Construction Delivery Project Director Southeast Grade 6

Job summary

We are looking for an experienced Construction Project Director in the Southeast Region, covering the Isle of Wight area. The Project Director will be responsible for school capital projects after they have been selected to join the pipeline for the School Rebuilding Programme, Free Schools Programme, Further Education and other DfE centrally delivered construction programmes. The scope of the role will cover projects from inception through to construction and end of defects, focusing on soft landings and ensuring schemes are delivered on time and within budget. You will work closely with a project manager and a technical advisory team on each project, supporting the development and end-to-end delivery on a number of major projects.

The kind of projects we are currently working on include:

• Whole new build schools.
• Refurbishment and remodelling of listed buildings.
• Relocation of schools to new sites including school mergers and school expansions.
• Provision of emergency temporary accommodation at short notice.
• Overseeing the delivery of work where DfE is working with schools to remove Reinforced Autoclave Aerated Concrete.

Alongside our work redeveloping school sites and buildings, we also work with other parts of the DfE to ensure that proposed rebuilding or construction projects fit with the Department’s wider strategic aims. This can include working with regional teams around local demographics to understand and ensure the current and continued need for the school places secured via our investment in sites. There is also wider work to support the requirements of the Government Major Project Portfolio (GMPP). This may include briefing Ministers on projects and issues both in person and via written briefings and submissions, drafting clear, balanced advice.

Our directorate has a fantastic Learning & Development offer with a chance to really enhance your career progression. This includes opportunities to work towards a relevant and supported Property Accreditation, all fully funded.

The work of the Education Estates Directorate has a transformative impact on children and students, enabling them to realise their potential in high quality learning environments. We carefully utilise capital funding to ensure the education estate is safe, sustainable, suitable, sufficiently sized, and resilient. We also deliver billion-pound construction programmes with over 1,000 school and college building projects in our pipeline. We continually improve how we work, and we lead the way in innovation, both in terms of design standards and as a major client for the construction sector.

Job description

As Project Director, you will be expected to lead diverse and multiple delivery teams. This requires leadership through pre-feasibility, feasibility, contract, construction, and project closeout. You will be expected to lead on programme wide issues and take forward improvement priorities relating to areas such as procurement, processes, or partner management.

The projects your teams are working on are ranging in complexity, and could include:

• Whole new build primary and secondary schools in locations all over the country.
• Refurbishment and remodelling of listed buildings.
• Relocation of schools to new sites including school mergers and school expansions.
• Establishing new schools on sites which were not previously school sites.

Job Responsibilities

This is a challenging role and key responsibilities will include:

• Proactively lead a multi-disciplinary team of project managers, specialist delivery team and advisers, providing advice and support to facilitate the successful delivery of educational premises that demonstrate value for money. As Project Director, this would involve coordinating the work of ICT, technical, legal and property specialists to enable delivery of the sites, school premises, ICT and FF&E within the agreed budgets to tight timescales.
• Lead on various areas of expertise across programme wide issues relating to areas including procurement route, delivery stage, construction type, and value for money.
• As Project Director, this would involve coordinating, monitoring, and reporting on the performance of the technical adviser and associated specialist advisers and agreeing proposals for commissioning further surveys and associated costs and timings.
• Collaborate with colleagues to ensure that proposals provide value for money and where appropriate with the procuring body, to support the procurement process.
• Identify, raise, and resolve strategic level risks and issues to ensure that the projects are delivered to cost, quality and programme.
• Develop and maintain client relationships, leading and attending school visits, contractor meeting, and responsible body meetings as necessary, providing Department for Education representation, strategic direction and oversight of the projects and wider programme.
• Review final procurement documents and administer the construction contract, including dealing with any contractual claims or contract variations.
• Work in partnership with other parts of the department in developing the project; finalising the funding requirements; ensuring framework and policy requirements are implemented; securing all necessary approvals; and, preparing papers for ministerial and/or Treasury approval.
• Manage stakeholder relationships effectively and take the lead on challenging conversations.

Remote-working

These are “remote based roles.” This means that most of the time (around three days per week on average) you, will need to be out attending school sites, meeting contractors, technical advisers, local authorities, and other key stakeholders. The remaining time, you will be home based, unless there are meetings which require you to be present at a DfE office.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Experience in the procurement of major infrastructure projects including developing business cases, feasibility studies and letting of contracts.
• Experience of delivering major infrastructure projects, including consultation with contractors on delivery programmes, variation management, and cost management.
• Solution focused, motivated self-starter, with a consistent record of successful multi-project delivery through management of a skilled team of people.
• Ability to work at pace, prioritising work whilst delivery a large number of projects.
• Ability to negotiate, influence and persuade within and outside the organisation at a senior level to achieve required results. You will employ an adaptable style and persuasion skills to respond to complex relationships and differing perspectives.
• Constructively find opportunities for improving the delivery of the capital programmes and work effectively with others, to continually review these in the light of changing policy.
• Work and make decisions independently, but within clear guidelines and understand when it is appropriate to raise issues.
• Working in an encouraging and inclusive way, respecting the diversity of the people you work with.

Desirable Criteria:

• Experience of working with and/or within local authorities, schools, or academies in relation to project delivery.
• Experience of leading and delivery through multi-disciplinary teams.
• Excellent portfolio of programme and project management skills.
• A relevant professional or technical qualification to degree level or equivalent (e.g., project management, quantity surveying, construction, or relevant subject matter).
• Membership of a relevant professional body (e.g. the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Royal Institute of British Architects, Chartered Institute of Buildings).

Desirable criteria will only be assessed at interview, in the event of a tie break situation, to make an informed decision.

Licences

Driving license

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £70,854, Department for Education contributes £20,526 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department’s transfer / promotion policies.

As a member of the DfE, you will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK.

You will have 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years’ service. In addition, all staff receive the King’s Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days’ bank and public holidays.

We offer flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.

Most DfE employees will be working a hybrid pattern, spending at least 60% of their time in an office or work setting. Changes to these working arrangements are available in exceptional circumstances but must be agreed with the line manager and in line with the requirements of the role.

Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by DfE, but costs for travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered.

As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.

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.

Application

At this stage, we will assess Experience. Candidates will be sifted through their CV and a personal statement.

Your personal statement should be no longer than 750 words and display how your experience meets the essential criteria of the role (listed in the person specification section above).

The sift will be restricted to just assessing personal statements in the event of a large volume of applications.

More guidance on personal statements can be found here – completing your application.

Interview

If successful at sift, candidates will be assessed via interview.

At interview you will be asked questions around the behaviours listed in the advert.

Behaviours are the actions and activities that people do which result in effective performance in a job. We want to get an understanding of the actions and activities that you have done (or would do) that result in effective performance.

We will also ask you some strength based questions.

Strengths are a way for Hiring Managers to understand what motivates you and what you enjoy doing, which helps the panel to understand your areas of strength. Evidence shows that people do better work when a job aligns well with what they enjoy and find motivating. We do not advertise which strengths we are going to assess you on as we want to be able to assess your first, natural response to the questions.

Candidates invited to interview will also need to prepare a short presentation. The presentation brief will be sent with the invitation to interview. This will be assessed against the behaviours.

For more information on the selection process, including guidance on how to write a personal statement, answer behaviour and strength-based interview questions, and the STAR approach click here: Top tips for acing the application.

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Other Information

Interviews may be via Microsoft teams or face to face; the vacancy manager will confirm prior to the Interview.

In your application, please don’t include personal information that identifies you.

This means we can recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - it's called name blind recruitment (opens in a new window).

Please ensure that you remove from your application, all references to your:

• name/title
• educational institutions
• age
• gender
• email address
• postal address
• phone number
• nationality/immigration status

We reserve the right to raise the minimum pass mark in the event of a high volume or strong field of candidates.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK from the location options provided and not from overseas.

The government is committed to supporting apprenticeships, enabling people to learn and progress in a role whilst earning. We want to monitor the number of people who have completed apprenticeships who are now applying to progress further in their career and are asking this question to all candidates, on all vacancies. You will be asked a question as part of the application process about any previous apprenticeships you have completed. Your response to this question will not affect your application and it is not a requirement of the role to have completed a previous apprenticeship.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check maybe carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstance some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Department of Education of your intention by emailing Pre-Employment.Checks.DFE@education.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Department for Education do not cover the cost of travel to your interview/assessment unless otherwise stated.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.

Candidates will be posted in merit order based upon location preference. Where more than one location is advertised you will be asked to state your preferred location.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

Terms and conditions of candidates transferring from ALBs and NDPBs

Bodies that are not accredited by the Civil Service Commission and are not able to advertise at Across Government on Civil Service jobs will be treated as external new starters and will come into DfE on modernised terms and conditions with a salary at the band minimum.

Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission but do not have civil service status will be offered modernised terms and will not have continuous service recognised for leave or sickness benefits. Salaries should be offered at band minimum, but there is some flexibility where this would cause a detriment to the individual.

Bodies that are accredited by the Civil Service Commission and do have Civil Service status will be treated as OGD transfers. Staff appointed on lateral transfer will move on to pre-modernised DfE terms (unless they were on modernised terms in their previous organisation). Staff appointed on promotion will move on to modernised DfE terms. Staff will transfer over on their existing salary (on lateral transfer) and any pay above the DfE pay band maximum will be paid as a mark time allowance. Staff moving on promotion will have their salaries calculated using the principles set out in the attached OGD transfer supplementary information.

Reasonable adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Department of Education via centralrecruitment.operations@education.gov.uk soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Please refer to the attached ‘Reasonable Adjustments Guide 05_2025 – accessible version’ at the bottom of the advert, for further information.

Childcare Vouchers

Any move to Department for Education (DfE) will mean you will no longer be able to carry on claiming childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.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.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

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.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 : Sarah Singleton
• Email : Sarah.singleton@education.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Centralrecruitment.operations@education.gov.uk

Further information

The Department for Education’s recruitment processes are underpinned by the Civil Service Commissioners Recruitment Principles, which outlines that selection for appointment is made on merit based on fair and open competition. You have the right to complain if you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles. In the first instance, you should raise the matter directly with the department concerned via CentralRecruitment.Operations@education.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages

Attachments

DFE Terms & Conditions - accessible version Opens in new window (pdf, 215kB)Reasonable Adjustments guide 05_2025 - accessible version (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 723kB)OGD Transfer Supplementary information - accessible version Opens in new window (pdf, 327kB)