Assistant Project Manager & Portfolio Analyst

Job summary

Do you enjoy working on projects and seeing them through to completion? Are you passionate about collaborating with others to deliver meaningful outcomes? Do you want to work somewhere you can truly make a difference? At the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), we have a variety of HEO Project Delivery roles available, including Assistant Project Manager, and Portfolio Analyst. These roles play a vital part in our mission to protect the nation from health threats. Candidates who are invited to interview will be asked to express their preference in the roles that they are interested in. We will try to match successful candidates to their preference, but this is not guaranteed as offers will be made in merit list order in line with Civil Service Recruitment Commission principles.
Successful candidates will join one of our diverse projects, programmes, or portfolio offices, with opportunities to contribute to initiatives such as:

• Supporting the delivery of major change programmes within UKHSA’s portfolio, aligned with the organisation’s strategic objectives
• Health protection projects or other public health initiatives
• Technology programmes or projects
• Infrastructure programmes or projects
• Organisational change and transformation programmes or projects
• Supporting the setup and delivery of new projects and programmes

Please note: These roles may require regular travel between UKHSA sites.

Job description

Assistant Project Manager
You will:

• lead on the day to day running of a project(s), which will typically be very low to low in complexity
• be responsible for overseeing the delivery of the project, ensuring that the objectives are clearly defined and achieved within the agreed time, cost, and quality constraints
• have a key role in project governance and will work with stakeholders to ensure the agreed project outputs are delivered to enable benefit realisation.

Portfolio Analyst

You will:

• be responsible for the oversight of a collection of programmes or projects that
  contribute to the delivery of departmental or business area objectives
• focus primarily on providing insight, information and support that strengthens
  portfolio governance and enables prioritisation decisions and effective allocation of resources across the portfolio. This will be through the analysis of information sources and engagement with programme and project stakeholders
• use the appropriate reporting method to convert this insight to inform decision making.

These roles are government project delivery profession roles and are aligned to the Project Delivery Capability Framework (PDCF).

The job holder will be supported to work towards achieving Government Project Delivery Accreditation where they do not already hold this.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Assistant Project Manager:

• Manage the day to day running of the project, leading it to deliver agreed
  outcomes within time, cost, and quality constraints.
• Build project plans and apply appropriate delivery methodology. Set project
  controls and track and report against milestones.
• Co-ordinate the development of the business case.
• Monitor and track project spend, ensuring it is within budget.
• Plan and manage resources to deliver the project.
• Identify benefits and ensure these are understood, measured, tracked, and owned; monitoring the longer-term delivery of benefits against the business case.
• Develop effective relationships with key stakeholders.
• Identify and monitor project risks and issues, developing mitigating actions and escalation processes.
• Provide project reports and support effective governance and decision making.
• Support project assurance, audit, and gateway reviews.
• Set up effective change management processes, including documenting agreed changes to the project deliverables.
• Use digital tools to analyse data, forecast, plan and mitigate actions and exploit opportunities.
• Promote individual and team performance, seek appropriate guidance and
  coaching from the project community.
• Be an active member of the UKHSA Project Delivery Profession Community.

Portfolio Analyst:

• Support your Line Manager by collaborating with business areas to identify and categorise new projects.
• Co-ordinate reporting requirements by the projects/programmes to support the analysis of the Portfolio performance.
• Provide secretariat support ensuring the smooth functioning and running of
  governance boards and ad hoc meetings.
• Maintain the portfolio delivery map and critical path to monitor project progress. Recognise and track interdependencies across change projects.
• Identify and monitor portfolio risks (threats and opportunities) and escalate as appropriate.
• Use digital tools and data analysis to provide insights to support informed
  decision making.
• Gather and collate information to support your Line Manager in developing
  mechanisms for measuring benefits.
• Engage with a wide range of stakeholders, building strong and trusted
  relationships.
• Support the Portfolio Manager to communicate and build commitment to a
  shared vision and sense of purpose
• Ensure teams standards, policies, procedures, and tools are up to date and
  reflective current ways of working.
• Be an active member of the UKHSA Project Delivery Profession Community.

This list is not exhaustive.

Person specification

Selection Criteria for these 2 roles is as follows:

• Recent experience of working in a project, programme or portfolio office environment, with working knowledge of project planning, scheduling, risks and issues, resource management, governance, and assurance.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build effective relationships across a wide range of stakeholders.
• Awareness of commercial and procurement processes, budget and cost
  management, business case development and benefits management.
• Ability to use digital tools and data analytics to support decision-making in
  project delivery.
• Effective communication skills, including the ability to influence and challenge
  constructively.
• Recent experience of reporting or presenting information through dashboards, highlight reports, or progress updates.
• Strong capability with Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £33,422, UK Health Security Agency contributes £9,682 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 pride ourselves as being an employer of choice, where Everyone Matters promoting equality of opportunity to actively encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce.

UKHSA ethos is to be an inclusive organisation for all our staff and stakeholders. To create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture, where differences drive innovative solutions to meet the needs of our workforce and wider communities. We do this through celebrating and protecting differences by removing barriers and promoting equity and equality of opportunity for all.

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

Stage 1: Application & Sift

This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess behaviours, experience and technical knowledge.

At sift stage you will be assessed against the 7 selection criteria listed in the job advert.
You will be required to complete an:

• Application form (‘Employer/ Activity history’ section on the application)
• Up to 1000 word supporting statement in 2 parts – see further instructions below.

You will receive a joint score for your application form and statement. (The application form is the kind of information you would put into your C.V –please be advised you will not be able to upload your CV. Please complete the application form in as much detail as possible)

Supporting statement instructions:
You are required to submit a statement of no more than 1,000 words in the ‘Supporting Information’ section of your application.Healthjobs UK has a word limit of 1500, but your supporting statement must be no more than 1000 words. We will not consider any words over 1000 words.

Please structure your statement in two parts:

Part 1 – Lead Selection Criterion (maximum 300 words)
Describe how you meet the lead selection criterion:

• Recent experience of working in a project, programme or portfolio office environment, with working knowledge of project planning, scheduling, risks and issues, resource management, governance, and assurance. Use a specific example that clearly explains what you did, how you did it, and the outcome.

Part 2 – Remaining 6 Selection Criteria (maximum 700 words)
Describe how you meet the remaining selection criteria for this role:

• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build effective relationships across a wide range of stakeholders.
• Awareness of commercial and procurement processes, budget and cost
  management, business case development and benefits management.
• Ability to use digital tools and data analytics to support decision making in
  project delivery.
• Effective communication skills, including the ability to influence and challenge
  constructively.
• Experience of reporting or presenting information through dashboards, highlight reports, or progress updates.
• Strong capability with Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Please use clear, evidence based examples to demonstrate your skills and experience.

Sift Process:

If we receive a high volume of applications, Part 1 (lead criterion) will be assessed first. Only candidates who meet the lead criterion will have Part 2 assessed.

Longlisting

In the event of a large number of applications, we may longlist into 3 piles of:

1. Meets all Essential Criteria
2. Meets some Essential Criteria
3. Meets no Essential Criteria

Only those that 'Meets all Essential Criteria' will progress to Shortlisting.

Shortlisting

In the event of a large number of applications, we may conduct an initial sift on the following 2 Essential Criteria:

• Recent experience of working in a project, programme or portfolio office environment, with working knowledge of project planning, scheduling, risks and issues, resource management, governance, and assurance.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build effective relationships across a wide range of stakeholders.

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to the Stage 2: Pre-Interview Assessment. Feedback will not be provided at this stage.

Stage 2: Pre-Interview Assessment

Candidates will be invited to a 20-minute pre-interview assessment which will be undertaken remotely, via MS Teams.

The pre-interview assessment will assess your Technical Skills through instinctual critical thinking and situational judgement, drawing from your Project/Portfolio technical experience.

A scenario will be presented on the screen and read aloud. You will be expected to consider the situation (5 minutes) and share your thinking (10 minutes).

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to Stage 3: Interview.

Stage 3: Interview

You will be invited to a face to face interview at one of our core locations. Interview date(s) to be confirmed.

Behaviours and Technical Skills will be assessed at interview by means of questioning.

The Behaviours being assessed during the interview will be as follows:

• Delivering at Pace – Lead Behaviour
• Communication and Influencing
• Working Together

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Location

This role is being offered as hybrid working based at any of our Core HQs.
We offer great flexible working opportunities at UKHSA and operate using a hybrid working model where business needs allow. This provides us with greater flexibility about how and where we work, to get the best from our workforce. As a hybrid worker, you will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of your contractual working hours (approximately 3 days a week pro rata, averaged over a month) working at one of UKHSA's core HQs (Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, and London).
Our core HQ offices are modern and newly refurbished with excellent city centre
transport links and benefit from co-location with other government departments such as the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Security Clearance Level Requirement:

Successful candidates must pass a basic disclosure and barring security check before they can be appointed.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can
be appointed. The level of security needed is Security Check (SC).

For meaningful National Security Vetting checks to be carried out individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 5 years as the role requires Security Check (SC) clearance. UK residency less than the outlined periods may not necessarily bar you from gaining national security vetting and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder/Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.

Eligibility Criteria

External-This vacancy is open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service as well as internal applicants.

If this role is fixed term and you are not currently a Civil Servant, you will take up the post on a Fixed Term appointment; you may be able to take this role up as a Secondment. If you are an existing Civil Servant, based outside of UKHSA, you will take up the post as a loan which you will need your department to agree. Loans are normally agreed for a period of two years. However, this may be extended where required, subject to agreement between UKHSA and your home department. You cannot take the post up as a fixed term. If you are an existing UKHSA member of staff, you will take up the post as either a level transfer or a temporary promotion as per the UKHSA’s Pay policy.

If this role is permanent, it may also be available as a loan (for existing Civil Servants only) or secondment arrangement, subject to business need and agreement from the hiring manager and, where applicable, the employee's home organisation.

Reserve List

If more than the required number of suitable candidates pass the interview criteria, you may be kept on a reserve list for 12 months subject to your agreement. You may be contacted, in merit-order, if similar roles with closely matching essential criteria become available and the department choose to appoint from a reserve list.The panel will assess if candidates meet the requirement of the role first, using a specific benchmark system. If you are interviewed for the post and do not meet the required threshold for the specified grade, your application may be assessed against a similar, lower grade role and you may be offered the post should one be available.

Incident Response Activity

From time to time, the role holder may be required to support UKHSA’s incident response activity by contributing their appropriate expertise within an Incident Cell; during such periods, supported by the line manager, this work will take priority over normal day-to-day responsibilities, commensurate with their grade, skills and experience.

Future location

UKHSA is investing in a new state-of-the-art National Biosecurity Centre in Harlow, Essex, which will eventually bring together teams currently based at Canary Wharf, Colindale and Porton Down. For more details, please see: Huge biosecurity centre investment to boost pandemic protection - GOV.UK.

The new facilities will start becoming operational in the mid-2030s, with full completion by 2038. Staff will move in phases as facilities become available. If you're appointed to a role currently based at Canary Wharf, Colindale or Porton Down, please note that we'll continue investing in these sites for the next decade. As we get closer to the transition, we'll provide full information about relocation support available to staff.

Reasonable Adjustments

The Civil Service is committed to making sure that our selection methods are fair to everyone. To help you during the recruitment process, we will consider any reasonable adjustments that could help you. An adjustment is a change to the recruitment process or an adjustment at work. This is separate to the Disability Confident Scheme. If you need an adjustment to be made at any point during the recruitment process you should contact the recruitment team in confidence as soon as possible to discuss your needs.

You can find out more information about reasonable adjustments across the Civil Service here: https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/reasonable-adjustments/

International Police check

If you have spent more than 6 months abroad over the last 3 years you may need an International Police Check. This would not necessarily have to be in a single block, and it could be time accrued over that period.

Internal Fraud check

If successful for this role as one aspect of pre-employment screening, applicant’s personal details – name, national insurance number and date of birth - will be checked against the Cabinet Office Internal Fraud Hub and anyone included on the database will be refused employment unless they can show exceptional circumstances. Currently this is only for External candidates to the Civil Service.

Careers website

Please visit our careers site for more information https://gov.uk/ukhsa/careers

Salary Information

If you are successful at interview, and are moving from another government
department, NHS, or Local Authority, the relevant starting salary principles for level transfers or promotions will apply. Otherwise, roles are offered at the pay scale minimum for the grade, but in exceptional circumstances there may be flexibility if you are able to demonstrate you are already in receipt of an existing, higher salary. Pay increases are through the relevant annual pay award for the role and terms.

Higher Executive Officer (HEO)

• £33,422-£40,731 (National)
• £35,587- £43,244 (Outer London)
• £37,749- £45,353 (Inner London)

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Nigel Poole
• Email : Nigel.Poole@ukhsa.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@ukhsa.gov.uk

Further information

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact UKHSA Public Accountability Unit via email: Complaints@ukhsa.gov.uk If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website here.