About the job

Job summary

Safer Greener Buildings (SGB), a unit of DLUHC, started work 5 years ago to make buildings safer following the Grenfell Tower fire.

Until now, all delivery has taken place in two programmes within DLUHC, supported by delivery partners in Homes England and the Greater London Authority. In future, delivery will be conducted through five programmes, with a much greater role for Homes England, the newly established Building Safety Regulator, and industry itself through Developer Self Remediation.

As the complexity and scale of remediation increases, a Portfolio model is being implemented. The Portfolio itself will be made up of 7 functions and 5 programmes, and will lead some areas of work, and co-ordinate others between the Department and its Delivery Partners.

The Portfolio Performance team sets the strategic direction, empowers programmes by setting standards, applying rigour and aggregating intelligence to create the conditions for programmes to deliver at pace and be successful. The Portfolio Performance team has a critical role as a convenor across the portfolio driving the forward look for the portfolio, providing a single source of truth to support effective management and decision making as well as building and promoting a positive culture and ways of working across the portfolio. The function is expected to intervene directly where necessary, to solve the most difficult or complex problems by building strategic relationships to drive forward performance results that will ultimately have a direct impact on the livelihood of residents.

The Strategy Unit plays an important role in steering the portfolio, gathering intelligence and insights, planning and managing assurance across the portfolio. As the Portfolio Strategy G7, you will be responsible for managing the portfolio strategy and supporting the forward planning required to manage business cases, as well as working across the portfolio to manage the portfolio roadmap to ensure alignment with overall business objectives and goals.

We particularly welcome candidates from an ethnic minority background and other underrepresented groups to apply, as we work to continually improve our ability to represent the places and communities we support through our work.

Important - To apply for this role you will need to submit a CV and covering letter. These need to be merged into one document. There are further details in the Selection Process section further below in this advert.

Job description

Strategy:

· Developing and implementing strategies to ensure that the portfolio of projects and initiatives is aligned with its overall business objectives and goals

· Perform horizon scanning to identify forward-looking risks and opportunities and commission teams for further insights

· Manage and maintain the portfolio strategy in light of horizon scanning risks and opportunities across the lifecycle of the portfolio

· Coordinate input into business planning and fiscal events

Business Case management:

· Driving collaboration across the portfolio to support portfolio business cases, working with programme teams, Strategic Finance Operations, Analysis and Data Division, Commercial and Engagement teams.  

· Owning the strategic case and portfolio narrative

· Develop and own strategic targets and metrics for the portfolio to drive benefits realisation

Person specification

You will be able to work as part of a team to engage and motivate when working under pressure and at pace, and to actively contribute to the Strategy Unit agenda

· You will be confident in horizon scanning to identify forward-looking risks and opportunities and proactively manage the portfolio roadmap to achieve the portfolio’s strategic objectives.

· You will be an excellent influencer, who can establish and build relationships quickly to deliver across teams and organisational boundaries to deliver the departments priorities.

· You will have demonstrable experience working in a programme or portfolio management role on programmes of significant scale and impact 

·  You will have demonstrable experience producing Business Cases of scale and complexity and understand internal and external gateway approvals  

· You will have demonstrable experience developing programme or portfolio strategy including identifying key pivot points and advise on choices to be made to ensure effective strategy 

· You will have demonstrable experience identifying evaluation needs and commissioning these and actioning their findings  

Essential criteria:

· Experience of strategy setting for comparable programmes or portfolios of significant scale and impact

· Experience of owning and driving the 5 case business case model with senior stakeholders

· An exceptionally strong strategic thinker with the ability to see the big picture, think laterally, and identify forward-looking risks and opportunities

· Strong relationship building skills with key stakeholders including government ministers, subject matter experts and other government departments to drive the pace of decision making 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £51,934, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £14,022 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 Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

We are for everyone 

 

At DLUHC we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce. We promote equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment and a working environment free from discrimination, harassment, bullying and victimisation. 

  

We would strongly recommend that applicants get in touch with the vacancy manager to find out more information about this role.  

 

We are for everyone 

 

CV and Cover Letter Declaration 

We recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - this is called name blind recruitment. 

  

Please remove references to your: 

• name/title
• educational institutions
• age
• gender
• email address
• postal address
• phone number
• nationality/immigration status

 

You will need to merge your CV and covering letter into one document. When submitting your application Applied will ask you to upload a CV, when doing this you should upload your merged document of your CV and covering letter. 

 

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that your application would be viewed by different assessors. 

 

At sift, through your CV and covering letter we will be assessing: 

 

Experience 

Technical Ability 

Your covering letter should be no more than 1 page referencing how you meet the following criteria:
 
a. why you are interested in the role; 
b. how you meet the essential skills and experience required as set out in the person specification section of the advert

The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of experience, technical  and strength based questions as listed in the advert. 

Experience: Yes - Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description 

Technical: Yes – Technical questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description. 

Strength based questions: Yes - The strength based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.  

As part of the interview candidates may be expected to prepare a presentation. Further details will be provided in advance of the interview.

In full the campaign will test the below Success Profile Elements: 

Experience: Yes - Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description 

Technical: Yes – Technical questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description. 

 Strength based questions: Yes

We do not consider direct CV applications to our Recruitment mailbox – you must apply for this role via the application link on Civil Service Jobs 

Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign. 

 

Grade 7 salary 

• The salary for this role is £51,934 (National). 
• For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges. 

 
Please note that the average employer pension contribution is based upon the National minimum salary for this role. Should your agreed starting salary for this role be different, the average employer pension contribution will be calculated accordingly. If you are a Secondee, this will not apply as you will remain on your home organisation’s terms and conditions.   

 

BENEFITS: 

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018: 
Any move to DLUHC 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 

For further information about the benefits available to DLUHC employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack. 

  

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION: 

• Leeds
• Birmingham
• Wolverhampton 
• Darlington* 

 

There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly depending on the business needs. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis if you are successful for the role. 

*Please note: The Darlington Economic Campus (DEC) is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring together people across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important economic issues of the day. The work of the Campus will make a real difference to people both across the UK and internationally. There will be substantial career opportunities and exciting prospects - a career at the Campus means you will be working at the heart of Government, with access to the benefits and fantastic opportunities offered by the civil service.  

For further information on the DEC, please take a look at the attached DEC candidate pack. 

 

SIFT AND INTERVIEW DATES: 

Sifting is envisaged to take place from 31st January 2024 with interview dates to be confirmed. All interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall. 

 

Reserve List 
 
In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details n a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact recruitment@levellingup.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list. 

Candidate Pack Information 

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information. 

Before starting your application it’s very important to make sure that you are eligible to apply and meet the Civil Service nationality requirements. All candidates are expected to read the information provided in the DLUHC candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules 

 

Internal Fraud Database 

The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned. The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to DLUHC as a participating government organisations. DLUHC then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.  

For more information please see- Internal Fraud Register 

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.