Senior Delivery Manager (i.AI)
Cabinet Office
Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 3rd November 2024
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Fixed term
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Project Delivery
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Contents
Location
About the job
Job summary
About the team
Government must seize the opportunity of AI to drive outcomes in the public interest. This is of critical importance now. Government needs innovation and must not sleep on the opportunity presented by AI to drive better services for taxpayers and citizens.
In November 2023, the creation of the incubator for AI (i.AI) was announced, and following early successes, the team was expanded in March 2024. Our mission is to harness the opportunity of AI to improve lives, drive growth, and deliver better public services. This is an AI product team that focuses on delivery of technical solutions to public service challenges, responding to ministerial steers about priorities and driving impact out into departments from the centre.
i.AI delivers high impact products and is mission-led, delivering value and innovation within government. We are able to move fast and build things, and are set up specifically to pivot quickly towards priority use cases, and re-use technologies for future impact.
You can see more about our work on ai.gov.uk and on LinkedIn. We work in the open and our code can be found here: https://github.com/i-dot-ai
The Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (i.AI) will be moving to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to form part of the new digital centre of government. If offered the position, you will be onboarded to, and initially employed by, the Cabinet Office, but will move with us to DSIT under the machinery of government change. This is expected to happen in April 2025, but this date is subject to change. If shortlisted, the hiring panel will be happy to answer any questions you might have. You're also welcome to reach out to us at i-dot-ai-recruitment@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Our team is based across Bristol, Manchester and London, and we work in a hybrid manner as default. A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace, although requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance. We will consider part-time and flexible working arrangements - we encourage you to discuss your needs with the hiring manager if you are offered the role.
Job description
About the role
The Senior Delivery Manager will work closely with the Head of Delivery to ensure the team has everything they need to deliver efficiently. They will be working with stakeholders to understand needs and plan how these can be delivered. We are looking for someone who will build good working relationships to get the work done.
Our project teams vary from a team of 2 or 3 scoping an idea to a full multidisciplinary team. As a Senior Delivery Manager you will adapt your work to meet the needs of the team. For example in scoping you will be very involved in understanding the feasibility and value of doing a new piece of work. As the project progresses you will adapt to unblocking problems for the team and empowering them to deliver.
Being flexible and passionate about getting things done are essential, this will be a varied role and we need someone who’s keen to adapt to what’s needed.
Information session
To give you an idea of working in i.AI and to answer any questions you might have, we encourage you to attend our information session on Tuesday 29th October at 10:00. Please email us at i-dot-ai-recruitment@cabinetoffice.gov.uk and we'll send you a link to join.
Role Responsibilities
- Designing appropriate agile practices for teams in the incubator based on their needs and the work
- Supporting the team by running planning sessions, retrospectives and daily stand-ups
- Work to proactively remove blockers to delivery, reconciling differences within the team and ensuring that stakeholder expectations are aligned
- Coaching and mentoring others in approaches to agile delivery
- Managing dependencies between projects and escalating issues you or the team identify
- Managing risks, commercials and budgets to ensure resources are used efficiently
- Working with the team to ensure products are scoped appropriately to deliver a MVP that meets stakeholder’s and user’s needs while maintaining focus on prototyping
- Identifying, sourcing and managing the tools needed for the team
- Line managing people to enable to deliver their best work
- Supporting with the creation of business cases as required for the team’s work
- Proactively finding opportunities to make the team more inclusive and supporting the team’s well being
- Managing the commercials of the product or service, including procuring services
- Embedding user-centred ways of working in the team and across the incubator
- Support the effective performance of the team by promoting diversity, inclusion, regular, honest and constructive feedback, and supporting continuous improvement
Person specification
Essential skills:
- Has a strong experience of coaching and leading teams in agile practices. Can choose the right method for the team and work.
- Identifies problems or issues in the team dynamic and rectify them, engage in varying types of feedback, choosing the right type at the appropriate time and ensuring the discussion and decision stick.
- Can demonstrate successfully taking a product through the different stages of the product life-cycle, and can plan and engage with the appropriate stakeholders at a particular stage in the project.
- Can identify innovative ways to unblock issues.
- Is an expert at identifying and improving organisational processes of increasing complexity and those processes that are unnecessarily complicated.
- Has a keen focus on actively address the most complicated risks, issues and dependencies including where ownership exists outside the team or no clear ownership exists.
- Leads a continual planning process in a very complex environment and identifies dependencies in plans across services and coordinate delivery.
Strong candidates come from many different backgrounds, and we encourage a broad range of applications to ensure we have a well-balanced team. Studies show that talented people, especially those from groups underrepresented in their field, are more likely to doubt themselves and feel like an "imposter". Unique perspectives enrich teams, so we urge you to have confidence in your potential contributions. If aspects of this role resonate with you, please apply. We look forward to your application.
Additional information:
A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace. Although requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Delivering at Pace
- Communicating and Influencing
- Developing Self and Others
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Technical assessment at interview 1
Benefits
- Learning and development tailored to your role.
- An environment with flexible working options.
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
- A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and employer contributions of 28.97%.
- A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by one day per year up to a maximum of 30.
Things you need to know
Selection process details
Application process
As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and a 750 word personal statement. Please ensure that your personal statement includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the “essential skills” section above. At this stage we will assess experience and essential skills.
Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the personal statement. If successful at sift, you will be invited to attend a technical assessment followed by a panel interview, during which you will be asked to bring your CV to life through questions based on your experience. You might consider preparing your examples in the STAR format. We will also be asking questions around the behaviours outlined above, as well as technical questions relating to the essential criteria.
The technical assessment will take place on the same day, immediately prior to the panel interview. You will be given a scenario-based question to read 30 minutes before your panel interview. At start of the interview you will have 10 minutes to explain how you would approach the scenario. The panel will ask questions to understand:
- How you would approach the problem
- How you would communicate to the team
In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.
For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours:
- Delivering at Pace
- Communicating and Influencing
- Developing Self and Others
Expected timeline (subject to change)
Expected sift date – TBC
Expected interview date/s – TBC
Interview location - Your interview will either be conducted in person or by video. You will be notified of the location if you are selected for interview.
Reasonable Adjustment
If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:
Contact Government Recruitment Service via cabinetofficerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section in the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.
Further information
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any of the attachments, please contact the email address in the 'contact point for applicants' section.
Please note that this role requires SC clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.
Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.
Any move to Cabinet Office 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. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk
A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.
Near miss offers may be made at a lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign.
If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.
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.
For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting
New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
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.
Existing Civil Servants and applicants from accredited NDPBs are eligible to apply, but will only be considered on loan basis (Civil Servants) or secondment (accredited NDPBs). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Nationality requirements
Working for the Civil Service
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).
Diversity and Inclusion
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : i.AI Recruitment Team
- Email : i-dot-ai-recruitment@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : cabinetofficerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Further information
If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and wish to make a complaint, then in the first instance you should contact Government Recruitment Service at: cabinetofficerecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.
If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission at: info@csc.gov.uk.
For further information on the Recruitment Principles, and bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission, please visit their website at: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk.
