Investment Centre Manager

We recognise the challenges that people with protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.  

Are you a strategic thinker and can deliver to deadlines?

Do you have strong communication skills and can confidently present clearly to a range of audiences?

Can you build trusting effective relationships with stakeholders at all levels?

If so, we have an exciting opportunity to gain exposure and experience of strategy ad government in a high-profile and dynamic area, and we would love to hear from you! 

Most journeys made in this country are short and local. Whether they are by bus, tram, walking or cycling, these are the journeys that we all make, if not every day, many times a month.

As such, the work of the Local Transport directorate makes a huge difference to the daily lives of millions and contributes significantly to the Department’s strategic aims. Our work improves transport for its users (for example, by ensuring public transport is accessible); helps to reduce the environmental impacts of transport (for example, by facilitating more public and active transport journeys, and by stimulating demand for zero emission buses); and grows and levels up the economy (for example, by providing funding for local transport projects that connect people with centres of employment). 

The Local Improvement, Transport User and Portfolio division (LITUP) sits within the Local Transport directorate. LITUP provides a Portfolio Management Office function to support the wider directorate, manages an Investment Committee on behalf of the wider Roads and Local Group, and oversees the Departmental strategic aim of Improving Transport for the User.

This vacancy is for a Grade 7 to manage the Investment Centre team. The successful candidate will build relationships with senior colleagues across Roads and Local Group (including those responsible for high-profile policy areas such as buses, active travel, and local roads), as well as the Department’s Strategy Unit, Strategic Finance Partners and Portfolio and Project Delivery Directorate. This role is ideal for a candidate looking to gain experience of strategy and governance in the context of a high-profile and dynamic area of Whitehall.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Ensuring that the Roads and Local Group Investment Committee (RIC) excels in its role as an Investment Committee. This will include: ensuring that papers submitted to the Committee are of the required standard; working closely with RIC’s Chair, its members, and with the Department’s central Investment Approvals team to ensure that RIC meets Departmental requirements; and supervising the team’s RIC Secretariat’s month-to-month management of the Committee
• Working across Local Transport to develop, standardise and/or improve the means by which teams design and deliver grant funding to local authorities. This will include: building high-quality relationships with fund-managing colleagues; producing and promoting resources that facilitate a common approach across the directorate; securing formal approval of new practices from the relevant persons/boards.
• Influencing Ministers and senior managers on cross-cutting and strategic issues from across Local Transport through insightful papers and high-quality briefings
• Attending to the progression and career development of 2 direct reports.

For more information about the role and responsibilities please see the attached Role Profile.

About you

To thrive in this role, you will have experience using advanced strategic thinking to deliver on complex pieces of work, often in the context of ambiguity and time-pressure.

You build trusting, collaborative and fruitful relationships with internal and external stakeholders, at senior levels; you use these to overcome barriers and solve complex problems.

You are a strong written and verbal communicator, capable of presenting information in clear, concise, creative ways that work for a variety of audiences (including the production of high-quality written material for senior managers and ministers).

You are able to analyse disparate information and data sets and draw meaningful conclusions, which you can use to solve problems and influence peers/stakeholders.

You are committed to your own professional development, and supporting the development of colleagues.

Additional information

A minimum of 40% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace, although requirements to attend other locations for official business, or carry out detached duty in another DfT workplace, will also count towards this level of attendance. 

Occasional travel will be required to visit other DfT offices for team events.

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

• Managing a Quality Service
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing

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

• Policy Professional Standards – Strategy – Policy Context and purpose
• Policy Professional Standards – Democracy – Working with Ministers

Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits. We offer generous annual leave, attractive pension options, flexible working, inclusive working environments and much more to support a healthy work/life balance.  

Find out more about what it’s like working at the Department for Transport . 

Job contact :

• Name : Olivia Ely
• Email : Olivia.ely@dft.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : dftrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk