Senior Responsible Owner - Transformation and Change

Job summary

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is pleased to announce the opportunity to apply for the role of Senior Responsible Owner - Transformation and Change.

Reporting to the Director of Transformation and Change, as the Senior Responsible Owner (SRO), you provide strategic leadership, direction, and accountability for the successful delivery of one or more major programmes and strategic change initiatives across the CPS. You are accountable for ensuring programmes deliver their intended outcomes, benefits, and organisational value, while maintaining effective control of scope, cost, schedule, quality, risk, and resources.

You operate within a highly complex stakeholder environment, working collaboratively with CPS Executive Group colleagues, operational and legal leaders, government departments, criminal justice partners, and external suppliers to deliver sustainable and measurable improvements. You act as the principal adviser to Executive Sponsors and senior leaders on all aspects of programme delivery, governance, assurance, and benefits realisation.

Alongside programme accountability, you contribute to the continued development of project delivery capability across the CPS by promoting professional standards, championing delivery excellence, and supporting the growth of organisational capability. Working alongside project delivery profession leaders and senior delivery colleagues, you help ensure the CPS has the skills, expertise, and leadership required to deliver increasingly complex programmes of change.

As a member of the senior leadership team within the Transformation and Change Directorate, you contribute to the wider leadership and direction of the Directorate and support the delivery of CPS strategic priorities beyond your own programme responsibilities.

The Crown Prosecution Service operates across England and Wales, and this role can be based in any CPS office within these locations. Please note that regular travel will be required as part of the role, and it is subject to the CPS hybrid working policy.

As part of this role, you are expected to undertake direct line management responsibilities.

This is an exciting and fast-paced role with a real opportunity to make a difference. Find out more about the Crown Prosecution Service.

Job description

Your roles and responsibilities:

• Lead and deliver through multidisciplinary teams operating in complex matrix environments, creating an inclusive, high-performing culture that promotes innovation, accountability, personal development and delivery excellence.
• Accountable for the successful delivery of one or more major programmes and strategic change initiatives throughout the full programme lifecycle.
• Establish and maintain governance arrangements that provide confidence to Executive Sponsors, the Executive Group and the CPS Board.
• Influence senior stakeholders and secure consensus across complex and, at times, competing priorities.
• Develop and maintain strong collaborative relationships across the CPS, wider Government and the Criminal Justice System.
• Champion Project Delivery Profession standards and best practice across programme activity.
• Drive a culture of continuous improvement, innovation and evidence-based decision making.

A copy of the full job description is attached.

Person specification

You must clearly demonstrate evidence of the following essential criteria, which are assessed throughout the selection process, including at the shortlisting and interview stages.

Essential criteria:

• Significant experience acting as a Senior Responsible Owner, Programme Director or equivalent senior delivery leader within large, complex, geographically dispersed organisations.
• Extensive experience of leading operational change and transformation programmes across the full programme lifecycle, with demonstrable expertise in programme governance, assurance, controls, business case development, and benefits realisation.
• Strong understanding of Project Delivery standards, assurance frameworks and functional requirements, including agile and hybrid delivery methodologies.
• Highly developed leadership, communication, and influencing skills, with the ability to deliver impactfully in matrix-style environments and build effective relationships with senior stakeholders internally and externally.
• High degree of political awareness, sound judgement and resilience, with the ability to operate effectively in ambiguous and fast-moving environments.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £86,000, Crown Prosecution Service contributes £24,914 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

The Crown Prosecution Service is passionate about ensuring that we're a top performing organisation and a great place to work. We're a committed equal opportunities employer, creating a culture where you can bring your whole self to work, and individuality is truly appreciated.

This culture of inclusion is underpinned by our staff networks covering disability, faith and belief, LGBTQI+, race, social mobility alongside our mental health first aiders programme and wellbeing sessions.

The Crown Prosecution Service commits to offer its employees the following experience:

• You can do impactful, purposeful work that’s making a difference to your local communities.
• You are able to learn and grow, with access to the right opportunities and resources.
• We care about your wellbeing.
• We want you to feel valued, trusted and included.

We also offer the following range of benefits:

• Civil Service contributory pension of up to 28.9%
• 25 days’ leave, increasing to 30 days after 5 years
• an extra privilege day to mark the King's birthday
• £350 each year to spend on personal development
• lawyer training programme for all new prosecutors
• competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
• flexible working including flexitime, and a family friendly approach to work, subject to business and operational needs
• Cycle2Work scheme, employee savings.

Diversity at the Crown Prosecution Service is about inclusion, embracing differences and ensuring our workforce truly reflects the communities we serve. We want you to feel that you belong and can thrive, whatever your background, identity or culture. As a Disability Confident employer, we're happy to support requests for reasonable adjustments and improve your recruitment experience. If you'd like any reasonable adjustments made to our recruitment process, let us know within your application. You can find out more about reasonable adjustments and the Disability Confident Scheme at Civil Service Reasonable Adjustments and Disability Confident Scheme.

We want to ensure our employees can thrive at work and home and offer a range of support to achieve a balance. This includes flexibility of working hours, flexibility to support caring responsibilities and a flexible approach to deployment. We offer a hybrid working policy. There is an expectation that you spend at least 40% of your contracted hours over a four-week period at court, in an office or another official workplace depending on bu