Deputy Directors – Local Transport Infrastructure Sponsorship and Delivery

You will need to be able to show, through your application, that you have the professional skills, breadth of experience and personal qualities for this post, as well as the leadership skills to succeed at Deputy Director level in the Senior Civil Service.

• Proven senior leadership in sponsoring, overseeing or leading complex infrastructure projects, programmes or place-based funding settlements ideally involving delivery through local authorities, Strategic Authorities or other devolved delivery arrangements. You will bring the judgement to shape proportionate oversight that reflects investment scale, delivery risk, organisational maturity and the Government's ambition for deeper devolution [lead competency].
• Proven leadership of high-performing teams in complex and evolving environments, including developing capability, leading through ambiguity, working effectively across organisational boundaries and contributing to wider directorate leadership.
• Finely tuned political judgement, including direct experience of operating effectively in politically sensitive environments and navigating competing priorities involving Ministers, Mayors, senior local politicians and senior Government officials to secure delivery outcomes.
• Outstanding stakeholder engagement, communication and influencing skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships across diverse interests, explain complex delivery issues clearly, secure alignment across organisations, provide constructive challenge and influence partner organisations without direct authority.
• Ability to assess competing delivery, sponsorship and governance options, weighing value for money, affordability, assurance, benefits realisation and accountability in a devolved delivery context.

• Evidence of working with and factoring in the wider cross-government and political context for programme delivery, including aligning strategic and operational coordination across the Department, wider Government, and delivery partners to support successful delivery outcomes.

Experience of public sector funding, governance and accountability frameworks, including an understanding of Managing Public Money principles and their application within devolved delivery environments.

£86,000

For existing Civil Servants, internal candidates the usual pay rules should apply, i.e. if moving on level transfer the salary will remain the same, if successful on promotion the salary will be the higher of either 10% pay increase or the pay band minimum.

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Alongside your salary of £86,000, Department for Transport contributes £24,914 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

Your pension is a valuable part of your total reward package.

A competitive contributory pension scheme that you can enter as soon as you join where we will make a significant contribution to the cost of your pension; where your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken; and where your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire. Visit Civil Service Pension Scheme for more details. >

Whatever your role, we take your career and development seriously, and want to enable you to build a really successful career with the Department and wider Civil Service.

It is crucial that our employees have the right skills to develop their careers and meet the challenges ahead, and you'll benefit from regular performance and development reviews to ensure this development is ongoing. As a Civil Service employee, you'll be entitled to a large range of benefits.

25 days annual leave on entry, increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years' service (allowance is pro rata for part-time employees). This is in addition to 8 public holidays.

This will be complimented by one further day paid privilege entitlement to mark the King's Birthday.

Flexible working including part-time or term-time working and access to Flexible Working Schemes allowing you to vary your working day as long as you work your total hours.

Generous paid maternity and paternity leave which is notably more than the statutory minimum offered by many other employers.

Childcare benefits (policy for new employees as of 5 April 2018): The government has introduced the Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) scheme. Working parents can open an online childcare account and for every £8 they pay in, the government adds £2, up to a maximum of £2000 a year for each child or £4000 for a disabled child. Parents then use the funds to pay for registered childcare. Existing employees may be able to continue to claim childcare vouchers, so please check how the policy would work for you here. Any move to the DfT from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments.

Onsite facilities Opportunity to use onsite facilities including fitness centres and staff canteens (where applicable).

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Senior leadership

The Directorate oversees major devolved transport funding and delivery relationships at a time of significant change in how central government works with Mayors, Mayoral Strategic Authorities and local leaders. The successful candidates will need to combine delivery grip with finely tuned political judgement, and the ability to operate confidently with Ministers, senior officials, HM Treasury, No.10 North and senior local politicians to secure progress, manage risk and maintain confidence across government and places.

One postholder will focus primarily on delivery of CRSTS and TCR portfolios. The postholder will work with Strategic Authorities to agree delivery plans and investment priorities, build a shared understanding of delivery progress, risk and confidence, and provide assurance and support to help secure successful delivery and benefits realisation across devolved transport portfolios.

The second postholder will focus primarily on sponsorship of retained major infrastructure schemes within the CRSTS and TCR portfolio. A central feature of the role will be the West Yorkshire Mass Transit (WYMT) programme, which is expected to account for around 50-75% of the postholder's time. Acting as the Department's sponsor for WYMT, the postholder will work closely with West Yorkshire Combined Authority and partners to provide assurance, challenge and support as the programme progresses through business case development, approvals and delivery planning.

The Directorate's operating model continues to evolve in response to the Government's devolution agenda and ongoing organisation design work. While each role has a distinct area of emphasis, both postholders will be expected to help shape the development of the Directorate's future approach to delivery, assurance and sponsorship. Sponsorship responsibilities for retained schemes within the TCR portfolio will be shared across both roles. The precise distribution of responsibilities between the two posts may continue to evolve as the organisation design develops, and in light of the experience, strengths and interests of the successful candidates.

Candidates will be asked to indicate a preference for one role, or to be considered for either. Final appointments will take account of candidate preference, assessment evidence and business need.

• Provide visible senior leadership across the Directorate's delivery and sponsorship responsibilities, helping to build a strengthened, complementary delivery capability that preserves place insight, improves resilience and aligns resources to strategic priorities.
• Build strong, trusted relationships with senior colleagues in Mayoral Strategic Authorities, local transport bodies and across government, including Ministers, senior officials, HM Treasury, No.10 North and senior local politicians, exercising support, collaboration, constructive challenge and finely judged political handling.
• Design and operate proportionate, risk-based reporting, assurance and governance arrangements that reflect the scale, complexity, delivery risk and organisational maturity of the relevant portfolio, based on transparency and accountability for public money.
• Drive delivery across the CRSTS and TCR portfolio, ensuring delivery plans, performance information, risks, dependencies, benefits and affordability issues are surfaced, understood and managed effectively.
• Invest substantial time face to face with local authority and delivery body teams to strengthen understanding of delivery confidence, portfolio health and investment risk.
• Ensure Departmental sponsorship, assurance and governance arrangements are aligned to each scheme or portfolio, balancing value for money, accountability, benefits realisation and the Government's ambition for deeper devolution.
• Commission expert advice and independent assurance where needed, and navigate internal Departmental, cross-government and HM Treasury approval processes.
• Work collaboratively across the Regions, Cities and Devolution Directorate, the Department and wider government to align around effective local delivery, maximise wider benefits, inform future support and targeted interventions, and ensure public investment delivers tangible economic and social outcomes for communities.
• For the postholder leading the Department's approach to sponsorship of retained major infrastructure schemes, dedicate a substantial proportion of time to the West Yorkshire Mass Transit programme, acting as the Department's senior sponsor and ensuring the programme has clear governance, proportionate assurance, effective business case progression, and robust engagement with West Yorkshire Combined Authority, HM Treasury and other key partners.

Permanent

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

Birmingham, Leeds or London
We particularly welcome applications from candidates based in Birmingham or Leeds. Where candidates are equally scored at the relevant stage, priority may be given to candidates based in Leeds or Birmingham over London-based candidates

This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

485151

SCS Pay Band 1

1

• Print
• Email
• Gmail
• Facebook
• LinkedIn