Head of Digital Project Delivery - G6

Job Description

The purpose of the role is to provide clear direction and focus for DTS’ diverse set of projects and workstreams, establishing and embedding the DTS project delivery operating model according to MoJ Project Delivery lifecycle principles, and visibly championing improved technology services for HMCTS staff and users. The role holder will need to operate in a culture of openness and honesty, demonstrating a commitment to change through involvement and empowerment, and by delivering results.

Key Responsibilities:

• Work collaboratively with other teams and key stakeholders and will be responsible for:
• Managing a number of independent and interdependent, large scale, complex or contentious projects, including the £30m multi-year DTS Infrastructure portfolio
• Bringing improved infrastructure solution to users across HMCTS courts and tribunals and for establishing appropriate internal governance and assurance processes, as well as meeting HMCTS, MoJ, Cabinet Office and HM Treasury controls
• Overseeing high-profile, large scale or complex digital and technology projects through the full project delivery lifecycle. These currently include (but are not limited to) implementing changes to HMCTS digital and technology services and equipping tribunals to enable implementation of Ministerial led priorities such as the Illegal Migration Act and Nationality and Borders Act provisions and the DTS-led, SR21 funded Infrastructure portfolio which prioritises and delivers new and upgraded technology infrastructure across the whole HMCTS estate.
• Chair of the DTS Capital Allocations Working Group ensuring robust financial management and prioritisation of DTS’ capital spend.
• Building and maintaining a strong, delivery-focused project delivery team, providing leadership and direction to larger multi-disciplinary teams to deliver successfully
• Providing direction and guidance on individual learning and development and overall capability building to the team liaising with the relevant professional leads across the organization and government to help ensure the team are benefitting from the latest learning, tools and products
• Taking lead responsibility across the projects for ensuring that stakeholder and partner interests are identified and addressed
• Ensuring strategic and operational risks and issues are identified, prioritised, assessed and mitigated.
• Provide strategic leadership in monitoring benefit delivery to maximise both cashable and non- cashable benefit
• Ensuring each project has clear success criteria and has agreed project controls and tolerances
• Quality Assuring dependency management process, including owning strategic or cross-cutting dependencies, work with senior stakeholders to resolve issues and act as a link between the projects and business governance
• Delivering results through others and effective negotiation at senior levels will be key, the role will develop and maintain strategic partnerships and relationships and influence others where there may be divergent and conflicting views
• The infrastructure budget (c£10m per annum) ensuring financial affordability and propriety considerations are met
• Building strong contractual relationships, particularly with Managed Service Providers to help ensure that projects meet time, cost and quality outcomes

Skills and Experience

• The ability to work with technical teams to help them develop plans, milestones for deliverables and provide oversight and guidance to individual project managers. You will be able to represent DTS as senior stakeholder meetings and have extensive and demonstrable experience in:
• Successful delivery of projects in a government/ Operational setting
• Evidence of communicating openly and constructively, to build strong, effective relationships
• The motivating of an inclusive team to high performance on delivery, focussing on user needs
• Operational delivery or strategy experience in the public sector, in a national scale service, or supporting digital and technology services
• Delivering results working through your immediate team and others in the wider organisation or suppliers
• Leading and motivating project teams, ensuring they are achieveing their delivery objectives, personally responsible for resolving competing and conflicting priorities
• Supporting effective decision making on delivery and prioritisation, with input from the Deputy Director for DDat Project Delivery, including analysis of the benefits and risks of different courses of action, particularly as they relate to impact on delivery of Infrastrucre objectives within ringfenced budgets and timeframes
• Analysis of problems and potential solutions that take into account views from differing stakeholders – ranging from commercial and legal to Cabinet office CDDO, senior operational partners and external suppliers at all levels, senior managers across DTS teams, contractors and project resources
• Using initiative to achieve workable solutions, examples of typical problems range from supplier challenges and scope changes in other areas of DTS and MoJ which impact on DTS achieving projects’ objectives; take decisions on the best solution to the problem both at project and organisational level
• We use Success profiles within the Civil Service, a flexible framework, to assess candidates against a range of elements using a variety of selection methods. This gives you the widest opportunity to demonstrate the various elements required to be successful in the role. At the interview we will be assessing your technical/specialist skills and experience, testing your ability through relevant assessments and asking you questions around the behaviours we require to be successful in this role.

Essential Criteria:

• Will have previous experience of working in a large digital organisation, or demonstrable understanding of large digital organisations operate in the context of this role.
• Have been accountable for successful delivery of multiple large projects or workstreams.
• Have the ability to work with technical and business stakeholders to drive out needs and interpret between them.
• Is able to communicate effectively across organisational, technical and political boundaries, understanding the context.
• Can advocate and communicate what a team does to create trust and authenticity.
• Will take a continuous approach to planning, forecasting, estimating, managing uncertainty, metrics and measurements, contingency planning and roadmapping.
• Able to communicate the plan, planning assumptions and progress to a range of stakeholders.

Desirable Criteria

A Project Delivery qualification is desirable but not essential.

Leadership of significant and complex procurement

Application process:

The following areas of Success Profile Framework will be used to assess and score your      application during the sift, and interview.

• Experience – As demonstrated in your application form.
• DDaT Assessment – During the interview, you will be assessed against the DDaT framework
• Behaviours – You will be required to provide evidence of the following key behaviours at Level 4

• Leadership
• Communicating and influencing
• Making effective decisions
• Changing and improving