Programme Management Office Lead

Do you have an established background in PMO and are now looking to further develop your career?

Are you highly motivated and committed to creating a bright future for our people and our customers? 

Would you like to join a growing community of project delivery professionals who tackle some of the UK Government’s most pressing challenges every day? 

We are looking for 8 skilled Programme Management Office Leads to enable delivery of over 100 projects and programmes across the DWP Change Portfolio including some of the largest and most complex programmes in Government.  As a Project Delivery professional, you will be passionate about defining and maintaining Programme Management standards and practices whilst ensuring that delivery aligns to the strategic objectives of DWP.

You will work across a diverse portfolio leading Programme Management activity and teams to ensure the successful delivery of our Change ambitions.

The roles on offer require proven experience in the effective use of project/programme methodologies and techniques. We will also be looking to form a strong reserve list as we expect to have further roles in the near future.  

Programme Management Office Leads play a vital role at the heart of our projects and programmes in helping enable successful delivery of Change, and the opportunities we have available are challenging and varied in a fast-paced environment.  You will require excellent stakeholder management skills to positively engage others and build capability.

We are looking for individuals who can provide expert guidance, support and insight on the projects.  As a Programme Management Office Lead, you will be key to keeping projects on track, ensuring appropriate governance and monitoring is in place at different points in the project lifecycle to ensure successful delivery across DWP’s Change Portfolio. You will need to bring with you the skills to implement and share best practice across different programmes as well develop and apply project procedures, tools and techniques.  In return, you will join a flourishing, supportive community delivering some of the largest transformation programmes in the UK.  

Our success depends on our people. We are looking for people to join our team who are as motivated by our unique purpose as we are!

What are the role responsibilities?

Exact responsibilities may vary from role to role but include: 

• Leadership & Delivery – Leading the PMO to support the portfolio and programmes in delivery of programme outcomes and the realisation of benefits. Championing the use of best practice project management standards and processes.  Creating inclusive high performing teams which make people feel secure and supported to achieve their potential whilst fostering collaboration across organisational boundaries.
• Guidance and Support – Identifying, developing and sharing best practice project management processes, tools and templates and benchmark against industry standard. Providing direction and guidance to the project team.
• Resources – Managing the PMO team and supporting the identification, recruitment and development, deployment and reassignment of resources.
• Change Control – Establishing and implementing protocols to change the scope of projects and programmes and updating configuration documents as required.
• Financial Control – Developing and managing portfolio budget and spend. Preparing cost/budget reports to support Portfolio reporting. Contributing to the compilation of budgets.
• Stakeholder Management – Advising the programme teams on appropriate tools and techniques for managing stakeholder relationships. Providing assurance to the Programme Managers on the effectiveness of stakeholder management arrangements.
• Risks & Issues – Establishing programme processes and standards for managing risks and issues. Providing assurance to the programme managers on the effectiveness of risk and issues arrangements.
• Benefits Realisation – Delivering the agreed Business Case benefits and outcomes. Ensuring appropriate Benefits Realisation Strategy is in place and monitoring longer term delivery of benefits against the Business Case. 
• Governance & Assurance – Ensuring appropriate governance is in place and arranging external reviews e.g. Gateway Reviews at appropriate points in the programme lifecycle. Monitoring the effectiveness of controls and ensuring that recommendations from external reviews are acted upon.

Our Mission

The Department for Work and Pensions is one of the biggest government departments, delivering vital services to some of the most vulnerable people in society. As part of the UK’s biggest public service department, we make sure that millions of people receive their State Pension and working age, disability and ill health benefits each year.  

Change and Resilience Group (CRG) lead on the Department’s portfolio of Change programmes and projects.  We work in multi-disciplinary teams to continually improve how we do things and deliver our services with minimal disruption to DWP customers.  We have major programmes such as Universal Credit but also some smaller change programmes too.  More information can be found in the Candidate Information Pack attached and you can also find out more about Working for DWP here.  
Find out more about DWP Change and Resilience Group here:

The size and scale of DWP means that there are plenty of opportunities to develop, learn and progress throughout your career.  We are committed to developing our people now and in the future. Our aim is for our colleagues to be appropriately skilled and qualified from the moment of entry up to becoming an experienced Project Delivery practitioner within their role. DWP is central to building the new Government Project Delivery Profession accreditation scheme. This scheme, designed for all Project Delivery professionals working in projects, programmes and portfolios, provides an industry aligned standard by which project delivery professionals working across government can be recognised for their knowledge, skills and experience.

We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make Change and Resilience Group as diverse as possible, and we particularly welcome applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.

The Essential Criteria for this role are:

• Leadership – You are able to demonstrate how you effectively lead the PMO to support the successful delivery of a project/programme.  You can evidence how you collaboratively establish a strong team vision, engage others and support continuous professional development. As a leader, you can show how you role-model, promote and improve diversity and inclusion.  You build strong stakeholder relationships across the team and wider.
• Planning – You have the ability to strategically think and plan ahead, ensuring PMO operations are developed to meet changing business requirements. You can produce plans incorporating the fundamental components of a project in terms of its scope, deliverables, time scales, resource requirements and budget.  You have a proven ability to manage workload to deliver required outputs to challenging timelines.
• Risks & Benefits Management – You have a proven ability to systematically identify and monitor risks & issues.  You can evidence how you plan to mitigate/respond to those risks and issues and implement responses.  You can identify, quantify, map and track project/transformation benefits to justify investment in the project, and to provide assurance that the benefits identified can be realised.  
• Project/Programme Performance & Controls – You can demonstrate evidence of establishing and operating project controls, reporting on project/programme progress and status to appropriate bodies. You are able to identify common capabilities, opportunities for linking up and the sharing of methods and resources between projects and programmes for best practice, consistency and efficiency.  You can demonstrate how you ensure learning from experience is shared across your team and the organisation.

 Additional Information:

• Due to the nature of these posts, it requires the postholders to work out of one of the DWP Change hubs. These are located in: Birmingham Arena Central, Blackpool Peel Park, Glasgow Atlantic Quay, Leeds Quarry House, London Caxton House, Manchester St Peters Square, Newcastle Benton Park, Sheffield Kings Court, Pontypridd Treforest Ty Taf.
• Travel to other Hubs will be required.
• For vacancies in Wales, the ability to speak Welsh is desirable.
• You will be asked to complete a location preference as part of your application. Successful candidates will be posted in merit order based on your location preferences (within reasonable daily travelling distance) and the geographical requirements of the business.  Dependent on your position on the merit list, if none of your location preferences remain at the point we make a job offer DWP may offer you a role at an alternative advertised location. If we are unable to offer you a role in any of your preferred locations, and you are unable to accept a role at an alternative advertised location, we will add you to the reserve list if one is being held.
• Relocation costs for anyone voluntarily moving will not be reimbursed.
• This job role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work.

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

• Leadership
• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving

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

• Project Delivery Frameworks and Methodologies (5-minute presentation at interview)

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Job contact :

• Name : Change and Resilience Group Resourcing Team
• Email : change.resourcingteam@dwp.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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