DD Defra Major Projects Portfolio and Project Delivery
Job summary
The Portfolio Directorate acts as the central hub for delivery across the Defra Group, fulfilling the responsibilities of the Chief Project Delivery Officer. It provides strategic leadership, oversight, and coordination of major projects and programmes, with deputy and cross Government representation requirements at key departmental and governmental forums.
The Deputy Director for Portfolio and Project Delivery is responsible for ensuring the Defra Portfolio delivers against the Department’s Outcome Delivery Framework. This includes providing assurance to ExCo on delivery performance, analysing delivery data and producing clear reporting, and escalating risks or issues where necessary. The role also plays a leading role in the Project Delivery Profession, ensuring teams are set up for success and supported with strong professional standards and capability development.
This is a critical and highly influential role, spanning significant responsibility. It requires exceptional leadership and stakeholder engagement skills, operating across a complex system of senior officials and delivery partners.
The postholder also contributes as a senior leader within the Project Delivery profession, both within Defra (c.800 project delivery professionals) and across government, helping shape future capability, optimise resourcing models, and support delivery of Defra and the governments long term ambitions.
Job description
General overview
Defra’s work lies at the heart of the Government’s mission to grow the economy and raise living standards. From reforming the water system to ensuring food security, showing how economic development and nature restoration work hand in hand, supporting farming profitability, resetting our trading relationship with the EU, Defra’s work is foundational to our economic way of life and to our national security and resilience. Our major programmes deliver much of this work. Defra is a ministerial department that is supported by and works collaboratively across a large number of agencies and public bodies, other government departments and external partners.
DD Defra Major Projects Portfolio and Project Delivery
This role sits at the heart of all our major programmes and the outcomes they seek to achieve. You will manage teams directly supporting major programmes, from set up, to tracking and assuring delivery, getting involved in the full breadth of Defra's policy areas. Your remit encompasses leadership of the Project Delivery Centre of Expertise, which delivers three core services: Portfolio Management, Enabling Successful Delivery, and Project Delivery People and Profession.
The Directorate acts as the central hub for delivery across the Defra Group. It provides strategic leadership, oversight, and coordination of major projects and programmes, with deputy and cross Government representation requirements at key departmental and governmental forums. It influences and is highly visible, leading Defra’s overarching delivery governance, which reports in at Senior Executive level and to the Permanent Secretary.
The position leads Defra’s Major Projects Portfolio. You will have oversight of a large and complex major delivery portfolio, with a whole life cost of c£55bn. A significant number are included in the GMPP, along with the extended portfolio and pipeline of major delivery across the Defra Group.
Key responsibilities include establishing and conducting effective second and third-line assurance for programmes within the portfolio, helping them to course correct and keep delivery on track. The Setting Up for Success service recognises that initiating programmes requires wide participation and engagement, and has received excellent feedback. It ensures new programmes and projects receive early support, strong foundations, and the right conditions to deliver.
The postholder holds the title of Deputy Head of Project Delivery Profession, leading our profession with c800 members in core Defra, strong cross government connections and significant opportunities to influence and support the project delivery profession across the whole of Whitehall.
This is a critical, visible and highly influential role, spanning significant responsibility. It requires exceptional leadership and stakeholder engagement skills, operating across a complex system of senior officials and delivery partners.
Person specification
Essential Criteria
- Significant experience leading complex major projects or portfolios, including GMPP, and experience of assurance, including independent reviews and implementation of recommendations.
- Demonstrated ability to lead Executive-level engagement, providing strategic insight to senior boards and influencing a wide range of senior stakeholders to support effective decision-making and delivery.
- Ability to generate high quality portfolio, programme (or equivalent) insight and analysis to drive prioritisation, decision making, escalation, and reporting.
- Investing in people. Demonstrable experience building and leading people, including capability development, workforce planning, interacting with professional standards and pride in your profession.
- Knowledge and experience of government delivery. May include knowledge of frameworks, working with NISTA delegations, HMT controls, and delivery standards and/or other external partners.
- Excellent leadership, communication, and judgement, with the ability to operate at pace, manage complexity, and set strategic direction for delivery across a system.
- Professional Qualification: Must hold relevant professional qualifications in project, programme, portfolio, or change management, such as Project Management, MSP, PRINCE2, Change Management, Portfolio Management, PLP, MPLA, or equivalent.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Communicating and Influencing
- Delivering at Pace
- Leadership
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £86,000, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £24,914 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).Whatever your role, we take your career and development seriously, and want to enable you to build a really successful career with the Department and wider Civil Service. It is crucial that our employees have the right skills to develop their careers and meet the challenges ahead. You’ll benefit from a wide range of training and development opportunities, regular performance and development reviews to ensure this development is ongoing. As a Civil Service employee, you’ll be entitled to a large range of benefits.
This includes:
- 25 days annual leave on entry, increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years’ service. This is in addition to 8 public holidays and one privilege day to mark the King's birthday.
- A competitive contributory pension scheme that you can enter as soon as you join where we will make a significant contribution to the cost of your pension; where your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken; and where your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire;
- Flexible working patterns including part-time or time-term working and access to Flexible Working Schemes allowing you to vary your working day as long as you work your total hours;
- Generous paid maternity and paternity leave which is notably more than the statutory minimum offered by many other employers;
- Interest-free loans allowing you to spread the cost of an annual travel season ticket or a new bicycle;
- The opportunity to use onsite facilities including fitness centres and staff canteens (where applicable); and
- Occupational sick pay.
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.This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
You will be assessed on the following behaviours throughout the selection process: Empowering & inspiring leadership, Seeing the big picture, Communicating & Influencing and Delivery
Application Process
As part of the application process, candidates are asked to complete a CV and Personal Statement (no more than 1250 words) on how your relevant skills and experience meet the essential criteria. Completed applications must be submitted no later than the closing date of 23:55, Sunday 16th august 2026.
Sift
A sift will be conducted against the key criteria in the essential criteria and will assess your experience. Applications will be assessed by the selection panel and shortlisted. (please note: feedback is not given at the shortlist stage)
Assessment - Staff Engagement Exercise
This assessment will not result in a pass or fail decision. Rather, it is designed to support the panel’s decision-making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview.
Full details of the assessment process will be provided to shortlisted candidates at the earliest opportunity. For further information regarding the assessments please visit - https://scs-assessments.co.uk/
Interviews
You will be asked to attend a panel interview, in order to have a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the essential criteria for the role. As part of the interview, we may ask you to prepare and present a short presentation or undertake a practical desktop exercise. This will be confirmed in the interview invitation. We will also ask some strengths-based questions.
Interviews will be held face to face in London.
Informal chat
Shortlisted candidates will have the opportunity for an informal chat, further details will be provided to those who progress to this stage.
Reserve lists
A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, which the Civil Service may use to fill future suitable vacancies across government for candidates who are considered appointable following interview.
Other Information
Please let us know what adjustments we can put in place to help you through the recruitment process if you are disabled.
Candidates who pass the interview criteria but are not offered a post may be kept on a reserve list for 12 months and may be offered similar roles across the department.
Defra is committed to ‘name blind’ sifting. That means that identifying characteristics such as your name, gender, age, or address are removed from your application until after shortlisting for interview has taken place.
What are the Success Profiles?
The Success Profile Framework is being introduced to attract and retain people of talent and experience from a range of sectors and all walks of life, in line with the commitment in the Civil Service Workforce Plan.
For this role you will be assessed against Experience and Behaviours.
How we will assess experience:
We will be looking at your experience, career history and achievements that are relevant to the role.
Some of the assessment methods which will be used to understand your experience include:
- 1250 personal statement and CV (2 pages max)
- Staff Engagement Exercise
- Final Interview
How we will assess behaviours:
We will be assessing a number of behaviours throughout the application process.
The behaviours that we will assess are:
- Leadership
- Seeing the big picture
- Communicating & Influencing
- Delivering at Pace
For more information about Success Profiles, please follow the link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles
Timeline
Please note that this timeline is indicative at this stage and could be subject to change. The anticipated timetable is as follows:
Application Closing Date: 23:55, Sunday 16th August 2026
Shortlisting Outcomes: W/C 31st August 2026
Assessments: W/C 7th September 2026
Interview: W/C 21st September 2026
Final Outcomes: W/C 5th October 2026
Candidates are asked to note the above timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process as it may
not be possible to offer any alternative dates for assessments or Interviews.
Office Attendance
Successful applicants currently employed by the hiring Defra organisation for this post may choose to remain in their current contractual location or may choose to change contractual location to one of those listed above. This should be discussed and agreed 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 organisational locations 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.
Defra includes the core department, APHA, RPA, Cefas and VMD.
This role will require regular travel nationally and to London.
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 at: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
- Complete the ‘assistance required’ section in the ‘personal information’ page of your application form to provide information we should be aware of that will enable us to support you further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.
What reasonable adjustments can be made if I have a disability?
Defra is a Disability Confident Leader and therefore part of the Disability Confident Scheme. For further information on the Disability confident scheme, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/disability-confident-campaign
If you have a disability defined by the Equality Act 2010, you are eligible to be considered for the Disability Confident Scheme. In order to qualify, you must have a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term negative effect on your ability to carry out normal day to day activities.
For further information regarding disabilities covered under the equality act please visit the website.
Further Information
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact: scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
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
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 : SCS Recruitment Team
- Email : scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Recruitment team
Further information
Civil Service Commission Selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.In accordance with the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles, our recruitment and selection processes are underpinned by the requirement of appointment on the basis of merit by fair and open competition. 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; scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission at info@csc.gov.uk and more information can be found at www.civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk
Attachments
DEFRA - SCS1 469690 - DD Defra Major Projects Portfolio and Project Delivery.pptx Opens in new window (pdf, 1238kB)469690 - Assessibility pack Opens in new window (docx, 38kB)Salary range
- £86,000 - £117,800 per year