Senior Delivery Advisor

Job summary

We are MHCLG

Do you enjoy bringing structure to complex delivery problems?

Can you build trust quickly, use evidence well, and turn insight into practical action?

Would you like to work on one of the most important public safety missions in government?

If so, we have an opportunity for a Senior Delivery Advisor to join the Remediation Delivery Unit at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

The Remediation Portfolio was established following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, which claimed 72 lives and exposed systemic failures in building safety. The government’s mission is clear: to identify buildings with unsafe cladding, increase the pace of remediation, and better protect residents. The portfolio is one of the largest and most complex in government, with total lifetime costs of over £12 billion, significant political and public scrutiny, and delivery spanning multiple organisations, markets, programmes and policy levers. It is part of the Government Major Projects Portfolio and sits at the heart of the department’s building safety work.

Job description

The Remediation Delivery Unit plays a critical role in helping the department deliver this ministerial priority. We provide delivery grip across the portfolio by strengthening governance, improving planning and risk management, building delivery capability, and helping teams resolve the practical barriers that affect pace, confidence and outcomes. We are a small, welcoming and collaborative team, working at pace on urgent, complex and high-profile delivery issues. As a Senior Delivery Advisor, you will be allocated specific areas of the Remediation Portfolio.

You will develop a strong understanding of the delivery context, priorities, plans, milestones, risks and barriers in those areas, acting as a trusted adviser to colleagues and senior leaders. You will help track progress, strengthen delivery planning, identify emerging issues, and ensure that risks, dependencies and delivery barriers are understood and acted on. You will also lead, and contribute to, targeted problem-solving projects on priority delivery challenges, working collaboratively with programme teams, the Projects Unit, policy colleagues, analysts, commercial and finance colleagues, and other delivery partners as needed.

This will include structuring delivery problems, forming hypotheses, gathering evidence, analysing data and insight, and turning conclusions into clear, practical recommendations. Your role will be to work with teams to understand what is preventing progress, what needs to change, who needs to act, and how the department can use its available levers to improve delivery outcomes.

This is an excellent opportunity to work on a broad, high-profile delivery agenda, with regular exposure to senior decision-making across the department and wider Whitehall. We are looking for an enthusiastic and collaborative team player with strong experience of leading and managing complex government delivery, ideally in a major programme, portfolio, operational delivery or transformation environment. You will be able to bring structure to ambiguity, work well through others, lead confidently, and help maintain a positive, high-performing team culture.

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Building strong, trusted relationships with officials at all levels across the remediation portfolio, the department and wider delivery system, working collaboratively to understand progress, identify barriers and shape practical solutions to delivery challenges.
• Taking responsibility for allocated areas of the Remediation Portfolio, developing a strong understanding of delivery plans, milestones, risks, dependencies, performance and barriers to progress.
• Supporting teams to strengthen delivery grip, including attending relevant programme boards, improving planning, clarifying accountabilities, identifying dependencies, testing risks and mitigations, supporting escalation of issues and helping ensure that agreed actions are followed through.
• For one of the two senior delivery advisor roles, acting as the relationship manager with Homes England for the Cladding Safety Scheme, working collaboratively to maintain delivery grip, track progress, understand risks and dependencies, support timely escalation, and provide the main interface with colleagues across the wider Remediation Portfolio.
• Leading, and contributing to, targeted delivery reviews and problem-solving projects, working collaboratively with programme teams, the Projects Unit, policy colleagues, analysts, commercial and finance colleagues, and other delivery partners.
• Structuring delivery problems, forming hypotheses, gathering evidence and developing clear workplans to understand what is preventing progress and what needs to change.
• Planning and undertaking fieldwork, including site visits, interviews, focus groups and surveys, to understand barriers faced by delivery teams and frontline partners, and identify opportunities to improve implementation.
• Gathering, analysing and interpreting data and insight from internal and external sources, using workshops and other collaborative sessions to test findings, build consensus and agree actions.
• Developing practical recommendations, drawing on a strong understanding of the delivery levers available to the department, and presenting findings, delivery risks, recommendations and proposed actions to senior leaders and, where required, Ministers.
• Leading multi-disciplinary project teams and managing HEO/SEO delivery advisers, including building delivery capability, supporting wellbeing and contributing to a high-performance culture.

Person specification

The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate:

Essential criteria

• Strong experience of leading and managing complex delivery, ideally within a major government portfolio, programme, operational delivery, transformation or implementation environment, with a good understanding of planning, governance, risk and issue management, performance tracking, assurance, dependencies, escalation and benefits.
• Strong structured problem-solving skills, including the ability to break down complex delivery issues into clear questions, evidence needs, options and practical next steps.
• Excellent communication and analytical skills, with the ability to gather and interpret data and insight, and produce clear, concise and compelling narratives using a combination of prose, data and visuals.
• A proven track record of working collaboratively across organisational boundaries to improve delivery, resolve barriers, influence outcomes, build consensus and provide constructive challenge.
• A proven track record of leading teams or workstreams to deliver high-impact work in a complex, fast-paced environment, including through others and while managing multiple competing priorities, workstreams and senior requests.
• The ability to motivate others and contribute to a high-performing, multi-disciplinary team, while maintaining a strong focus on wellbeing, morale, professional development and a calm, solutions-focused approach to complex and high-profile issues.
• Experience using delivery, programme or transformation methodologies, such as delivery confidence assessments, delivery planning, dependency mapping, critical path analysis, theory of change, systems thinking or scenario planning.
• Relevant project delivery, programme management or transformation qualifications, accreditation or training, such as APM, PRINCE2, MSP, Agile, Government Project Delivery Profession accreditation, or equivalent professional experience.