Schedule and Benefits Manager – Strategic Programmes Portfolio Office

In a world of complex and growing threats our role in the Ministry of Defence is of increasing importance, ensuring that our Front-Line Commands, the men and women on the front line, are given the best military capability to ensure the defence and security of the UK and its citizens. The size, scale and ambition of our programmes are impressive, and our focus on achieving military advantage requires us to constantly push the boundaries of current technology limitations.

Our role in Strategic Programmes is to provide ‘the tip of the spear’ – the most complex weapons for the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force. In your role as a Scheduling and Benefits Manager within the Portfolio Office you will be providing a layer of assurance to support the delivery of key programmes that are significant in scale and ambitious in their outcomes, but have little opportunity to miss delivery milestones. This requires us, our delivery partners, and industry to think differently, and you will provide a key layer of assurance to support these goals.

This is an exciting post, requiring a proactive individual with excellent organisational and planning skills. The successful candidate will be flexible, adaptable, confident and able to establish strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders at all levels.  

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week

The Scheduling and Benefits manager post sits within the Strategic Programmes Portfolio Office. This role is part of an expansion as we grow to support the whole of the Strategic Programmes Directorate. The successful candidate will support our programme teams as they build and maintain choice for Defence. Our work spans the breadth of the Defence enterprise, the international and industrial environments and is continually evolving to meet the challenges of a changing world. The team prides itself on bringing people together to achieve remarkable things; seeing the bigger picture, identifying and seizing opportunities, thinking creatively to solve difficult issues and proactively helping Defence to understand and make choices.

This is an exciting, challenging and fulfilling role for someone with a strong eye for detail, good stakeholder management skills and an inquisitive mindset. The Schedule and Benefits Manager will report into the Head of the Strategic Programmes Portfolio Office and will be responsible for general programme health checks as well as deep dives in to schedule and benefits management assurance activities. This role provides an opportunity to be an integral part of the delivery of a key future capability within one of the most important portfolios in Defence, supporting all our armed forces and maintaining UK security and Freedom of Action.

The role itself is of three parts, the overarching element will be conducting programme health checks. This will involve agreeing and reviewing a set of agreed programme artefacts each programme should have, based on agreed programme management principles set by the Infrastructure Project Authority. 

The second element will be scheduling. This will involve assessing programme schedules and milestones. Key outputs will include identifying and supporting the accuracy of programme milestone reporting through assessing schedules and monitoring them as programmes mature. This will be important to understand the reasons and risks to delays. Experience across the rest of the Portfolio will allow the successful candidate to offer programme teams guidance in order to avoid common pitfalls and support programme success. Thirdly, to oversee portfolio and programme benefits. This will involve tracking and reporting on benefits as programme’s go through their lifecycles as well as staying aligned with wider Strategic Programmes and Defence.  

The successful individual will have strong stakeholder skills as they will be working closely with multiple programmes team, our delivery agent Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), the Front Line Commands (FLCs), the broader MOD Head Office community and external bodies such as the Infrastructure Projects Authority (IPA).

• Delivery & Leadership – Lead on the assurance of programme health, schedules and Benefits for the Portfolio and work with Programme teams to support delivery of the business case outcomes. Champion the use of best practice and provide expert advice for team members.
• Business Case – Support the programme/project manager in preparing and updating the benefits elements of the Business Case working with specialists as required.
• Benefits Management Strategy – Define and shape the benefits management strategy taking into account the wider organisation methodology and the CAAS Common Approach for benefits management.
• Benefits Realisation Plan – Establish and maintain the portfolio Benefits Realisation Plan including change control.
• Tracking & Reporting – Establish the mechanism for the tracking and reporting of benefits through the project lifecycle and into realisation. Oversee and assure benefits tracking at the programme and project level by DE&S and Industry partners.
• Benefits Mapping – Facilitate workshops, maps benefits and circulates for agreement and approval. Apply experience to provide challenge and ensure assumptions are robust. Work with a range of stakeholders to validate and test dependencies.
• Stakeholder Management – Work with Stakeholders to ensure benefits are identified, understood, owned and maximised. Brief key stakeholders ahead of benefits reviews. At portfolio level, ensure coherence of practice across the Strategic Programmes and assess consistency/tests for double accounting.
• Schedule Management – Lead on Schedule Management for the Portfolio, working with Programme teams to establish and maintain a Portfolio level zero plan allowing identification and monitoring of all major milestones, milestone conflicts and dependencies between programmes.
• Programme Health Checks – Assess artefacts such as programme schedules and ensure critical milestones are realistic and are being declared. Work with programmes teams to maximise maturity and accuracy.
• Integrated Assurance Approvals Plans (IAAP) – Ensure programme teams have an up to date two-year forward look of their programme via an IAAP document regularly updated. 
• Support the operation, resilience and deliverables of the wider Strategic Programmes and Portfolio teams as required, adopting secondary duties as needed.
• Lead for transversal portfolio benefits (including AI-enhanced PD and assurance of affordability workstrands).

Reporting to the Portfolio Office Head, the post-holder may in time have line management responsibility for 1 individual. Open to candidates with transferable skills to meet the demands of the schedule and benefits manager role. Experience in project, programme management would be beneficial but not mandatory. The individual must have strong communication and organisational skills. they should also seek to develop an understanding of several complex programmes within the portfolio.

This role requires an individual with the following personal attributes:  
Essential:

• Proven written and verbal communication skills, including strong interpersonal and relationship building.
• A track record of building good relationships with stakeholders and collaborating effectively across large, complex organisational landscapes.
• Ability to manage and prioritise a portfolio of work autonomously.
• Highly developed organisational skills, with the ability to work effectively across boundaries.
• A strong eye for detail.

Desirable Criteria:

• Experience of working in Portfolio, Programme or project environments.

Development Opportunities – This is an excellent development opportunity for a skilled individual who is either looking to enter or expand and enhance their project/programme management skills to include experience of working within a complex portfolio, operating strategically in a multi customer-facing environment. The Strategic Programmes Directorate encourages knowledge development and supports wider learning. This role provides the opportunity to develop skills and qualifications across a range of disciplines (Benefits, scheduling, P3M and Performance and Change Management) in a unique Head Office directorate.

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing

We truly believe that the MOD is a great place to work, and we offer a unique employee experience. We want to ensure that every single employee feels appreciated & fairly rewarded and offer the following additional benefits:

Learning and development tailored to your role and broader skill development, enabling you to build a long-term career in your chosen area. 

• An environment with flexible working options
• 25 days annual leave rising to 30 days upon completion of 5 years’ service
• On-site Gym
• Cycle Loan (Advance on Salary)
• Thank You Scheme
• Defence Sports & Recreational Association (DSRA)
• Defence Discount Service
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity      

The post does not offer relocation expenses.

External recruits who join the MOD who are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a six-month probation period.

Please Note: Expenses incurred for travel to interviews will not be reimbursed.

Please be advised that the Department is conducting a review of all pay related allowances which could impact on those allowances that the post currently being advertised attracts.

Any move to MOD 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/.

The Ministry of Defence is committed to providing a safe and healthy working environment for its staff which includes educating them on the benefits of not smoking, protecting them from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke and supporting those who want to give up smoking. Under the Smoke-Free Working Environment policy, Smoking and the use of all tobacco products (including combustible and chewing tobacco products) will not be permitted anywhere in the Defence working environment however some exemptions are in place, please refer to local guidance. The policy is Whole Force and includes all Defence personnel, contractors, visitors and other non-MOD personnel. All applicants seeking, considering, or accepting employment with the Ministry of Defence should be aware of this policy and that it is already in place at a number of Defence Establishments.

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Job contact :

• Name : Mahi Khan
• Email : Mahi.Khan134@mod.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : DBSCivPers-Resourcingteam3@mod.gov.uk