Nationality Requirements:
-UK nationals
-Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
-Nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with (or eligible for) status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

Please note, we are not able to sponsor work visas. Please contact us at [email protected] should you have any questions on your nationality eligibility.

About the role

This role is responsible for tracking and coordinating small to medium Digital Services (DS) projects or workstreams ensuring their successful delivery. The successful candidate will provide information to project boards and the Head of IT to report on project progress. They will maintain standard templated documents to inform project participants on progress and matters of concern. They must have experience of using PRINCE2 or agile methodologies whilst working with mixed teams to achieve common goals. Azure DevOps experience/awareness is also beneficial.

The role includes responsibility for:
-Project Management
-Setting up projects with the NAO’s standard templates to ensure major milestones and activities to achieve them are captured, monitored and reported against.
-Ongoing maintenance of the above during the project for tracking and reporting purposes.
-Present to management on the projects, proactively raising concerns/issues/risks professionally with project members and escalating to management as required.
-Engaging with business and technical architects, designers and analysts to ensure projects adhere to standards.
-Working closely with stakeholders throughout the lifecycle of the project.

It is essential that the successful candidate can recognise when and how to best apply themselves across a range of projects that are running concurrently for best impact.

There will be no formal line management responsibilities but individual projects will entail coordinating project teams of NAO staff, typically through a matrix-management model and third party resources. Performance snapshots may be produced on project contributors where appropriate.


Internal/External relationships:
-Report to the Head of PMO or equivalent.
-DS management, all within DS, Engagement & Change, Business Analysts, Test Leads and other Delivery Managers
-Programme / Project Boards, Programme / Project delivery team members
-Internal relationships with staff at all levels. Direct contact at user level to ensure that technology systems and services are developed to meet user and wider business needs;
-Stakeholder management across the NAO audit and core strategic service teams to ensure they are fully engaged and informed about the projects;
-Service owner management to ensure that they are fully engaged and informed about prioritisation of work and the effect of strategic priorities on resourcing their requests. Also to keep up to date with their concerns or consideration regarding supporting the services.
-External relationships with suppliers

Resources managed:
-Staff: No line management responsibilities, staff allocation management will depend on the size of projects. Projects can comprise cross-functional teams at a range of seniorities.
-External resources: Management of external consultants and specialists as required
-Budget: Some aspect of project finances will be managed. Responsibilities The successful candidate will be responsible for delivering key projects within the NAO’s digital change programme. This will consist of:

Project Delivery (95%)
-Deliver and coordinate Infrastructure, network and cloud projects
-Help define and document the project scope, goals and deliverables that support the business goals in collaboration with senior management and stakeholders
-Managing projects on a day to day basis on behalf of the sponsor / Project Board through the full life cycle, in accordance with NAO guidance and standards;
-Producing relevant and appropriate project management documentation, including weekly workstream reports, monthly project reports;
-Establishing project controls and ensuring they are effective (e.g. governance, risk & issue management, highlight & exception reporting, project reviews);
-Effectively communicate project expectations to team members and stakeholders in a timely and clear fashion;
-Producing progress, risk and issue reports to relevant senior staff within project governance structures, managing escalation routes to ensure issues are handled promptly and effectively;
-Liaison and management of stakeholders across the business to ensure that projects are initiated and delivered successfully, transitioned smoothly into business-as-usual, and closed properly;
-Ensuring that projects are appropriately resourced to deliver the required outputs, negotiating with department managers & external suppliers to secure resources as needed;
-Determine the frequency and content of status reports from the project team, analyse results and troubleshoot problems.
-Define project success criteria and disseminate them to involved parties throughout the project lifecycle.
-Conduct post project sessions and share lessons learned in order to identify successful and unsuccessful project elements.
-Apply best practice tools and techniques for project execution and management.

Personnel Management (5%)
-Provide timely feedback on performance of project staff both informally and formally through the NAO staff performance management system
-Coach, mentor, motivate and supervise the project team members and contractors and influence them to be proactive and accountable for their work
-Delegate tasks and responsibilities as appropriate.
-Identify and resolve issues and conflicts within the project team.

Specific projects
The successful candidate will initially be responsible for coordinating the following programmes/projects:
-Project Guardian - Infrastructure / hardware project implementing various security tools/technology to our end user computing.
-Wider Infrastucture, networking and cloud service developments Skills required Qualifications/Training:
-Formal training and experience in at least one modern software development lifecycle / methodology (e.g. PRINCE2, Agile) – essential;
-Experience of delivering Infrastructure / cloud or network related digital change initiatives

Behavioural skills and personal qualities:
-Strong leadership and management skills with experience of leading and directing multi-disciplinary business and technology teams (consisting of both professional audit and Digital Services staff). Ability to marshal and co-ordinate resources to ensure project delivery;
-Can do attitude, with strong delivery focus;
-Self-aware with excellent interpersonal skills;
-Ability to negotiate, manage conflict, influence outcomes and gain buy-in for new initiatives and ways of working;
-Excellent verbal and written communication skills with customers, key stakeholders and technical staff at all levels, including presentation skills.
-Ability to clearly articulate and communicate project concepts and issues to both technical and non-technical staff.
-Ability to influence outcomes and gain buy-in for project activities
-Experience of planning, monitoring and reporting on projects using relevant tools (e.g. MS Project, Azure DevOps, Teams).
-An understanding of business analysis techniques and how their application can aid delivery of Digital change projects.
-Workshop facilitation skills
-Ability to effectively prioritise and execute tasks in a complex and changing environment.