Project Management Office Manager - Office for Life Sciences delivery

Job summary

At DSIT we’re all about improving people’s lives by maximising the potential of science & technology.

We accelerate innovation, investment and productivity through world-class science, research and development.

We use technology for good by ensuring new and existing technologies are safely developed and deployed across the UK, with the benefits more widely shared.

We are driving forward a modern digital government which gives citizens a more satisfying experience and their time back.

We do all this to enable the Government’s 5 national missions: kickstarting economic growth, making Britain a clean energy superpower, taking back our streets, breaking down barriers to opportunity and building an NHS fit for the future.

Above all, we focus on improving people’s lives. Whether it’s researching new treatments for disease, developing better batteries, reducing burdens through better public services, keeping children safe online, and much more, outcomes for citizens are at the heart of what we do.

Our Inclusive Environment

We offer flexible working benefits, employee well-being support and a great pension. We are enormously proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We support candidates with adjustments throughout our recruitment process. Information about disability confidence and just some examples of the adjustments that you can request can be found in the reasonable adjustment section below.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Find Out More

We regularly run events where you can find out more about the department and tips for the application and interview process. You can sign up for upcoming events here: https://forms.office.com/e/Jae3B4w7xm

You can also follow our LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/dsitcareers/

Job description

The Office for Life Sciences (OLS) is a three-way joint unit spanning the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). This is a critical, high profile role at the centre of bringing those three departments - and their resources - together to drive delivery and real-world impact.

The role offers an exciting opportunity to grip and drive delivery across OLS, including our direct responsibilities within the Life Sciences Sector Plan and the 10 Year Health Plan, alongside oversight of a >£1.5bn programme budget and three separate complex but closely aligned administration budgets.

In a typical week, this role involves advising the OLS Senior Leadership Team on the most significant delivery risks and opportunities across our Life Sciences Sector Plan and 10 Year Health Plan commitments; consolidating and assessing our complex financial position across three different departments into a single, coherent view with clear recommendations; and working closely with OLS policy teams to enable effective, high impact project delivery. All of this is focused on achieving our headline ambition of making the UK the third leading life sciences economy in Europe by 2035.

You will work closely with our Head of Governance and System Delivery who provides the equivalent grip across the system ‘owned’ LSSP/10YHP commitments. Situated within the OLS Strategy and Delivery Unit, this role will be a critical part of the leadership responsible for ensuring the Government delivers on our public ambitions, and enabling life sciences innovation that will fundamentally change the way we treat (and cure disease), as well as grow the economy.

We are a dynamic strategy, policy, and implementation unit, with the exciting role of bridging the gap between the private sector, government and the NHS, to support, grow and maintain the vital life sciences sector. In addition to taking a huge amount of pride in our work, we are a friendly, supportive, and inclusive team with a strong and vibrant team ethos.

This role is the Head of PMO (OLS Delivery) and sits within the Strategy and Delivery unit within the OLS. We are looking for a motivated and proactive individual who is confident with project delivery, finance and resource management and able to be a leading voice within a fast paced and high forming muti-disciplinary team. With a successful SR settlement of over £1.5bn, there is an opportunity to refresh and refocus OLS’s programme governance to ensure a successful SR spending period.

The OLS Delivery (PMO) team consists of a G7 and SEO focused on OLS delivery (including financial oversight) and a G7, SEO and HEO focused on system wide delivery. Combined they provide all grip and formal governance structures for UK Life Sciences ambitions.

Person specification

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership of OLS Internal Governance

OLS’s internal governance is currently led through the internal OLS Programme Board attended by SLT and policy leads as relevant to sign off progress against our ministerial public facing commitments. This explicitly includes the assurance of the 11 OLS owned LSSP/10YHP commitments, alongside additional commitments as they arise, and you will have freedom to build an appropriate infrastructure to provide oversight required. You will lead the secretariat including production of high-quality agenda/papers to drive decision-making across the directorate and will work in partnership with our system wide, Life Sciences Delivery Board function (which brings in SROs from different government departments), to provide that assurance to our 3 Director Generals and tri-lateral ministerial team.

You will be responsible for oversight of the OLS internal reporting for progress, against defined KPIs, working with our analysis team, identifying risks, mitigations and opportunities for alignment. As a newly formed trilateral unit, there are opportunities to be creative and build on what exists to ensure we are fully set up for success in delivery, including developing/implementing practical solutions

Oversight of OLS Project management disciplines, including finance and resourcing
As a joint unit, spanning three departments, with different budget approaches and resourcing environments, this role is crucial for providing the Strategy and Delivery Unit, and the OLS Director with sound up to date reporting and advice on next steps.

You will be responsible for working with our Finance Business Partners in DSIT, DHSC and DBT to ensure proper financial grip, leading on admin/programme forecasts, monitoring spend & escalating key risks in a timely manner.

This role is also critical to ensuring we team have a ‘one OLS’ approach to departmental admin wherever possible (including in Finance, HR, Commercial and Legal). There are significant opportunities for this role to reduce the administrative burden of the directorate that can at times be duplicative across departments. Getting this right is crucial for all of OLS and has vast opportunities for immediate impact. You will lead on monitoring headcount against agreed allocations, on/offboarding of OLS staff.

Team and Directorate Leadership
This role will have direct management of an SEO. The Strategy and Delivery Unit team totals approximately 15 people and we work collaboratively across portfolios to support our collective priorities – as one of the Grade 7 leads in this team, you will play a leadership role in aligning priorities across the team and ensuring these are reflective of and reflected to the wider Directorate.
As a line manager, you will be responsible for working with your members of staff to define their objectives, as well as managing their development and performance.

Essential Criteria:

• Experience in managing complex and high-profile portfolios, building process to lead a range of stakeholders, and able to communicate clearly and effectively to meet tight and fast-moving deadlines.
• Knowledge of PPM frameworks and methodologies; Ability to confidently advise others on how to tailor and apply them in practice and Experience in developing and maintaining PPM standards and controls within a cross-functional team.
• Confident in engaging, facilitating and negotiating with senior individuals, building strong relationships and effective process to advance shared objectives.
• Able to identify key risks and opportunities across a broad policy portfolio, utilising networks and interrogating data to consider the most salient points and issues.
• A strong and thoughtful leader of people, with the ability to support and build staff both within their direct line management chain, and outside of it.

Desirable Criteria:

Candidates may hold one or more of the below qualifications or equivalent experience:

o APM Project Management Qualification
o Managing Successful Programmes Practitioner
o Management of Risk Practitioner
o Project Leadership Programme
o PRINCE 2
o Or an equivalent recognised Project Management Qualification

Experience of running governance forums.

Experience in managing government finances with supporting qualifications.

Behaviours

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

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service

Technical skills

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

• https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65561f36046ed4000d8b9a33…
• Competency: Budgeting and cost managementDescription: Budgeting and cost management is the ability to estimate costs, produce a budget and control forecasts and actual spend against budget.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £54,415, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £15,764 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

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.

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, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

A virtual drop in session will be hosted to share information about the opportunity and to allow candidates to ask any questions at 16:00 on 22/04/26. Please contact ellie.charsley@officeforlifesciences.gov.uk for invitation details.

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 1000 words) which should be aligned to and demonstrate how you meet the skills and experience set out in the essential criteria, and where relevant, desirable criteria, detailed in the job description.

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

In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the personal statement only.

Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

The interview will consist of behaviour, technical and strength-based questions.

Interviewees will be asked to deliver a presentation; further details will be provided nearer the time.

A reserve list of candidates may be kept for up to 12 months.

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Further Information

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/Disclosure Scotland 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.

For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email Info@disclosurescotland.co.uk

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 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 : Ellie Charsley
• Email : ellie.charsley@officeforlifesciences.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 DSITrecruitment.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: Click here to visit Civil Service Commission/Complaints.

Attachments

DSIT T&Cs v1.2 Opens in new window (docx, 179kB)