Programme Risk Manager, Strategic Planning Lead

Job summary

Do you have a proven track record of driving high-quality project management work at pace, delivering results in complex and fast-moving environments?Do you bring strong organisational skills with the ability to prioritise your work?If so, we have an exciting opportunity for you to join our team at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and we'd love to hear from you!
Nearly a third of England’s population, around 20 million people, live in areas with two-tier local government with services and functions split across county and district council. This slows down decision making and delivery, leads to fragmented public services, sees money wasted on duplication and makes it unclear who is responsible for what and where accountability lies.Our ambition is to simplify local government, by ending the two-tier system and establishing new single-tier unitary councils.
This is a once in a generation reform and our vision is clear: stronger local councils empowered across local services, equipped to drive economic growth, improve local public services and empower their communities. This is an exciting time to join Local Government Reorganisation (‘LGR’) and be part of delivering that change.
The LGR team is responsible for leading outward-facing engagement with the areas developing proposals for new single-tier unitary authorities, advising Ministers on decisions regarding which reorganisation proposals to approve, engaging with the sector and key stakeholders, and supporting local government through transition planning to realise improvements in efficiency and effectiveness. It oversees the drafting of legislation that will give effect to those decisions, navigating complicated legal and parliamentary processes and ensuring Local Government Reorganisation strategically aligns with wider government dependencies.
This is a high-profile programme that has grown substantially over the course of 2025, offering the opportunity to work at the heart of government reform, influence national policy, and shape the future of Local Government.
We have 2 roles available: Programme Risk Manager working in our Programme, Planning and Operations team and Strategic Planning lead working in our strategic Planning branch. (Working together, the Programme Planning and Operations team and our Strategic Planning branch provide the structure, governance, programme and project delivery support for the programme. We facilitate programme planning, risk management, reporting, and monitoring deliverables.

Job description

Programme Risk Manager

We are seeking a programme risk manager who can:

• Develop and maintain the programme risk management strategy and plan, with guidance from senior managers, maintaining the programme critical path and timeline through engagement across the division.
• Manage complex risk environments and dependencies with project delivery partners and other government departments.
• Lead the identification and assessment of risks and issues that could impact on the programme and eventually project delivery, collaborating across the division, and associated risks reports.
• Prepare and maintain the comprehensive risk and issue log, and associated risk reports, such as Local Government Reorganisation Programme Board reports or corporate reporting.
• Assess the range of risk dependencies, analysis and assuring on mitigations, cross cutting implications and sitting across the whole risk view.
• Prepare and coordinate reports for the programme board and group-level boards, including any ad-hoc reporting requests.
• Maintain the integrated assurance and approvals plan (IAAP) and lead on the preparation and coordination of programme assurance reviews.
• Contribute to the design and implementation of effective programme management arrangements.

Strategic Planning Lead

We are seeking a Strategic Planning lead who can:

• Working alongside a small and friendly team, build strategic oversight of the programme, including project scheduling of the programme’s three tranches;
• Build relationships with key contacts across the division and wider MHCLG reform programmes to ensure join up on key activity and that delivery related action has clear ownership;
• Cut through complexity to clearly communicate dependencies and hard deadlines;
• Provide insights to inform key governance routes including a Director chaired Board responsible for delivery oversight of the Local Government Reorganisation Programme;
• Contribute to the design and implementation of effective programme management arrangements.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Proven ability to balance competing priorities and demonstrate flexibility under pressure in a fast-paced programme delivery environment.
• Experience working in a project or programme environment and project management practices Proven ability to deliver results against key objectives
• Experience of effectively communicating programme and project management practices in plain English, to support colleagues plan effectively.
• Engaging collaboratively and bringing people along with energy.
• Excellent administrative and organisational skills, with the ability to manage deadlines and coordinate across multiple workstreams.
• Enthusiasm for reform, change, and the delivery of key governmental objectives, particularly in the context of local government and public service transformation.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,890, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £12,135 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

At MHCLG we offer many benefits that range from tailored career pathways and flexible working to MyLifestyle Childcare Voucher and Cycle to Work Schemes. For more information, please click here.

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

Application and Selection
The application process will be split into 2 stages, testing the following Success Profiles:

Behaviours , Experience , Strengths

Please ensure your CV does not contain any personally identifiable information.

Note: We do not consider direct CV applications. All applications must be submitted via the provided application link.

Important: Your CV and Cover Letter must be merged into a single document before uploading.

Stage 1: Sift (CV & Cover Letter)

Experience: Your covering letter should be no more than 1 page referencing how you meet the criteria set out in the job description.

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors.

Stage 2: Interview

• Behaviours: Seeing The Big Picture, Delivering at Pace, Managing A Quality Service.

• Experience: Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.

• Strengths: The strength-based questions will require natural responses from the candidates.

Candidates will be asked to prepare a 5-minute presentation, further details will be provided on invitation to interview.

Sift and Interview Dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place the week commencing 23/02.

Interviews are envisaged to take place the week commencing 23/03 and are currently being held remotely via videocall. This could be subject to change.

How We Recruit

Find out more about our recruitment processes here.

• Applying

• Sifting

• Interview

• Interview Results & Feedback

• Reserve List

• Near Miss

• Civil Service Grades

• We are a DCS, RIS & GPTWV employer

• Reasonable Adjustments

How to Apply

Find out everything you need to know before applying here.

You must review the following information from the MHCLG Career's Site before submitting your application. This step is essential to ensure your eligibility for the role and that your application is completed correctly.

• Security Clearance Requirements

• Civil Service Nationality Requirements

• Right to Work

• Artificial Intelligence

• Civil Service Code and Recruitment Principles

• CV Declaration

• Sponsorships

• Salary and Grade

• Existing Civil Servants

• Conflict of Interest

• Location and Flexible Working

• Fixed Term Contracts

• Internal Fraud Database - Internal Fraud Register

• Appeals and Complaints

• Conflict of Interest

Security Clearance Requirements

National Office:

London Office: + CTC

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

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 counter-terrorist 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

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 : Emily Gower
• Email : ppoteam@communities.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@communities.gov.uk

Further information

If you are unsure about any part of the process or require additional information about the post to enable you to progress your application, you should speak to the Resourcing team - recruitment@communities.gov.uk. Candidates can appeal at any stage of the recruitment process if they believe there has been:

a procedural irregularity

an infringement of the Civil Service equal opportunities policy

exceptional circumstances which were not notified to the interview panel which might have affected performance on the day.

It is important to note that these are appeals about the process not the decision. In the first instance, an appeal should be directed to the MHCLG Resourcing Hub at recruitment@communities.gov.uk.

If the MHCLG Resourcing Hub is unable to satisfactorily resolve your complaint, you may contact put your complaint in writing to the Civil Service Commission, Room G8,1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ or by email to: info@csc.gov.uk