Delivery Unit- Team Leader

Job summary

The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade supports businesses to invest, grow and export, creating jobs and opportunities across the country. This is an exciting opportunity to lead a stretching portfolio in the Delivery Unit, at the centre of the department in the Strategy, Delivery & Ministers Directorate.

You will drive forward the Secretary of State’s top priorities – working with policy teams, Ministers and the Department’s senior team to identify and resolve blockers to delivery, ensuring join up across the department and with other government departments.

You will support the delivery of high-priority programmes, test assumptions and identify emerging risks, providing a clear view of progress to Ministers and senior officials in the department and the centre of government. You will need to build trusted relationships with several functions across the department while maintaining the constructive challenge of a central Delivery Unit.

These are high-profile, fast-moving programmes that generate cross-government and public interest. You will build strong working relationships with policy teams and senior officials to understand and unblock delivery pinch points, reporting in to the most senior levels of the department.

In addition to driving this fast paced and engaging portfolio, you will be responsible for maintaining a strong, dynamic and supportive team culture.

Job description

Typical responsibilities will include:

• Driving forward the Secretary of State’s and Permanent Secretary’s priorities, ensuring each programme delivers meaningful value.
• Being the central point of coordination and contact for the Delivery Unit, assessing delivery of milestones and identifying and supporting policy areas to escalate and unblock issues, ensuring alignment with departmental objectives.
• Supporting our performance-driven culture by empowering leadership with the information and tools they need to manage Ministerial priorities.
• Supporting the development of delivery plans, and conducting deep-dives into policy areas, actively working to resolve complex issues and ensuring that risks to delivery are surfaced and resolved at senior levels.
• Tracking delivery, assessing performance and providing progress insights and problem solving to Ministers and the centre of government. This will require you to build expertise in the policy area to enable informed assessments and constructive challenge.
• Acting as a key point of contact, liaison and trusted partner to internal policy teams, private offices and key teams across Whitehall.
• Taking an active role in the wider management of a high-performing Delivery Unit team, with potential for either line management or matrix management responsibilities.

Person specification

Essential criteria

The below criteria are essential and will be assessed at application stage.

• Strong interpersonal and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to develop and maintain constructive and positive working relationships with senior colleagues (Executive Committee or C-Suite equivalent).
• Experience delivery high priority projects for senior stakeholders, or ministers, with evidence of managing several workstreams to deliver stretching outcomes.
• Excellent written, and oral communication skills and attention to detail.
• Proven experience of seeing the bigger picture, acute political awareness, with the ability to understand and respond to a fast-changing landscape.
• Ability to set direction in often ambiguous circumstances and see projects through to completion.

Desirable criteria

The below criteria are desirable only. These will not be assessed throughout the recruitment process, but will be used in the event of tied scores between candidates.

• Previous experience in growth/economic policy, trade and/or business, science/ innovation policy.
• Confidence working with data and evidence to identify trends, test assumptions and inform strategic decision-making.
• Experience using business intelligence tools (e.g. Power BI and QuickSight) alongside Microsoft tools (e.g. Lists and Power Apps) to turn data into actionable insight and improve decision making.

Personal Attributes and Skills

The below is a list of characteristics which may be helpful in this role. These will not be assessed throughout the recruitment process, but are laid out to help candidates understand more about the role.

You will have a big-vision mentality coupled with an ability to capture the detail and steer a team towards success. You are resilient and people-focused, with know how to get the best out of teams.

You will be able to build strong relationships and to grasp technical policy areas. You will have an entrepreneurial attitude, be confident in working with uncertainty and comfortable driving progress across multiple areas of work.

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions
• Leadership

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £60,732, Department for Business and Trade contributes £17,594 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%

We recognise the challenges that people with (multiple) protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.

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, Strengths and Experience.Interviews for this vacancy will be conducted virtually. We will, however, consider in-person interviews by exception.

Please ensure that you check your emails regularly as all updates from us will be sent to you this way.

To apply for this post, you will be asked to complete the following as part of the online application:

• A CV setting out