About the job

Summary

Our Mission

At BEIS, we are leading the UK’s recovery from coronavirus and are building a stronger, greener country. Our varied work makes a real difference to people across the UK and internationally. This is a fantastic opportunity to become part of the BEIS team and our exciting mission!

We lead on the UK’s commitments to tackle climate change and drive green economic growth. We support businesses to create jobs and increase opportunity in regions across the UK. We also encourage investment and innovation to make the UK a science superpower producing research that will improve lives.

Our Inclusive Environment

We are building an inclusive culture to make BEIS a brilliant place to work where our people feel valued, have a voice and can be their authentic selves. We value difference and diversity, not only because we believe it is the right thing to do, but because it will help us be more innovative and make better decisions.

We offer first-class flexible working benefits, excellent employee well-being support and a great pension. We are fortunate to have a range of excellent staff networks and are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We will support talented people from all backgrounds to build a career and thrive.

We actively welcome applications from anyone who shares our commitment to inclusion. We will fully support candidates with a disability or long-term condition who require adjustments in our recruitment process.

Job description

Do you have a passion for helping address climate change? Heat in buildings accounts for 22% of UK emissions and is one of our biggest climate challenges. You could be part of a team solving this issue.

The Clean Heat Directorate is tackling arguably the most difficult decarbonisation challenge facing the country. Heating must be almost totally decarbonised to meet net zero. Currently natural gas is used for heating in 85% of buildings and many industrial processes. The main options for decarbonising heat at national scale are switching to electric heating and/or replacing natural gas with hydrogen.

The Hydrogen Heating Team is leading the department’s work to test the safety and feasibility of hydrogen as an option for decarbonising the gas grid. We are working with industry on a joint programme across a wide range of projects. These include assessing the changes required for end-users and to the gas infrastructure; laboratory and field testing; and consumer trialling.

The hydrogen heating team is a friendly, large, multidisciplinary programme team, including project delivery and policy professionals, analysts, engineers, commercial and delivery specialists. It is sociable and supportive – with a range of regular virtual social activities - and people are encouraged to ask questions and put forward their ideas in a safe environment.

We prioritise learning and development: there is a well-established local L&D programme which receives very positive feedback as well as many wider opportunities. People in the team have flexible working arrangements, including regular working from home, flexi time and compressed hours.

BEIS is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity for all the benefits it brings, and we strive to create an inclusive environment where staff feel they can bring their whole self to work. The Clean Heat Directorate has an active Directorate Diversity & Inclusion group which aims to promote the agenda within the team and beyond – including working with stakeholders, discussion sessions and celebrations, and ensuring everything we do is fair and accessible. In addition to supporting the departmental Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, we have developed our own local Race Action Plan which is being implemented.

The successful candidate may be eligible for a £1,500 pay enhancement subject to having a valid qualification and project delivery experience for a Project Planner level 3. For further information please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/project-delivery-capability-framework-for-civil-servants.

Responsibilities

Assurance will play a pivotal role in ensuring this Programme is successful in it's objectives. As a SEO lead for assurance you will be at the heart of this by driving the development and implementation of our Programme assurance strategy as well as supporting our teams to develop strategies at a project level. You will also play a key role in planning for gateway reviews or major Programme decision points that could have a significant impact on how the Programme proceeds going forward. This could involve working with a number of internal and external stakeholders as well as gaining a valuable exposure to senior leadership. You must have the ability to thrive in an environment that is constantly evolving and respond positively to the challenges that come with that. This role provides a fantastic opportunity to showcase your skills whilst also broadening your experience of working in a PMO and will undoubtedly enable you to fulfil your potential in a fast paced and exciting Programme.

Key Interactions:

• Programme Senior Management Team

• Portfolio Delivery Team

• Technical Leads

• Strategy and Communications

• Delivery Partners

You will:

• Play a key role in the development and implementation of programme and project assurance strategies.

• Be at the heart of assurance activity, supporting on the preparation for gateway reviews or audits and monitoring progress on any ongoing assurance activities.

• Act as a point of contact for external assurance providers, managing the relationship throughout the assurance cycle(s).

• Ensure that agreed actions/recommendations are implemented, and that any lessons learned are applied to future change initiatives.

• Lead the timely and accurate reporting of integrated assurance plans and milestones to support PMO with reporting requirements.

Skills & Experience:

It is essential that the candidate has the following skills and experience:

• Previous experience working in a PMO team, ideally with some experience working on assurance.

• Ability to be innovative, learn and share good practice in a fast-paced, changing environment.

• A strong communicator, able to communicate messages clearly to a range of audiences at all levels.

• The ability to build productive working relationships quickly and to engender confidence with the programmes and projects.

• The authority, intellect and knowledge to communicate sometimes difficult recommendations to senior officials.

Desirable Skills & Experience:

• Previous working on assurance within a portfolio or programme office environment.

• Experience of enterprise PPM tools, and ideally, their deployment.

• Experience of working in fast-paced environments on a start-up function.

• Exposure to GMPP projects.

• Practitioner status for one or more of the following qualifications: