners and Product Owners to understand the latest delivery forecasts and to address productivity challenges.

You will act as an SME in supporting teams to ensure compliance with governance and controls, creating governance roadmaps to safeguard effective delivery, scrutiny and accountability ensuring where delivery is at risk, actions are in place to mitigate.

You will lead in managing new work demand, advising and/or producing appropriate planning strategies, whilst taking ownership for identifying and prioritising new work that aligns to the department's digital strategy, working across the department and with service teams in selecting projects based on a reliable assessment of the value that they will bring.

You will be a leader in the Digital Portfolio Management Job Family, committed to building the practice community and their capability identifying appropriate training and setting the standards and frameworks for your team. You will forge links with other Lead Digital Portfolio Managers and also form close alliances across organisational boundaries, e.g. Departmental Governance, to learn and share best practices.

Person specification

When giving details in your employment history and personal statement you should highlight your experience in line with essential criteria below:

• Proven experience of leading large-scale digital portfolios within a complex organisation.
• Proven experience of operating at a senior level including drafting Board level papers, reporting and influencing up to Senior Executive level
• Proven experience of developing and implementing organisational governance, financial and assurance frameworks including taking accountability for and delivering critical improvement activity to strengthen and comply with existing governance and assurance controls.
• Experience of identifying and responding to complex issues, using excellent stakeholder managements skills and appropriate methods to unblock and resolve.
• Ability to analyse and interpret multiple data sets to create board level reports and positively influence board level stakeholders, demonstrating highly developed interpersonal and strong communications and presentation skills to tell a compelling story.
• Experience in building successful relationships across organisational boundaries with diverse senior stakeholders using their strong leadership and communication skills to build, manage and influence key strategic relationships

If you would like to learn more about the role, please contact Abs.Ali@dwp.gov.uk

Benefits

• An employer pension contribution of up to 27% For further information please click here.
• Annual leave rising up to 30 days, (based on your working pattern).
• Family friendly flexible working arrangements, such as hybrid working, job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Learning and development tailored to your role this could include industry recognised qualifications, coaching and mentoring.
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join staff networks including: Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.

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. 

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.

Salary Information

Pay for this role is from £69,869 to £89,995.

The maximum salary for the grade is £77,740, however a Digital Allowance of up to £12,255 per annum is available for exceptional candidates, based on our assessment of your skills and experience.

Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer should maintain their current salary.

Existing Civil Servants who gain promotion may move to the bottom of the next grade pay scale or 10% increase in salary whichever would be the greater.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Stage 1: Application

Your application will consist of three parts:

1. A Personal Details application form.

2. Your employment history detailing your responsibilities, skills, accomplishments, plus your qualifications and relevant training. Please copy this information into the box field provided.

3. Personal statement up to 1250 words. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

When giving details in your employment history and personal statement you should highlight your experience in line with essential criteria listed in the Person Specification.

The sift panel will use the information in your employment history and personal statement to assess your experience, skills and knowledge against the essential criteria.

You will receive one combined score for both your Employment History/CV and Personal Statement, which will be provided in your Personal Statement score.

For Hints and Tips on completing your application visit Applying for jobs at DWP Digital.

Important Information

• You will be asked to complete your employment history. Any information that you would customarily share on a CV should therefore be entered onto the application form.
• Personal details that could be used to identify you including your name, contact details and address must be removed for your application to be considered.
• If your employment history/personal statement contains any personal details your application will be withdrawn.

Stage 2: Interview

If you’re successful at sift stage you will be invited to a video interview via Microsoft Teams. There, you will be assessed against the experiences listed in the essential criteria.

You will be asked to do a 10 minute presentation on a specific topic. Further details will be provided to candidates invited to interview.

Interviews will take place from Mid March.

After interview, a single merit list will be created and you will only be considered for posts in locations you have expressed a preference for. Appointments will be made in strict merit order in line with the set number of roles in each location.

If more candidates meet the required standard at interview than there are posts available, posts will be offered in strict merit order and a reserve list will be held for a period of up to 6 months from which further appointments may be made (for the same or similar roles). if this applies to you, we’ll let you know via your Civil Service Jobs account.

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.

Further information:

Find out more about Working for DWP

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 DigitalRecruitment.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.

For further information on reasonable adjustments, terms and conditions and how we recruit visit the How we recruit page. 

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.