About the job

Job summary

Diverse Perspectives and experiences are critical to our success, and we welcome applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role. We look forward to receiving your application.

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.

You will play a significant role in supporting the Head of the PMO in implementing a corporate PMO model, whilst supporting HSE to grow its programme and project management maturity. 
  
This is an exciting opportunity for an exceptional candidate to drive HSE’s Transformation agenda and help shape our future. If you are looking for an opportunity to make a tangible difference that will be felt across the entire of Great Britain, please read on.

The PMO Manager will help lead and develop an established Portfolio Management Office (PMO). The role offers the unique opportunity to support HSE in identifying, developing, delivering and evaluating key projects that will help protect people and place across the UK. 

In particular, you’ll provide leadership and management across our four pillars of Portfolio Management Practice: portfolio management; governance; assurance and PPM best practice. You will lead a team of portfolio professionals and support the development of a culture of delivering at pace, best practice and continuous improvement.    

You will work with a wide range of stakeholders from across HSE to further embed our approach to Project Management and Delivery. You will help to refine this approach and ensure colleagues are engaged and guidance and support we have available is fit for purpose.  

Focused on setting and implementing best practice standards to drive the collective delivery of organisational outcomes that will improve regulatory effectiveness and efficiency and improve projects and programmes you will help us lead, drive and deliver significant change across HSE, driven by our ten-year strategy to protect people and place, and a number of new and challenging transformation programmes.

Job description

Working alongside the Portfolio Management team, your role will be to define, embed and maintain new PPM practices and processes in HSE and lead the PMO Team to be a high performing team. 

Your role will involve: 

Delivery and Leadership 

• Provide visible and effective leadership both within the PMO and the wider change community 
• Provide guidance and coaching on PPM activity across the team, change functions and wider HSE 
• Manage PMO colleagues and drive a high performance culture 

PPM Frameworks, Functional Standards and Best Practice  

• Manage the PPM framework continuous improvement on behalf of HSE 
• Annually assess the portfolio against the IPA’s Continuous Improvement Assessment Framework to assure against the Government’s Functional Standard for Project Delivery 
• Develop and champion the use of best practice project and programme management standards, tools and processes across HSE 

Assurance 

• Lead on assurance activity for the portfolio across project, programme, internal and external assurance of change activity within the portfolio  
• Define and improve assurance processes to support the portfolio, providing a suite of regular assurance reporting 
• Conduct post implementation reviews & health checks, ensuring resulting recommendations are collated and available for use in subsequent projects 

Governance 

• Define, continuously improve and manage portfolio governance forums, processes and tools 
• Manage the portfolio reporting processes, highlight reports, portfolio RAID, quarterly portfolio performance reporting 
• Manage HSE’s corporate project pipeline ensuing business cases for change are and managed centrally 
• Facilitate the gateway process, ensuring consistency and impartiality 

Portfolio Management 

• As a part of the Portfolio Management Office work to ensure that HSE undertakes the right change at the right time to delivery on its strategy 

Business Cases 

• Support Programme and Project Managers in preparing and updating Business Cases, working with specialists where required, and ensuring alignment with HSE’s Strategic Priorities and associated performance indicators. 

All Portfolio Office roles are expected to act in a supportive, flexible, and collegiate manner across the range of portfolio approaches to governance, reporting, assurance, benefits, and workforce management to deliver the strategic benefits and outcomes of HSE. 

The team is located across the UK and there is a requirement of the role to meet regularly, this is generally in one of the more central locations: Birmingham, Bootle, Leeds, Sheffield.

At HSE, we are proud to be able to offer our people the opportunity to work in a hybrid way which combines working from home and the office. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your allocated office will be your contractual place of work. There will be a requirement to travel to the office for various activities e.g., collaborative working, supporting and training colleagues. If hybrid working is suitable for you and your role, the arrangements will be determined primarily by business need, but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. Therefore, we would encourage candidates to consider if the commute from home to the office is a feasible distance to travel before making an application. Please note that if you are successful, hybrid working will be discussed prior to taking up the post.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Ability to work at pace and operate independently and effectively in an environment of ambiguity
• Experience of providing assurance across a variety of projects, programmes
• Experience managing governance processes and forums 
• Experience of creating, continuously improving PPM framework in line with industry best practice and government standards 
• Experience in a number of project roles with significant experience of delivery in project, programme or portfolios in complex environments. 
• Experience of managing a high performing team 
• Knowledge of portfolio management 

Technical/Professional: 

• Practitioner/expert level knowledge of varying industry leading project/programme management methodologies, with experience of implementation and training. 
• Expertise in portfolio reporting tools and techniques, good analytical and presentation skills 
• Confidence to work with multiple stakeholders at all levels in the Organisation. 

Personal skills and attributes 

• Be able to collaborate across teams and where there are conflicting interests, be flexible and pragmatic to broker compromises between teams, recognising the sensitivities. 
• Have excellent communication skills – honest, concise, clear and solution focussed, whilst choosing appropriate styles to maximise understanding and impact. 
• The ability to adapt to changing circumstances and adverse situations whilst remaining calm, reassuring others and maintaining performance 

Experience – Desirable 

• Experience of working in a Portfolio Office environment 
• Experience of delivering / assuring large scale transformation programmes to GDS standards. 
• Experience of working within a regulatory or similarly complex environment. 
• Experience in project / programme management delivery 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £55,251, Health and Safety Executive contributes £14,918 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.

Application information:

As part of the application process you will be invited to complete the following: 

• A CV that displays your career history, skills and experience and how you meet the qualification.
• A 750 word Statement of Suitability based how you meet the Key Responsibilities as set out in the job description (Delivery and Leadership, PPM Frameworks, Functional Standards and Best Practice, Assurance and Governance).
• 250 words on the behaviour 'Delivering at Pace'

Application Guidance

Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply and how to complete a personal statement https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/how-to-apply/

Sift information 

At Sift you will be assessed on your CV, Statement of Suitability and lead behaviour. 

The sift is due to take place the week commencing 8th January 2024.

Interview information 

At Interview, you will be assessed on the behaviours and experience criteria listed in the advert. You will also be asked to complete a presentation, more details to follow at interview.

The interviews will take place on the 19th and 23rd or January 2024.

Please note the sift and interview dates could be subject to change due to panel availability. 

Further Information

Please note that a Reserve List will be held for the period of up to 12 months.

It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful in their application.

For a summary of HSE terms and conditions as part of Civil Service Reform, please see the attached document.

Any move to HSE 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 here

If you have a disability and you need an application form in an alternative format or you would like to know more about our recruitment process, please contact: hr.resourcing-team@hse.gov.uk

Please note, if you are a current civil servant and you are currently undergoing any of the following formal actions your application will not be progressed any further; Formal discipline action, any formal attendance, poor performance or any restriction of duties as a result of disciplinary action.

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.