Programme Support Officer

Job summary

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

1. joining up public sector services
2. harnessing the power of AI for the public good
3. strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
4. elevating leadership and investing in talent
5. funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
6. committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.

We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.

The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.

Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need.

Please note

Former DSIT recruitment campaigns are continuing as usual, but candidates should be aware that following the Government’s announcement on the changes to some civil service departments, roles will be subject to the machinery of government moves and will ultimately be in one of the new departments. We will provide more information if you are selected for a role. This work remains of high importance to the civil service, and we thank you for your continued interest.

Job description

About the team

GOV.UK One Login is the new straightforward, secure way to access a range of government digital services and is a critical programme within DSIT. The Programme Management Office (PMO) plays a vital role in supporting the successful delivery of GOV.UK One Login.

We work collaboratively with teams across the department, providing the business support, governance and operational coordination that enable our colleagues to deliver their objectives.

Our team is responsible for a wide range of activities, including recruitment, onboarding and offboarding, finance, governance, business planning and stakeholder engagement. We are committed to continuous improvement, working together to develop efficient processes that support high-quality delivery in an Agile environment.

We're a supportive and inclusive team that values collaboration, innovation and professional development. You'll have the opportunity to build your skills, broaden your experience and contribute to work that makes a real difference.

Job Summary

Are you an experienced programme or project support professional who enjoys keeping complex work organised, coordinating activity and helping teams deliver their priorities?

We're looking for a Programme Support Officer to join our Programme Management Office. This is a varied and rewarding role where you'll provide high-quality business, programme and operational support across a range of activities that are essential to the successful delivery of GOV.UK One Login.

You'll work closely with programme managers, delivery teams, corporate functions and senior stakeholders across the department. You'll coordinate recruitment and workforce activity, support financial and governance processes, maintain programme information and reporting, manage shared inboxes and contribute to the delivery of business priorities.

You'll also take an active role in improving the way the PMO operates, identifying opportunities to streamline processes, improve information and strengthen the support we provide to programme teams.

This is a role for someone who is organised, proactive and comfortable working in a fast-paced programme environment, managing competing priorities and taking ownership of their work.

Person specification

Key Responsibilities

As a Programme Support Officer, you'll provide essential business, programme and operational support to the Programme Management Office, helping to ensure that the programme has the people, information, processes and governance arrangements needed to deliver its priorities effectively.

You'll work closely with programme managers, delivery teams, corporate colleagues and senior stakeholders across DSIT. You'll coordinate a range of activities, maintain accurate programme information, monitor actions and deadlines, and ensure that important business processes are completed efficiently and to a high standard.

You'll be expected to work with a degree of independence, use your judgement to manage competing priorities and proactively identify issues or opportunities for improvement.

Your responsibilities will include:

Programme and Project Support

• Provide day-to-day programme support to programme and project managers, helping to coordinate activity and maintain progress against agreed priorities and deadlines.
• Maintain programme trackers, action logs, risk and issue information and other programme records.
• Coordinate information and actions across different teams, ensuring that owners are identified and deadlines are understood.
• Monitor progress against key activities and proactively follow up outstanding actions.
• Support programme planning, workshops, meetings and other delivery activity.
• Identify issues, dependencies or delays and escalate these appropriately.

Governance

• Coordinate programme governance meetings, including scheduling meetings, managing attendance, preparing agendas and coordinating papers.
• Ensure papers and supporting information are collated, quality checked and circulated within agreed timescales.
• Record decisions, actions and key points accurately.
• Maintain governance action and decision logs and proactively follow up with action owners.
• Track actions through to completion and provide updates to programme leads.
• Support the preparation of information for programme boards, senior leadership meetings and other governance forums.
• Maintain clear and accessible governance records and documentation.

Recruitment, Onboarding and Workforce Support

• Coordinate recruitment activity across the programme, working with hiring managers, recruitment teams and relevant stakeholders.
• Maintain recruitment trackers and provide updates on vacancies, recruitment stages and outstanding actions.
• Coordinate interviews, assessments and associated administration.
• Support pre-employment activity and ensure recruitment actions are progressed within agreed timescales.
• Coordinate onboarding activity to ensure new starters have a smooth and effective joining experience.
• Support offboarding activity, ensuring relevant actions are completed when colleagues leave the programme.
• Maintain accurate workforce information and provide updates to programme managers where required.

Finance and Business Management

• Support programme financial processes, including purchase orders, invoices and financial queries.
• Maintain accurate financial trackers and records.
• Work with budget holders and finance colleagues to monitor expenditure, commitments and outstanding financial activity.
• Support financial reporting and provide accurate information to programme managers.
• Track financial actions and deadlines and escalate issues where these may affect delivery.
• Support wider business management activity across the PMO as required.

Management Information and Reporting

• Maintain accurate programme management information, trackers and reporting records.
• Collect and consolidate information from programme and delivery teams.
• Support the production of regular programme reports, updates and management information.
• Quality check information and identify gaps, inconsistencies or outdated information.
• Provide timely and accurate information to support programme planning and decision-making.
• Maintain clear records and audit trails for key programme activities.

Business Planning

• Support the programme team in coordinating delivery against the agreed business plan and programme priorities.
• Maintain trackers showing progress against key activities, milestones and deliverables.
• Gather updates from colleagues and identify areas where activity is delayed or requires further action.
• Support the preparation of business planning updates and reporting for programme leads and senior stakeholders.
• Monitor upcoming deadlines and proactively highlight risks, dependencies or actions requiring attention.

Shared Inbox and Operational Support

• Manage shared programme inboxes, monitoring incoming requests and ensuring they are triaged and responded to promptly.
• Respond to routine enquiries and direct more complex requests to the appropriate colleague or team.
• Monitor outstanding requests and follow up where action or information is required.
• Maintain appropriate records of enquiries and actions.
• Identify recurring queries or issues and contribute to improving processes and guidance.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Build and maintain effective working relationships with programme colleagues, corporate teams and senior stakeholders.
• Coordinate activity across multiple teams and ensure colleagues understand actions, responsibilities and deadlines.
• Communicate clearly and professionally with stakeholders at different levels.
• Provide regular updates on progress and outstanding activity.
• Use judgement when dealing with sensitive, urgent or competing requests.
• Work collaboratively to resolve issues and remove barriers to delivery.

Prioritisation and Delivery

• Manage a varied workload across several areas of programme support.
• Prioritise activity according to business requirements, risks and deadlines.
• Work independently with minimal supervision while recognising when advice or escalation is required.
• Respond effectively to changing priorities and urgent requests.
• Maintain the quality and accuracy of work while working to tight deadlines.
• Proactively identify potential delays and take action to keep activity moving.

Continuous Improvement

• Identify opportunities to improve PMO processes, systems and ways of working.
• Develop and maintain templates, guidance, trackers and processes where these improve consistency or efficiency.
• Review existing processes and suggest practical improvements.
• Work with colleagues to implement agreed improvements.
• Share learning and good practice across the PMO.
• Contribute to creating efficient, user-focused and consistent programme support services.

Essential Criteria

To be considered for this role, applicants must be able to demonstrate clear and relevant experience against the following criteria:

1. Programme or project environment

Experience working in a Programme Management Office (PMO), project support office, business management team or similar programme delivery environment.

This should include providing direct support to programme or project delivery activity rather than solely providing general administrative support.

2. Governance

Experience coordinating programme or project governance activities, including organising meetings, preparing and coordinating papers, maintaining action and decision logs and tracking actions through to completion.

3. Recruitment and workforce support

Experience supporting recruitment, workforce planning, onboarding or offboarding activity within a corporate, programme or project environment, including coordinating activity across multiple teams or stakeholders.

4. Management information and financial tracking

Experience maintaining management information, programme reporting, trackers or financial information to support programme delivery, planning, monitoring and decision-making.

5. Prioritisation and delivery

Demonstrable experience of managing multiple competing priorities and delivering accurate, high-quality work to tight deadlines with minimal supervision.

Applicants should be able to demonstrate how they have prioritised their workload and maintained delivery when faced with changing or competing demands.

6. Stakeholder management

Experience building and maintaining effective working relationships with senior stakeholders and colleagues across different teams, including coordinating activity, communicating progress and resolving issues or barriers to delivery.

7. Continuous improvement

Experience identifying and implementing improvements to business processes, systems or ways of working, demonstrating how these improvements have increased efficiency, improved quality or strengthened programme support.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience working within the Civil Service or another large public sector organisation.
• Experience supporting a digital, technology or Agile programme.
• Experience working with programme or project management tools and systems.
• Experience supporting financial management, including purchase orders, invoices or budget monitoring.
• An understanding of programme governance, assurance and reporting arrangements.
• Experience producing management information or reports for senior stakeholders.

We're looking for someone who is:

• Organised, proactive and able to take ownership of their work.
• Comfortable working in a complex programme environment with changing priorities.
• Confident coordinating activity across multiple teams and stakeholders.
• Able to work independently and use sound judgement.
• Detail-focused, with a strong commitment to accuracy.
• Confident communicating with colleagues and stakeholders at different levels.
• Able to manage competing demands and deliver to tight deadlines.
• Interested in improving processes and finding more efficient ways of working.
• Collaborative and committed to providing a high-quality service to programme colleagues.

Why join us?

At DSIT, we're committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive. We support flexible and hybrid working wherever possible and recognise the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

You'll benefit from a supportive team environment, opportunities to learn from experienced colleagues and access to a wide range of learning and development opportunities. We'll work with you to help shape your development and, where possible, tailor your responsibilities as your skills and experience grow.

This is an opportunity to develop your career while supporting work that delivers meaningful outcomes for citizens and public services across the UK.

If you have any questions about the role or would like to discuss whether it's the right fit for you, we'd encourage you to get in touch before applying.

Behaviours

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

• Delivering at Pace
• Changing and Improving
• Managing a Quality Service

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £36,735, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £10,642 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).

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
• A hybrid office/home based working model where staff will spend a norm of 40-60% of their time in the office (minimum of 40%) over a month with flex dependent on balancing business and individual need.

Office attendance

The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.

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 and Experience.

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Please use your personal statement (in no more than 500 words) to provide an example of your experience working within a PMO, project support office, business management team or similar programme delivery environment. Your example should clearly explain your role, the programme/project you supported, the activities you were responsible for and the impact of your contribution.

Please note - the CV incorporated into the application form is for information purposes only and will not be scored.

Applications will be sifted on personal statement.

The interview will consist of behaviour questions.

After submission of the first stage of your application you will be invited to complete a Civil Service Numerical Test and Civil Service Work Strengths Test. If you successfully pass the test, you will be invited to complete the final stage of the application.

Please complete the online tests as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours is recommended), the closing date for the tests is 23:55 on 06/09/2026. If you fail to complete the online test before the deadline your application will be withdrawn. Guidance for the test will be available when you are invited to take the test. The tests are administered online and accessed via the CS Jobs website.

Candidates will need to pass the Civil Service Work Strengths Test and the Civil Service Numerical Test before submitting the full application.

There will be maintenance for Civil Service online assessment on Sunday 30th August, 2026. This means you will be unable to access the online tests between BST (London) 4pm-Midnight / ET (US Eastern) 11am-7pm.

Any progress you have made will be saved, and you will be able to continue once the tests are available again.

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Further Information

Former DSIT recruitment campaigns are continuing as usual, but candidates should be aware that following the Government’s announcement on the changes to some civil service departments, roles will be subject to the machinery of government moves and will ultimately be in one of the new departments. We will provide more information if you are selected for a role. This work remains of high importance to the civil service, and we thank you for your continued interest.

Reasonable Adjustment

We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.

Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DSIT Candidate Guidance. A DSIT Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.

We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.

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

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

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

A location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.

Candidates who meet the minimum benchmark may be placed on a Reserve List for consideration for similar roles, including those at a lower grade. Candidates who narrowly miss the benchmark and are not placed on the Reserve List may still be considered for an offer in a similar role at a lower grade.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology 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.

DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

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

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.

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.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.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 : Tilly Jones
• Email : tilly.jones@dsit.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance dsitresourcing.GRS@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages at: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/contact-us/