Location

Birmingham, Leeds, London

About the job Summary

We recognise the challenges that people with (multiple) protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.

Are you an experienced project or programme manager with excellent communication and engagement skills?

Do you have business management experience including budgetary and financial reporting?

If so, this exciting opportunity as our Business Support Unit Manager is for you, and we’d love to hear from you.

Job description

Our transport system touches the lives of everyone in this country: it reunites families; takes millions of people to work every day; enables holidays; and keeps fresh food on the shelves of our supermarkets. The government’s manifesto contains commitments, including investment, to improve transport infrastructure across the country, this is an incredibly exciting time to work for the Department.

The Department has a wide and varied agenda ranging from the delivery of large infrastructure projects such as Crossrail and HS2 through to shaping future transport innovations such as drones and driverless cars as well as developing airport capacity. Group Commercial Directorate sits at the heart of delivery ensuring commercial acumen and procurement excellence is reflected in all decisions taken.

The Operations and Continuous Improvement Team is a team that is expanding within Group Commercial Directorate, due to the increasing and complex demands placed on commercial teams. It has been designed to consolidate several activities that are currently spread across the Directorate and bring a more strategic and forward-looking focus on our business deliverables. For that reason, it’s a very exciting time to join the team.
 

Responsibilities

This role leads the Business Support Unit (BSU) for Group Commercial Directorate (GCD) and will be responsible for leading and managing several corporate activities. The role holder will play an integral role in the management of GCD, often working closely with the Head of Operations and Continuous Improvement to ensure all SMT corporate obligations are met, assisting with the development of strategic and functional expertise within the team. This will include clearly defining the offer for the Directorate, working with Senior Management Team to identify what is priority, planning and setting the agenda for SMT meetings by considering the strategic aims of the Directorate and understanding how the directorate feeds into the overall departmental and professional, focused priorities.

The Business Support Unit (BSU) has a broad portfolio of activities, and this role will be responsible for, but not limited to:

DfT Business Management:

Senior management of a team that delivers the following DfT functions:

• Business administration
• PA support to the GCD Director and Deputy Directors, if in future introduced
• Budget management, invoice and PO processing, finance returns, coordination for the Spending Review return;
• DfT and GCO permanent recruitment and resourcing support, including interims/contractors/consultants
• Management assurance planning, KPI and milestone reporting, risk management, audit plan coordination
• All correspondence: e.g. PQs, TOs, FoIs
• Non-procurement IT and Systems Focal Point, Business Records Officer
• Event planning and support
• Governance processes
• Secretariat services
• Management and delivery of directorate recognition and reward processes
• Development and management of dashboard reporting process to inform the SMT of issues which inform operational decision making.

Team management:

• Establishment of priorities/roles/responsibilities,
• Development of structure/culture, processes and procedures.

Project Management Support

• Tracking and progress report of the all the non-procurement projects across the Directorate (e.g. CREATE, introduction of new policies, internal projects).
• PM support for non-procurement projects.
• Special projects coordination as needed (in the past: C19, EU Trans)

A key priority on taking up the role will be to undertake a piece of analysis to understand the overall needs of key, senior stakeholders across GCD, the DfT family and GCO and ensure that key priority support activities are met by the Business Support Unit.

About you

You will have excellent communication skills both verbally and in writing, with the ability to adapt your delivery to suit a wide variety of audiences, maximising both impact and understanding. You are someone who gains rapport quickly with others as you build effective working relationships with both colleagues and stakeholders.

You will have confidence in your ability to come in and make a real impact within our team where you will lead from the front and drive those around you to achieve the same shared objectives. You will have excellent organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple and often conflicting priorities to time and of a high standard. You are someone who is not afraid to challenge, and who can influence stakeholders to win their agreement.

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits. We offer generous annual leave, attractive pension options, flexible working, inclusive working environments and much more to support a healthy work/life balance.

Find out more about what it's like working at the Department for Transport.

Things you need to know Security

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

People working with government assets must complete basic personnel security standard checks.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

We are closely monitoring the situation regarding the coronavirus, and will be following central Government advice as it is issued. There is therefore a risk that recruitment to this post may be subject to change at short notice. In addition, where appropriate, you may be invited to attend a video interview.

Please continue to follow the application process as normal and ensure that you check your emails regularly as all updates from us will be sent to you this way.

After submission of the first stage of your application you will be invited to complete a Civil Service Judgement test. If you successfully pass the test, you will be invited to complete the final stage of the application.

Please complete the online tests as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours is recommended), the closing date for the test and final stage of the application form is 23:55 on 5th September 2021. If you fail to complete both the online test and final application form before the deadline your application will be withdrawn. Guidance for the test will be available when you are invited to take the test. The tests are administered online and accessed via the CS Jobs website.

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the lead behaviour. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

The sift is due to take place from 22nd September 2021.

Interviews will be week commencing 4th October 2021.

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.

The selection process will be designed specifically for the role. As a result, your assessment could include:

• an interview

You’re encouraged to become familiar with the role profile, as you may be assessed against any of the criteria recorded within.

The Department for Transport alongside other Government Departments recruit using Success Profiles. This means for each role we consider what you will need to demonstrate in order to be successful. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

For further information on Success Profiles visit our Careers website.

Please see attached candidate notes for further information about our recruitment process.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Further Information

To learn more about applying for a role within the Department for Transport, visit the Application Process page of our Careers website.

Before submitting your application, we encourage you to visit our Things You Need to Know page for further information about applying for a role within the Department for Transport and the Civil Service.

Throughout this job advert there are links to the DfT Careers website, which provides you further information to support your application. Should you be unable to access the information on our website, please email [email protected] for assistance.

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

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
• certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals

Further information on nationality requirements

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code 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.

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.

Apply and further information

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 :   Martin Crumpton Email :   [email protected]   Recruitment team : Email :   [email protected] 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: [email protected] If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website at https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk