Defra Group Property (DgP) Project Manager

Job summary

Within DgP we provide services that underpin workplaces for more than 30,000 colleagues, covering an extensive portfolio of almost 300 sites across Defra Group. Defra has the largest estate by area within the whole of government (c900,000 acres), comprising a diverse mix of operational and administrative assets. The portfolio includes offices, depots, incident response facilities, warehouses, laboratories, port and border inspection facilities, stores and land

As a Project Manager in DgP as part of Defra’s wider Project Delivery profession the successful candidate will be providing end to end Project Management leadership and the application of technical project management skills and experience to deliver a range of Property related projects. This role provides the successful candidate with an opportunity to work across DgP and with the wider Defra Group with the Arms Length Bodies when delivery property related project ensuring property solutions act as enabler to wider Defra Group outcomes

The team is looking for a confident, collaborative and delivery-focused Project Manager who can operate effectively across organisational boundaries, bringing together property and programme delivery to achieve shared outcomes. Your role will be central in ensuring the successful integration of property within the Water Regulator programme

Job description

This Project Manager role initially focusses on the Water Regulator Programme within Defra Group Property (DgP) but as a generic Project Manager will also in the long term cover other property related projects.

Our ambitious 25-year Environment Plan and legislative agenda is delivering transformational change across the Environment, Agriculture and Marine sectors. As part of this, Defra is establishing a new Water Regulator to strengthen oversight, improve environmental outcomes and ensure the long-term sustainability of water resources.

Defra Group Property plays a critical role in enabling this delivery. Our estate underpins essential services—from offices and laboratories to operational infrastructure that supports flood resilience, environmental monitoring and national capability. As we support the creation of the Water Regulator, property will be fundamental in ensuring the organisation is set up to operate effectively, safely and sustainably.

This role sits at the intersection of Defra Group Property and the wider Water Regulator Programme. The Project Manager will act as a key link between DgP and programme stakeholders across the Defra Group, ensuring that property-related requirements are fully understood, integrated and delivered as part of the wider programme. You will play a crucial role in aligning strategic property delivery with programme objectives, ensuring a coherent and joined-up approach.

The Defra Group is a large and complex organisation of around 30,000 staff, working across core Defra and its arm’s length bodies, with significant investment in infrastructure and transformation programmes. Delivering the Water Regulator requires strong, coordinated project leadership across multiple functions and stakeholders

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the delivery of property-related elements of the Water Regulator programme, ensuring alignment with wider programme objectives.
• Act as the key interface between Defra Group Property and the Water Regulator Programme, ensuring effective coordination, communication and integration.
• Provide day-to-day leadership and management of the project and wider Project Group, establishing appropriate governance, structures and controls.
• Develop and maintain robust project plans, ensuring delivery is clearly tracked and reported across both DgP and programme governance structures.
• Ensure property requirements are clearly defined, scoped and delivered in line with programme timelines, budget and quality expectations

Person specification

You will be able to demonstrate the following skills and experience

Project Delivery & Integration

• Proven experience delivering complex projects or programmes, ideally across organisational or functional boundaries.
• Experience operating in a “bridge” role, coordinating delivery between multiple teams or departments.

Stakeholder Engagement & Influence

• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build relationships and influence at senior levels.
• Experience working across organisational boundaries to align priorities and resolve competing demands.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Ability to lead multidisciplinary teams and create a collaborative, high-performing environment.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to translate complex requirements between technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Governance, Planning & Controls

• Experience establishing governance, project controls and reporting in complex delivery environments.
• Ability to manage plans, budgets and performance within agreed constraints.

Risk, Issue & Change Management

• Strong ability to identify and manage risks, issues and interdependencies, particularly across programme interfaces.
• Experience managing change in a dynamic and evolving programme environment.

Planning

• Experience of developing and maintaining delivery plans including roadmaps and resource plans
• Experience of embedding the use of plan in a Project and reporting against progress against the plan

Data & Digital Capability

• Experience using data and digital tools to monitor delivery, generate insights and inform decision-making.

Qualifications

APM or Prince 2

Behaviours

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

• Leadership
• Delivering at Pace
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,375, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £16,331 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%

Flexi Time Policy. Our Flexi-time policy allows you to vary your hours from day to day, within the requirements of your role, to suit your needs and to offer a better work/life balance.

Leave. If you work full time at Defra you are entitled to 25 days’ leave (rising, over 5 years, to 30 days’). If you work part time it will be pro-rated.

Privilege day. You are also entitled to a privilege day off in May to mark the King’s birthday (date varies), plus time off for the 8 public holidays a year.

Career breaks. We recognise that your work-life balance can extend beyond the short-term to the longer-term, and to support this you are able to apply for career breaks. These are unpaid extended breaks from work, granted at the discretion of the department.

Volunteering leave - 3 days paid volunteering leave every year (pro-rata). Once you have passed probation.

Season ticket loan – for an interest free season ticket loan, if you have worked within the Defra for more than three months. This can be used to purchase train and bus season tickets, as well as station car parking.

Tenancy deposit loan – for an interest free loan, to assist you in meeting the deposit costs for your privately rented home.

Salary advances and loans for other circumstances – for salary advances and loans in the following circumstances: for new entrants, for the purchase of bicycles, holidays and religious holidays.

Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme – Since the closure to new entrants of the employer childcare voucher scheme, the government introduced the Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme. In this scheme, working parents open an online childcare account and for every £8 they pay in, the government adds £2, up to a maximum of £2,000 a year for each child or £4,000 for a disabled child. Parents then use the funds to pay for registered childcare.

Support to buy a bicycle – we run two schemes that can help you buy a bicycle for your commute:

1. The Cycle to Work Scheme –you can apply for a bicycle for your commute, up to the value of £6,000, which is recovered from you through salary sacrifice, as a tax-free benefit. At the end of the repayment period, you have the option to buy the bike if you wish, saving around 30% of the original cost.
2. Bike loan – if you are not eligible to apply for the Cycle to Work Scheme, you can apply for a loan of up to £1,000 towards the cost of a bike using the Bike loan scheme. This however is not a salary sacrifice scheme.

High-street and online discounts. Offers through SmartSpending™ which is accessed through the StaR platform. Accessible 24/7, you can save at hundreds of top retailers.

Maternity leave, paternity leave and shared parental leave. We offer generous maternity leave, paternity leave and shared parental leave – a total of 52 weeks leave to look after your new baby, regardless of your length of service. Most mothers are entitled to 39 weeks of paid leave, and a further 13 weeks of unpaid leave. Most partners are entitled to 15 days of paid paternity leave. Shared parental leave arrangements are in place, allowing parents to divide their leave with each other.

Professional Membership. Defra group will fund one professional membership for each permanent employee which is relevant to their role.

Eye care scheme. If you use a computer screen in connection with your job, we will pay for a regular eyesight test, and you may also be entitled to help towards purchasing new glasses, if they are needed for computer use.

The Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) is a free 24/7 confidential telephone advice service, available to all of our staff throughout the year.

Civil Service Sports Council. The opportunity to join the Civil Services Sports Council.

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 Process
As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV, personal statement and behaviour statements.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Sift

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted on the Lead Behaviour - Leadership. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

Sifting will take place w/c 28th September

Interview

If successful at application stage, you will be invited to interview where you will be assessed on behaviours and strengths.

Interviews are currently scheduled to take place w/c 12th October but may be subject to change.

Location & Travel

As part of the pre-employment process, successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. The agreed contractual workplace is then the substantive and permanent place of work for the successful candidate(s).

Where the location is 'National' the successful appointee should discuss and agree an appropriate contractual location in line with both Defra’s location policy and site capacity, prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.

Successful applicants currently employed by the hiring Defra organisation for this post may choose to remain in their current contractual location or may choose to change contractual location to one of those listed above. This should be discussed and agreed prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.

The agreed amount of time spent at a workplace for this post will reflect the requirement for Civil Servants to spend at least 60% of their working time in an organisation workplace with the option to work the remaining time flexibly from home. Working time spent at a workplace may include time spent at other organisational locations including field-based operational locations, together with supplier, customer or partner locations. This is a non-contractual agreement which is consistent with common Civil Service expectations.

Travel costs to non-contractual workplaces will be subject to departmental travel and subsistence policies. Travel costs to contractual workplaces are the responsibility of the employee.

The successful candidate is required to carry out all their duties from a UK location and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time.

Defra includes the core department, APHA, RPA, Cefas and VMD.

You will need to agree your working arrangements with your new manager. Some travel may be required and occasional overnight stays.

To work from 2 Marsham Street you will require the higher level of CTC clearance. Therefore, confirmation of appointment to the advertised post will be dependent upon successful CTC clearance being confirmed as part of pre-employment checks.

Salary

New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band. The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e. level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.

Reserve List

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Childcare Vouchers

Any move to DEFRA from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

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 Government Recruitment Service via defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as 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.

Accessibility

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Visa Sponsorship Statement

Please take note that Defra does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License sponsor and are unable to sponsor any individuals for Skilled Worker Sponsorship.

Near Miss

Candidates who are judged to be a near miss at interview may be considered for other positions in Defra which may be at a lower grade, but have a potential skills match.

Criminal Record Check

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be 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 circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Internal Fraud Database Check

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.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Security

All of these posts require the successful candidate to hold basic security clearance. Candidates posted to London may be subject to a higher level of clearance because of the security requirements for that location. Job offers to these posts are made on the basis of merit. Security vetting will only take place after the receipt of a job offer.

Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.

Feedback

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) 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.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 : Stephen Jenner
• Email : Stephen.jenner1@defra.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

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 Government Recruitment Services via email: defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: here