About the job

Job summary

The Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA) is a part of the Ministry of Defence responsible for the procurement, in-service support, and disposal of the UK’s nuclear submarines. Our work is of unparalleled strategic importance nationally and internationally, ensuring the security of the UK’s continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent, and delivering some of the most technically complex programmes in defence.

Here you’ll find a community to belong to – whether that’s alongside project teams with a shared vision or as part of an employee network of like-minded individuals. We believe that, by celebrating different backgrounds and perspectives, together we’ll achieve the extraordinary.

Discover more about our work:

We offer 25+ days’ holiday, flexible and hybrid working, enhanced parental leave schemes, shopping discounts, and an exceptional employer pension contribution of around 27%, to help work work for you.

Nationality, visas and vetting: For security reasons this role is open to sole UK nationals only. A ‘sole UK national’ refers to an individual who holds citizenship solely in the UK, without dual citizenship or nationality from another country. We’re unable to offer visa sponsorship.

This role requires you to have lived in the UK for the last 5 years and obtain Security Check (SC) security clearance. Clearance must be obtained without any caveats that prevent you from carrying out the role you have been recruited for. If it isn’t obtained, or is obtained but with caveats that prevent you from carrying out the role, any conditional offer made to you will be withdrawn. Obtaining SC security clearance can be a lengthy process, and we reserve the right to withdraw any conditional offer made if the necessary security clearance isn’t obtained within 12 months.

Job description

Are you a Planning and Scheduling Manager with a desire to work on some of the largest and technically advanced defence programmes in world today? If so, we have exciting opportunities for you to join our Schedule Management Group (SMG) in Bristol.

As Planning and Scheduling Manager, you will form part of a multi-disciplinary team responsible for delivering valuable projects and services to scope, on budget, on time and aligned with organisational vision. You will undertake, manage, and coach planning and scheduling activities, supervising a small team of junior planners and schedulers to ensure key deliverables are met across a range of business contexts. Due to the nature of this work, working with stakeholders is critical to success. Therefore, you will be required to uphold strong relationships and provide subject matter expertise to SDA teams, our contractors, and the wider nuclear enterprise.

In the SDA, continuous professional development is actively encouraged. You will have access to defined upskilling policies, training, and support to prosper.

At the SDA, we champion flexible ways of working. Regular in-person attendance is required (this is expected to be a minimum of 60% of your working week) to promote the benefits of face-to-face collaboration alongside flexibility of hours to support work-life balance and business need. Initially, you may be expected to attend more frequently to familiarise yourselves with the site, the team, and your role.

What you’ll be doing

• Provide and influence leadership, supervision, and direction to support junior planners and schedulers; setting and assuring SDA standards are complied with including supplier integration or integration of dependencies with other OBIs or Stakeholder schedules
• Lead planning / scheduling effort for new baselines, ensuring they are maintained under change control; running workshops, co-ordinating and managing efforts of others, supporting the development of scheduling standards and procedures, including the delivery of training
• Interrogate supplier data to understand status and forecast for remaining work and provide analysis and insight to support the assessment of the supplier’s performance. You will be expected to conduct analysis of the suppliers’ schedules and scheduling processes to enable the integration of appropriate activities into the SDA baseline
• Conduct schedule risk analysis, schedule health checks and audits across the Portfolio to ensure maturity and standards are maintained to SDA policy
• Provide monthly reporting and analysis and communicate key project schedule performance data to key member of the project, programme, and DE&S leadership

Person specification

To be successful with your application, you'll need to show that you meet the following essential criteria:

• Competent with extensive experience in a similar role that includes project schedule development and maintenance on complex projects across different CADMID phases
• Willingness to undertake APM PQ qualification

In addition to the responsibilities above, the following technical competences and behaviours will be assessed at interview:

• Controlling a Project - Practitioner
• Planning and Scheduling - Practitioner
• Leadership
• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £44,500, Ministry of Defence contributes £12,015 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

Your application will go through the following stages of assessment:

1. Pre-sift - We will check that you meet any essential or eligibility criteria that are listed in the Person Specification section of this advert. On your CV, please clearly show how you meet the essential criteria.
2. Sift - Your CV will be assessed against the following categories, using a simple numerical scoring system: Key Achievements; Relevant Experience; Applied Knowledge and Skills

Please follow our guidance on CV writing for best chance of success.

1. Interview - If you're invited to interview, you'll be assessed against the Sift categories listed above, as well as the Technical Competences and Behaviours listed in the Person Specification section of this advert.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.

Offering at a lower level
If you’re not successful at interview, we may offer you a role at a lower level if this is a match for your skills and experience. If this applies to your application, you’ll be scored against criteria for the lower-level role and offers will be made in merit order. If you accept this position, you’ll be able to take advantage of opportunities to develop your career as part of our team.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security 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

Open to UK nationals only.

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.