Senior Delivery Manager

Job summary

Can you lead and inspire multi-disciplinary teams to deliver high-quality digital products and services that meet user needs?

Have you successfully managed complex digital projects, navigating technical challenges and engaging effectively with senior stakeholders and delivery partners?

Do you champion Agile and Lean practices, fostering collaboration and continuous improvement across teams and organisations?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

Active Travel England is an executive agency, sponsored by the Department for Transport.

Active travel makes people happier and healthier. That’s why Active Travel England wants to increase the number of local journeys being walked, wheeled or cycled by 2030.

We are doing this by:

• investing in and improving standards for active travel schemes across England
• integrating active travel in the planning and development system
• focusing on inclusivity and accessibility and giving people from all walks of life the opportunity to try active travel
• helping councils to access state of the art data and analysis to use in active travel planning and design

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays a privilege day for the King’s birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at ATE.

Job description

Active Travel England (ATE) is seeking an experienced and passionate Senior Delivery Manager to lead multi-disciplinary teams in delivering exceptional digital products and services. You’ll play a key role in shaping ATE’s growing digital portfolio, driving projects that meet user needs and align with the Government’s Service Standard. Working collaboratively with internal teams and partners, you’ll champion Agile and Lean practices, overcome technical challenges, and help define the strategic direction of ATE’s digital future.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

1. Leading the discovery and development of digital services, translating user insights into actionable delivery plans, contribute to the digital strategy and roadmap, and ensure development priorities align with business needs and strategic objectives.
2. Owning the relationship with Department for Transport (DfT) Digital team and ensuring our development and cloud approach is aligned with wider priorities, whilst overcoming any technical blockers or challenges.
3. Facilitate effective communication between technical and non-technical stakeholders, manage expectations, moderate difficult discussions, and act as a key conduit between the ATE Digital team and the wider business.
4. Be accountable for the product delivery, manage teams through all delivery phases, coach and mentor other delivery managers, and address complex risks, issues, and dependencies. Ensure all products are developed following Government Digital Service (GDS) requirements.
5. Manage relationships with externally sourced delivery partners and contracted suppliers, including scoping, identifying contractual frameworks, negotiating effectively, and ensuring value for money.
6. Provide expert leadership and coaching in Agile and Lean practices, tailoring the approach to suit different lifecycle stages, and fostering effective collaboration within teams.
7. Identify and challenge inefficient organisational processes, guide teams through implementing improvements, experiment with innovative ways of working, and lead continual planning in a complex environment.

For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

Person specification

We’re looking for a confident, resilient and inclusive leader who is focussed on delivering value through continually learning and adapting. The essential criteria are:

1. Demonstrable experience of leading delivery using a range of Agile and lean tools and techniques, empowering and coaching agile teams to be self-organising, inclusive and continuously improving.
2. Demonstrable experience in delivering multiple successful digital products and services through the agile delivery lifecycle following the GDS Service Standards.
3. Demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively across organisational, technical and non-technical audience.

Behaviours

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

• Changing and Improving
• Delivering at Pace
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Changing and Improving

Technical skills

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

• Agile and Lean Practices. (Relevant skill level: expert)
• Communication between the technical and non-technical. (Relevant skill level: expert)

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £59,816, Active Travel England contributes £17,328 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).

• 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 employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Technical skills.

Behaviours

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

• Changing and Improving
• Delivering at Pace
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Changing and Improving

Technical skills<