G7 Assurance Lead, Infrastructure and Projects Authority

Our purpose

Our purpose is to continuously improve the way infrastructure and major projects are delivered, in order to support government priorities and improve people’s lives. We aspire to create the best-performing project system of any country in the world.

What we do

The IPA works with government and industry to ensure projects are delivered efficiently and effectively, and to improve performance over time. We work on the overall project delivery system, which includes the projects, people and processes that together create the right environment for successful delivery. We measure how well the system is performing, so we can learn important lessons and continuously improve project performance over time. Assurance and Systems Learning is a central team in IPAs work. Our work helps set the strategic direction for the project delivery system in government and for the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) as an organisation, with the aim to improve project delivery performance. It does this by managing all GMPP Tier A Assurance Reviews. We then apply the insights it gains from independent assurance of major projects to support decision making. We also augment this information with project performance and bench marking data to drive cross-sector innovation in infrastructure and major projects delivery. We work hand in hand with policy professionals and
decision makers in departments, No.10, the Treasury, and the Cabinet Office.

You will be one of a team of Assurance Leads in charge of independent project assurance. The projects are the largest and most complex on the Government’s portfolio. You will cover several departments within the portfolio which is divided between two clusters (“Infrastructure, Enterprise and Growth” and “Public Services and Security”). You will regularly engage with Project Directors, Senior Responsible Officers (SRO’s) and their teams in departments and delivery bodies, and advise the most senior decision makers about the projects and programmes in departments and in HM Treasury.

You will play a key role in the team and will be responsible for enhancing its reputation, working closely with the Deputy Director, the wider Assurance Lead team, all Assurance and System Learning and IPA colleagues. The Assurance and Systems learning Team is crucial to achieving the IPA’s objectives of becoming more focused, expert and impactful.

As an Assurance Lead specialising in projects and programmes within a defined portfolio, you will be responsible for:

• Driving IPA’s assurance change agenda across government;
• Arranging, managing and participating in independent assurance reviews within your portfolio;
• Overseeing the timely and accurate reporting of assurance to departmental teams;
• Improving outcomes from government projects by ensuring that projects within your portfolio are ready before they are allowed to proceed at each milestone;
• Overseeing the cross IPA engagement to plan, schedule and manage assurance activities across a major project portfolio of projects, drawing in other HMT and Cabinet Office functional teams where appropriate;
• Supporting the training and accreditation process for new IPA assurance reviewers, ensuring a pool of reviewers with up to date and diverse expertise.

The criteria for the role is as follows:

Essential Criteria:

• Demonstrates leadership skills including experience working successfully under pressure to demanding timescales and the ability to plan ahead and think strategically in government or in the private sector;
• Ability to build strong relationships and work with and through others, including at senior leadership levels, to influence decisions and achieve successful outcomes and enhance the reputation of the IPA;
• Good interpersonal skills to manage challenging stakeholders and stakeholder groups; 
• Good communication skills (both written and verbal), distilling complex information succinctly, often in short time frames to senior leadership;
• Strong analytical skills to present insights to senior stakeholders;
• Using sound judgement, evidence and expertise to diagnose issues and identify opportunities;
• Track record of relevant public or private sector delivery or professional services roles in enabling the delivery of major projects or large-scale portfolios; 
• Significant evidence of working with a range of stakeholders, brokering consensus in commercial and complex environments;
• Willingness to obtain DV clearance once embedded in role.

Desirable Skills & Experience:

• Experience of project assurance within a public sector portfolio, either within or on behalf of Government Authorities such as departments or agencies;
• Professional membership of a relevant technical institution, such as APM Registered Project Professional, Chartership or Fellowship;
• Experience of government is desirable, particularly in public spending roles demonstrating an understanding of MPM, Green Book and the public spending framework;
• Familiarity with portfolio management and methodologies would be valuable; 
• Developed Vetting (DV) security cleared.

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

• Learning and development tailored to your role.
• An environment with flexible working options.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
• A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and average employer contributions of 27%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by one day per year up to a maximum of 30.

Job contact :

• Name : Princess Oriola
• Email : princess.oriola@ipa.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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