Deputy Director Planning and Portfolio Management

Job summary

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution, and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime, and migration.

To lead the Planning and Portfolio Management Division of the newly formed Strategy and Change Directorate in the ONS. You will have a broad range of responsibilities including: leading strategic and corporate planning and portfolio management, working across the organisation to align the business plan and the portfolio with the UKSA strategy; developing the capability of the Project Delivery (PD) profession and overseeing PD resourcing via Head of Profession duties; overseeing strategic risk and assurance activities on behalf of the UKSA Board and Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC); coordinating and supporting programme and strategic evaluations; and supporting the delivery of continuous improvement and efficiencies.​

The Planning and Portfolio Management division plays a key role in the Strategy and Change Directorate, putting in place the ONS strategic business plan, reporting on and assuring ONS’s strategic risks, monitoring and maturing the ONS change portfolio, and building project delivery, risk and change management, and evaluation capabilities to enable the ONS to deliver value for money.

The diverse skills within the team make this an exciting and varied opportunity for someone looking for a role that can influence the future of the organisation. The division works in parallel with the Finance and Commercial, Strategy and Policy divisions, together with Internal Audit and the People and Places Directorate, to ensure that we have effective oversight and central control of activities across the organisation.

Job description

Key Responsibilities:

The post holder is responsible for:​

• Advice and oversight on the ONS change portfolio and associated governance, risk and assurance; providing insights and recommendations to the Executive and Performance and Change Committees in relation to performance of the portfolio and new requests for investment; assurance and due diligence related to investment business cases.​
• Leading and championing Project Delivery (PD) within the ONS and across government, developing the profession and building PD capability; ensuring ONS has the required Project Delivery capability and capacity to deliver its portfolio, including developing and managing a centralised team of project delivery professionals, and supporting the allocation of appropriately skilled resource to SROs.​
• Leading strategic planning activities, working with colleagues across the organisation to ensure priorities are defined and milestones are in place that align to these priorities; providing insights to the Portfolio and Investment Committee in relation to performance against the plan and managing and controlling change to the plan; developing and monitoring key performance indicators to monitor the successful implementation of the business plan.
• Working alongside the Finance and Commercial divisions to support the delivery of efficiencies and savings through the development and oversight of an Efficiency and Savings Plan.
• People and leadership – Champion the Project Delivery profession and provide community support to build capability and shared learning. Promote an energised culture focused on collaborative working in the interests of the organisation.
• Planning, scheduling and resourcing – Develop and publish the strategic business plan and associated priorities and portfolio, managing and controlling change to both the plan and the portfolio, and ensuring the allocation of resources to priorities.
• Risk management – Develop and oversee the strategic risk profile for the organisation, ensuring that risk mitigation is embedded in how the organisation takes decisions.
• Stakeholder management – Cultivate and manage a range of relationships and key strategic alliances with internal / external stakeholders. Lead senior stakeholders in regularly reviewing the continuing relevance of priority activities and programmes based on a clear understanding of cost, risk and contribution to strategic objectives.
• Ensuring that risks, from departmental / Directorate perspective are identified and suitable controls are in place, escalating risks where necessary.​
• Taking the lead on monitoring Divisional performance against specific business plan commitments and take action as appropriate.

For more information, please refer to candidate pack attached.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

Candidates are expected to evidence these criteria within their CV and Personal Statement:

• Experience and expertise in delivering and prioritising at a strategic level and implementing well considered plans with evidence of strong risk management and/or portfolio management leadership.​
• Credibility at a senior level, with the ability to drive progress while applying pragmatism in all aspects of the role. ​
• Ability to motivate, collaborate and energise a wide range of teams and senior stakeholders inside and outside of ONS. ​
• Use innovation and creativity to increase maturity in organisational delivery in a resource-constrained environment and communicate complex situations that enable strategic decision making.​
• Ability to adapt and prioritise rapidly whilst ensuring top quality deliverables.

Qualifications

The successful candidate will be expected to have attended or agree to attend the Project Leadership Programme or equivalent leadership programme.

Typical qualifications of an experienced operative in this role would include the following. These are not all expected to be in place with someone stepping up into the role for the first time or on a temporary basis:
- Management of Risk Practitioner
- Managing Portfolios Practitioner
- Managing Successful Programmes Advanced Practitioner
- APM Chartered Project Professional
- Major Projects Leadership Academy
- Project Leadership Programme

Technical skills

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

• The role is primarily a leadership role with the following technical skills being useful to deliver the role effectively:Planning, Risk and Issue Management, Resource Management, Business Change & Implementation, Stakeholder Engagement and Assurance

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £81,000, Office for National Statistics contributes £23,465 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.

Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.

Inclusion & Accessibility

At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.

As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.

If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.

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 Experience and Technical skills.

Security Clearance

For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.

If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link, or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.

At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:

• Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)

• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records

• Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency

• Security Services records

Selection Process

Applications should consist of your CV and Personal Statementcombined as one document and uploaded as a single attachment through Civil Service Jobs.​

A Curriculum Vitae of no more than 2 pages of A4 consisting of:​

• Details of your education and/or professional qualifications.​

• Full employment history, giving details (where applicable) of budgets and numbers of people managed, relevant key achievements in recent posts.​

• Details of your latest remuneration.​

A personal statement detailing in no more than 2 pages of A4 how you meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification. We recommend that you give clear examples for each describing your own contribution and the impact and value of your actions. ​

Applications will be acknowledged shortly after receipt. If you do not receive an acknowledgement within one week of applying for the post, please contact our SCS Recruitment Team at: SCS.Recruitment@ons.gov.uk​

Further information on the assessment approach for this role can be found in the candidate pack.

Expected Recruitment Timetable

Shortlisting meeting: 23rd April

Employee Engagement Exercise (EEE) - 30th April

Interviews - 5th May

Interviews will be held online via Microsoft Teams

Please note dates are subject to change.

Informal conversations to discuss suitability with the recruiting manager are welcomed in advance of the application closing date and can be arranged via email.

Full terms and conditions are attached at the bottom of this advert

If you meet the required standard but the recruiting department is unable to offer you the job, you may be given the option of being added to a reserve list. Reserve lists may be shared with other Civil Service departments and professions who are recruiting for similar roles.

Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a 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.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 Jennings
• Email : scs.recruitment@ons.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : SCS.recruitment@ons.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 recruitment.complaints@ons.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission

Attachments

2721 Advert 1A Permanent - ONS London Inclusive v1-00 Opens in new window (pdf, 83kB)Deputy_Director_Planning_and_Portfolio_Management_SCS_Candidate_Pack (2) Opens in new window (pdf, 967kB)