Senior Project Manager

Job summary

Do you thrive on leading complex digital projects that make a real difference, driving delivery from vision through to successful, benefits‑focused outcomes?
Can you bring teams together, tackle risks head‑on, and influence senior stakeholders to keep high‑profile projects on track and delivering results?

If so, we would love to hear from you!

APHA is a brilliant place to work where our people feel valued, have a voice and can be their authentic selves. We value difference and diversity, because it helps us be more innovative and make better decisions.

We are dedicated to being an inclusive employer, offering equitable opportunities for all individuals. Our goal is to build a diverse workforce, and we hope to attract applications from all backgrounds and underrepresented groups.

Job description

We have an exciting opportunity for five Senior Project Managers to join our Project Delivery and Portfolio Management team. As a Senior Project Manager, you will lead and oversee the delivery of moderate to high‑complexity projects, managing project teams on a day‑to‑day basis. You will be accountable for achieving clearly defined objectives within agreed time, cost and quality constraints, and play a key role in project governance and stakeholder engagement to ensure agreed outputs are delivered and benefits realised.

We are currently offering:

• 3 x Fixed Term Appointment/Loan/Secondment for 18 months
• 1 x Fixed Term Appointment/Loan/Secondment until 30/09/2027
• 1 x Fixed Term Appointment/Loan/Secondment until 28/02/2027

Appointments will be awarded in merit order, with the 3 highest‑scoring candidates offered 18‑month Fixed Term Appointments, the fourth‑ranked candidate offered a Fixed Term Appointment until 30/09/2027 and the fifth‑ranked candidate offered a Fixed Term Appointment until 28/02/2027. There may be opportunities to extend or make these positions permanent.

These roles sit across three APHA programmes, each with a distinct focus and delivery context.

Digital & Operational Services (DOS) Programme

(2 x Fixed Term Appointment/Loan/Secondment for 18 months, 1 x Fixed Term Appointment/Loan/Secondment until 30/09/2027)

The DOS Programme delivers digital and infrastructure improvements, modernising systems to strengthen cybersecurity, meet Government and Defra policy requirements, and improve user experience and operational efficiency. The programme delivers cross‑cutting change initiated by Defra Group Corporate Services (DGCS) and Group Infrastructure Operations (GIO).

Borders and Trade Programme

(1 x Fixed Term Appointment/Loan/Secondment for 18 months)

This role sits within APHA’s Borders and Trade Programme, which is preparing the organisation for changes arising from the UK and the EU’s commitment to pursue a new Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) agreement. The programme supports EU reset activity by delivering changes to systems, processes and ways of working as negotiations progress. You will work under the direction of Programme Managers to deliver work that enables the safe trade and movement of animals, plants and agrifood products, whilst upholding high standards of biosecurity and food safety.

Delivering Sustainable Futures (DSF) Programme

(1 x Fixed Term Appointment/Loan/Secondment until 28/02/2027)

DSF is APHA’s core programme of transformation activity. The programme will help us become ‘One APHA’ by modernising and unifying how we work. It’s about making customer and colleague interactions easier, freeing up our people from lower-value tasks, and having better intelligence to deliver excellent services for our customers.

These roles involve a wide range of work including, but not limited to, the following:

Project Leadership & Delivery

You will lead, shape and deliver complex projects, applying best‑practice project management to achieve agreed outcomes within defined time, cost and quality constraints, providing clear direction to project teams to ensure delivery remains on track. You will ensure appropriate change management is integrated into project delivery to support the successful adoption of outcomes. You will also provide support, guidance and coaching to project teams, promoting personal development and effective team performance.

Planning, Controls & Performance

You will translate strategic objectives into clear delivery plans with defined milestones, maintain effective project controls and use digital tools and data analysis to understand progress against plans. You will use data to forecast outcomes, identify issues early and take mitigating action, providing clear insight to sponsors and governance forums to enable timely, informed decision making.

Benefits Realisation

You will deliver agreed project outcomes and benefits, ensuring a suitable Benefits Realisation Strategy is in place. You will monitor long‑term benefit delivery against the approved business case, or equivalent, throughout the project lifecycle.

Budget & Resource Management

You will manage project budgets, monitoring expenditure against forecasts and working with delivery teams to control spend effectively. You will work with the resourcing function to secure appropriate project resources, and lead and manage those assigned.

Stakeholder Management

You will identify, build and manage effective relationships with key stakeholders, ensuring appropriate senior‑level engagement and acting as the primary point of contact for senior and strategic stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle.

Risk, Governance & Assurance

You will identify and manage risks, issues, dependencies and interdependencies, putting appropriate mitigations in place and escalating where necessary. You will collaborate with related projects to manage interdependencies and support effective governance and assurance through clear reporting and engagement with reviews.

Person specification

We are looking for candidates who can demonstrate the following skills and experience:

• Proven experience delivering medium to large‑scale digital or technical projects in complex, fast‑paced environments, including managing risk, monitoring project budgets, and delivering within agreed constraints to ensure value for money and sustainable delivery.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the ability to explain complex issues clearly and confidently to technical and non‑technical audiences, engage senior stakeholders, and build positive working relationships.
• Experience delivering projects using both Agile and Waterfall methodologies, applying common digital project management tools (e.g. Jira, MS Project, Asana or similar) and Microsoft 365 to support collaborative working.
• Ability to manage workload and competing priorities effectively, analyse information to inform decisions and deliver work independently and as part of a team.

Learning and Development

Everyone in APHA is supported to develop their skills and capabilities. When you join the Directorate, you will be welcomed into your new team through an induction programme that will provide you with helpful information on the civil service, our work and our policies. Your line manager will also work with you to establish your priorities for the year, developing a performance, learning and development plan tailored to you and your role.

In return for your dedication, we will support your ongoing personal development through appropriate training. Inclusion, support and the development of our people matter to us. We aim to support the career and personal wellbeing of everyone in APHA.

Qualifications

A recognised portfolio, programme or project management qualification, i.e. Management of Portfolios, Managing Successful Programmes (MSP), Prince2, APM, Agile, Change Management or relevant equivalent experience. This role is aligned with the Government Project Delivery Capability Framework

Behaviours

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

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Leadership

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,375, Animal and Plant Health Agency 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.

Further benefits offered also include:

• 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 tailored to your role.

• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.

• Staff bonuses and recognition, salary sacrifice benefit options, and an employee discount scheme.

• Making it work for you - With so many flexible options, most people can find a work schedule to suit their circumstances.

These are just a few of our benefits we offer. To find out the full range of what we offer refer to the Information Pack attached for more detail.

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.

Stage 1

Application Process

You will be required to complete the following as part of your application:

• A CV submitted through an on-line tool accessed through the Civil Service Jobsite; there is no requirement to upload your personal CV.

• A 750-word Personal Statement.

• A Behaviour statement of 250-words for the lead behaviour, Leadership, following the Behaviour criteria outlined in the Success Profiles: Civil Service behaviours - GOV.UK framework for G7 positions.

CV Guidance

Your CV should consist of your career history, including any key achievements and your main responsibilities in each role and be no longer than 2 pages. Your CV will be used to provide further context on your Personal Statement and scored against the essential criteria.

Personal Statement Guidance

When completing your Personal Statement, please refer to the Person Specification, as your written evidence will be assessed against these criteria. You should clearly demonstrate how your skills and experience meet the requirements of the role, using examples drawn from your own experience. The structure and format of your Personal Statement is your choice and may include narrative, bullet points etc.

We encourage you to use the full 750-word allowance of the Personal Statement but not to exceed this limit.

You may choose to address each criteria separately; however, one narrative example may cover and evidence several criteria.

Should a high volume of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the Personal Statement only. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift and/or progressed straight to interview.

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

For further guidance and information on how to construct your application (CV, Personal Statement and Behaviours), you are encouraged to visit the Civil Service Careers website. How to write your CV , Civil Service Careers

Stage 2

Preparing for the interview

During the interview you will be assessed based on:

• The Behaviours specified in the Job Advert, following the Behaviour criteria outlined in the Success Profiles: Civil Service behaviours - GOV.UK framework for G7 positions.
• A selection of Strength based questions related to the role requirements. Following the Success Profiles: Strengths - GOV.UK framework. There is no expectation or requirement for you to prepare for the strengths-based questions in advance of the interview, though you may find it helpful to spend some time reflecting on what you enjoy doing and what you do well.
• Your previous experiences relevant to the role requirements outlined in the advert following the Success Profiles: Experience - GOV.UK framework.

Additionally, a presentation will be required to assess your experience.

If you are selected for interview, you will receive an electronic notification to your Civil Service Jobs account.

Upon receiving the interview invitation, please log into the system to schedule your interview slot in advance.

Interviews will be conducted via MS Teams, and a link will be provided in your interview invitation.

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

The interview

The interview will follow a blended approach and will last approximately 45 minutes.

A blended interview aims to be more of a conversation at interview, offering a more inclusive approach.

The Strength and Behaviour based questioning explores what the candidate can and has done, but also their potential.

Behavioural questions will explore what you have done in previous jobs or experiences as well as what you have achieved and/or learned.

Strength questions will explore what you enjoy and your motivations relevant to the job role.

This is an example of a strengths-based question:

“It is often said that the customer's needs should come first. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?”

After the interview

Once all the interviews have been conducted, candidates will be notified of the outcome by email. If you are successful at the interview stage, we will be in touch to offer you a role. Offers will be made in merit order.

Eligibility

Please take extra care to tick the correct boxes in the eligibility sections of your application form. We understand mistakes sometimes happen but if you contact us later than two working days (Monday-Friday) before the vacancy closes, we will not be able to reopen your application for you. If you do make a mistake, please contact us via: recruitment.sdd@apha.gov.uk using the subject line to insert appropriate wording for example – ‘Please re-open my application – [insert vacancy ref] & vacancy closing date [insert date]’

Reserve List

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

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.

Merit Lists

The FTA contracts are either for 18 months or until 30/09/2027 or 28/02/2027, as set out above.
Offers will be made in merit order, with the highest scoring candidates offered the longer contracts. All posts are advertised with the possibility of extension or permanency.

Salary

New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band.

Location

Please be aware that this role(s) will be contractually based in a Defra group workplace/office. The successful candidate is required to carry out all their duties from a UK location (excluding Northern Ireland) and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time.

For most candidates your hours of work will be a blend of working from an APHA workplace (specific to the team location) with working at home.

As part of the pre-employment process for this post, 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.

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 organisation allocations 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.

The Weybridge site is a strategically important national asset due to its role as a reference laboratory supporting the Government’s response to national emergencies including disease outbreaks. For this reason all postholders based on the APHA Weybridge site must hold a valid Counter Terrorist Check (CTC) security clearance or above. It is up to each person applying for a post at APHA Weybridge to ensure they meet the residency criteria. Applicants must be currently resident in the UK & have at least three years continuous UK residency as this is a requirement to work at the Weybridge site.

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.

Criminal Record Check

If successful and transferring from another Government Department, a criminal record check maybe carried out.

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

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.

Loan and Fixed Term Appointments

Existing Civil Servants and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply but will only be considered on loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

This is a Fixed-term Appointment as a Senior Project Manager on the Project Delivery and Portfolio Management team because the post is not permanent. It is time limited due to a fixed funding period or as part of a specific project. The fixed-term will end when the funding or the project expires.

Your responsibilities will include those shown on the Responsibilities section of the advert. This post will therefore begin from the agreed start date and end on 28/02/2027, 30/09/27 or in 18 months, depending on the contract awarded.

NSV

All of these posts require the successful candidate to hold basic security clearance. Candidates posted to Weybridge 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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Medical

Successful candidates will be expected to have a medical.

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 : Recruitment Hub Team - Kay Edwards
• Email : recruitment.sdd@apha.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

Attachments

APHA Information Pack Nov 25 Opens in new window (pdf, 1869kB)