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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.

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 Government Cyber Unit's mission is to protect public services from cyber threats and digital resilience failures. We are working to achieve a step change in our cyber and digital resilience across government, through delivery of the Government Cyber Action Plan, and working closely with departments and national technical authorities including the National Cyber Security Centre to deliver. This is a challenging time to be working in cyber security and digital resilience, but we have an incredible opportunity to make a difference to people’s lives and promote national security by protecting the public services and national infrastructure they rely on. We work at the forefront of shaping the UK’s national response to emerging cyber and technology issues - from the increasingly complex range of state-sponsored cyber-attacks and supply chain compromises, through to the transformational benefits and security challenges of frontier AI and quantum computing.

We are committed to creating an inclusive and supportive working environment where people can learn, develop and do their best work. Continuous professional development and a focus on wellbeing is core to our unit culture. We welcome applications from candidates who share this ethos and are excited by our mission

As a Senior Executive Officer (SEO) Project Manager within the Government Cyber Unit, you will operate as a deployable project delivery professional, assigned to support priority projects across a diverse and complex portfolio. Working under the oversight of a Programme Manager, you will be embedded within delivery teams to provide structure, pace, and assurance to projects at varying levels of maturity.

You will be responsible for the effective coordination and delivery of project activities, ensuring alignment to departmental and cross-government objectives. This includes leading the planning, monitoring, and execution of work, maintaining delivery against agreed time, cost, and quality parameters, and rapidly establishing control in new or evolving environments.

A key part of the role is managing day-to-day delivery in often ambiguous or fast-paced settings. You will identify and mitigate risks, bring clarity to governance and reporting, and engage stakeholders across technical, policy, and operational domains. You will be expected to quickly assess project health, implement appropriate project management disciplines, and provide clear, concise updates to senior colleagues.

Given the deployable nature of the role, resilience, adaptability, and strong interpersonal skills are essential. You will need a robust grasp of project management principles and tools such as Agile, PRINCE2, or APM frameworks, and the ability to apply them pragmatically across a range of delivery contexts.

This role has been aligned to Project Manager 2 on the Project Delivery Capability Framework - Project Manager SEO - Government Project Delivery.

Person specification

Key activities include:

Delivery:

Create and lead the project/deployment to deliver the agreed outcomes within time, cost and quality constraints.

Project Management:

Day to day management and leadership of the project and the project team.
Provide effective leadership and management controls.
Set project controls.
Design the project structure and organisation appropriate to the project maturity level.
Set appropriate delivery methodologies.
Manage effective transition between project phases.

Business Case:

Develop and draft the Business Case, with input from specialists as necessary.

Budget:

Estimate project costs, create and monitor the project forecasts. Develop the budget and track delivery within budget.

Resource Management:

Identify skill requirements; and deploy and develop resources throughout the project lifecycle effectively.
Schedules and manages resources to deliver the project using data insights.
May work independently or with a small team.

Benefits Realisation:

Deliver the agreed Business Case benefits and outcomes.
Ensure benefits are identified, understood, measured, tracked and owned.
Ensure appropriate Benefits Realisation Strategy is in place, and monitor longer term delivery of benefits against the business case.

Stakeholder Management:

Identify and manage stakeholder relationships and need for senior level support. Manage internal and external relationships as appropriate.

Risks & Issues Management:

Identify and monitor project risks and issues.
Develop mitigating actions and escalate as appropriate.
Identify and work with related projects to manage interdependencies.

Governance:

Support effective governance and decision making.
Provide key reports and support effective governance and decision making.

Assurance:

Engage with assurance reviews and support action on recommendations.
Organise assurance processes such as gateway reviews, as required.

Change Management:

Ensure effective Change Management processes are in place to agree and document changes to deliverables as agreed with stakeholders.

Guidance & Support:

Provide support, guidance and coaching for the project team.
Show commitment to personal development.
Promote effective individual and team performance.

Project Performance & Controls:

Develop and maintain Project Plans.
Identify and set appropriate Project Controls.
Manage performance and report progress to sponsors.

Digital and data:

Use digital tools to analyse data to understand progress against the plan and takes mitigation actions and exploits opportunities.
Uses data to forecast future outcomes and address issues before they escalate.
Provide actionable data driven insights to ensure stakeholders are kept informed and engaged throughout the project lifecycle.

Essential Criteria

Practical experience of working in a project environment on medium to large sized projects/programmes, with an awareness of project objectives and wider strategic organisational context.
Can focus on detail and an ability to deliver quickly and effectively to tight deadlines.
Ability to work under pressure and adapt quickly to an ever-changing environment.
A track record of successfully collaborating with a range of partners including internal and external stakeholders.
Are proficient in developing, using and maintaining products in Excel, Word and PowerPoint.

Desirable Criteria

Must have or be willing to work towards (and successfully obtain) a recognised Practitioner qualification in Project Management, such as APM PMQ, Prince2, Agile PM.
If not already accredited, be willing to work towards Foundation or Practitioner level NISTA accreditation.
Experience in Cyber Security or IT projects/programmes.

Behaviours

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

Communicating and Influencing
Making Effective Decisions
Delivering at Pace
Working Together

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

Communicating and Influencing
Making Effective Decisions

Technical skills

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

Business Case Development
Risk and Issue Management

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £44,620, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £12,926 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, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV, personal statement and a number of behavioural statements.

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 describe how you meet the role essential criteria

Applications will be sifted on behavioural statements, CV, and personal statement.

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.

The link to the technical/professional competency framework that candidates will be assessed against, for their reference: https://projectdelivery.gov.uk/government-projects-academy/project-delivery-capability-framework/

Sift and interview dates

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

Further Information

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

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.

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.

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.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 : Sophie Broadbent
Email : sophie.broadbent@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 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)

Salary range

£44,620 - £52,090 per year